The Most Common Interview Formats That Help Recruit Potential Candidates

Depending on the position being recruited for, businesses may need to use different interview formats. Below, Navigos Search will summarize the most common interview formats currently in use for reference by recruiters and businesses.

1. The Most Common Interview Formats Nowadays

Phone Interviews

Phone interviews are one of the interview formats that many businesses currently employ due to their efficiency, speed, and cost-effectiveness in organizing interviews.

Recruiters typically allocate a maximum of 15 minutes for each phone interview with candidates. Therefore, they need to make the most of this short time to gather essential information about the candidate. The typical phone interview script includes the following steps

Step 1: Begin the call by greeting and inquiring about the candidate's current job situation:

"Hello, I'm A, representing the HR department of company B."

"Is your current job aligned with your desires and expectations? Are you interested in exploring new opportunities with better income and career development?"

Step 2: Next, ask the candidate to explain the job position and conduct a preliminary interview:

"Why did you apply for this position?"

"Do you have any information about the job and our company that you would like to share?"

"Please share a bit about your work experience and achievements in previous roles."

"What are your career goals for the future?"

"What salary range do you expect for this position?"

Step 3: To gain a better understanding of the candidate's needs and ensure their suitability for the recruitment position, engage in a conversation to confirm their understanding.

Step 4: Based on the conversation and the information gathered, decide whether to schedule an in-person interview with the candidate or not. In cases where the candidate is not a good fit, express gratitude for their time and contact them when a more suitable position becomes available.

Read now: What is mass recruitment? Principles to help HR successfully hunt talent

Some popular interview forms today

Behavioral Interview

The behavioral interview is a format that many businesses use due to its effectiveness. Employers evaluate candidates' ability to handle situations and their job fit based on their work experience. When conducting a behavioral interview, employers can ask questions like:

• "Have you ever encountered a stressful and challenging situation? How did you handle it?"

• "If you had to deal with a difficult supervisor or client, how did you address the situation?"

• "Have you experienced any failures? If so, what did you learn from those experiences?"

Depending on the specific position, employers may ask different questions directly related to the job and place candidates in practical situations they might encounter in the role.

Panel Interview

The panel interview is also a popular format today. Multiple individuals participate in the interview process, with each panel member posing different questions to the candidate. Panel interviews allow for a comprehensive and precise evaluation of the candidate. The panel may consist of members from various departments working together to provide an objective assessment. This approach helps businesses gain an overall view of the candidate and make the best-fit selection.

Situation-Based Interview

In this interview method, employers present scenarios directly related to the position and ask candidates to outline how they would address the problem. Employers often limit the candidate's response time to assess their quick thinking. This is a common interview format nowadays.

Conversational Interview

The conversational interview is typically conducted in a relaxed and informal manner, with no scripted questions. Instead, the conversation flows naturally, allowing the interviewer to gather information about the candidate's abilities. This format creates a comfortable and friendly environment, enabling candidates to showcase their skills, while the interviewer plays the role of an attentive listener. To ensure an effective conversational interview, the interviewer should guide the conversation, ask open-ended questions, and stay focused to avoid going off-topic.

Group Interview

Employers may simultaneously interview 2-3 candidates and pose the same question to each to facilitate comparison. This interview format is highly competitive and helps employers easily assess and eliminate unsuitable candidates, ultimately selecting the most outstanding candidate.

One limitation of this format is that candidates may provide similar responses, making it challenging to differentiate between them. To ensure fairness and transparency, businesses should establish specific guidelines and timeframes for responding.

Tips Interview

The "tips" interview method does not have specific answers or right or wrong responses. Instead, it assesses the candidate's intelligence, sharpness, and adaptability.

Pressure Interview

This format is commonly used by businesses to recruit versatile people that demand high expertise and stress tolerance, such as managers, department heads, assistant directors, or directors. Employers conduct continuous interviews, asking specific questions related to the candidate's abilities and experience. They delve deep into all aspects of the candidate's work to select the best candidate in the end.

Pressure Interview Format

2. Some Interviewer Requirements

To ensure that the interview process is effective and successful, regardless of the interview format used, recruiters should consider the following points:

Prepare Complete Documentation

Recruiters and interviewers should organize the candidate's documents, including their CV, assessment sheets, competency tests, or notepads and pens to jot down important information during the interview.

Dress Professionally and Maintain a Professional Attitude

The attire of the interviewer plays a crucial role because it's one of the first aspects that candidates notice and use to evaluate the company's culture. Therefore, as a representative of the hiring team, you should choose appropriate and professional attire.

Be Punctual

It's crucial for interviewers to arrive on time. Being punctual not only demonstrates respect for the candidate's time but also upholds the company's reputation. Arriving on time helps maintain a relaxed atmosphere for an effective interview.

Stay Focused

Interviewers need to remain focused and serious during the interview, avoiding distractions or missing important information about the candidate.

Please note that translations may vary depending on context and specific terminology preferences in the target language.

Important notes to keep in mind when interviewing for employment

3. Recruitment service at Navigos Search

Depending on the vacancy and specific conditions, businesses can apply one or more forms to quickly recruit suitable personnel. If your business has applied many forms but still cannot find the best candidate, your business can use the recruitment service at Navigos Search.

At Navigos Search - the leading provider of mid-level and senior-level human resource recruitment services in Vietnam, there are currently more than 375,000+ senior candidates, 85,000+ senior management candidates, helping to quickly recruit candidates. quality pellets.

Our consulting team are recruitment experts who deeply understand the value of human resources, have a deep understanding of each industry and professional skills that will accurately grasp the recruitment requirements of your business. . All experts are very experienced and knowledgeable about the labor market and each core industry.

Based on the strict recruitment process and the candidate's qualifications and experience along with the labor market situation, Navigos Search will search for the most suitable candidate with a very high vacancy fill rate in your business. High.

With more than 20 years of experience in the field of mid- and senior-level human resource recruitment, Navigos Search is proud to have supported and brought successful recruitment solutions to many businesses and multinational corporations throughout Vietnam. Nam, helping them get the best quality human resources.

Navigos Search - Vietnam's No. 1 mid- and high-level talent hunting company

Our recruitment solutions are as follows:

• Talent recruitment service: Navigos Search's team of dedicated consultants will always be by your company's side from the moment of recruitment until accepting candidates. Your company will only pay costs after successful recruitment.
• High-level recruitment service: Navigos Search will provide a specialized recruitment team to cooperate with your company in the process of recruiting high-level personnel, ensuring the selection of the best and highest quality candidates for your business in the short term.
• Recruitment outsourcing service: Recruitment process outsourcing service ensures faster recruitment process and results, high candidate quality and helps improve business efficiency when you recruit the right personnel. We provide you with a team of professional recruitment staff working at your company consisting of recruitment experts dedicated to your business.
• Japan Desks: All consultants have extensive knowledge and experience in the field of recruitment in the Japanese market, and we also have native Japanese consultants to support you in your recruitment strategy.

Every month, the number of potential CVs sent to us is huge. Therefore, if your business is looking for talent for any mid- or high-level personnel position, please contact Navigos Search quickly.

Navigos Search - Vietnam's leading mid- and high-level talent hunting company