What is an interview?

An interview is where a person (or people in a group situation) sit down and ask questions to get information from another person(s).

Why do an interview?

Interviews can take place for all sorts of reasons:

• job interviews

• research interviews

• conduct and competency interviews (if there is an incident at work)

• for media and reporting

How do we do one?

Section One: Purpose, types of questions and interview structure

The first thing is think about WHY we are doing one.

TASK ONE: Go into Seek.co.nz and choose a job ad that you would like to interview for. Make sure that you send your teacher a copy of the ad :)

Then you can prepare a list of questions based on your purpose. For example, if you were to be doing an interview to find a new worker you would ask questions such as:

• Can you tell me your strengths and weaknesses?

• Can you tell me about a time that you had to work as a team?

• How would you deal with complaints for a customer?

• Why do you want to work for us?

If you were doing an interview because you had received a complaint about one of your employees, the questions might look a bit like this:

• Can you tell me what happened?

• Could you have done anything differently?

• What was inside of your control and what was outside of your control?

Then you need to think also about how how you will enter and exit the interview - you can't just sit down without saying anything or get up and walk out when you end the interview because that would be odd. You could:

• Introduce yourself

• Simply smile and shake their hand

• Have some questions ready for the interviewer - this is your chance to find out more about the job and whether it is right for you. Read this article to help you understand why asking questions is just as important as answering them as well as some ideas of what to ask.

• Thank the interviewer (the person asking the questions) for asking you to come to the interview and tell them that you look forward to hearing from them soon.

TASK:

1. Watch the videos and read the Careers.govt.nz info below on types of job interview questions, how to answer them and what types of questions you should ask the interviewer

2. The purpose for which you will be interviewed is as part of a job application. Research questions that would meet that purpose and write a list of 10-12 questions that often get asked in a job interview.

3. Write down how you would answer these questions.

4. Write down 3-4 questions that you would ask the interviewer.

Section Two: Communication Barriers - things that make communication fail

Interviews can fall prey to communication barriers - things that get in the way of the flow of information.

These could include technology freezing if you are using video conferencing software, language barriers - perhaps the interviewer is deaf and uses New Zealand Sign Language; how would that change the interview?, perhaps the interviewee is so nervous that they can't say much more than a very short answer.

It's important to think about these communication barriers ahead of time so that you can overcome them. For example, New Zealand Sign Language could be sorted with an interpreter, a shy person could benefit from having a support person in the room with them.

Read these tips on how to overcome communication barriers and these ones as well.

Task: Identify 5 or 6 potential communication barriers that could happen during your interview and say how they could be fixed.

Section Three: Needs in an interview

Why do an interview? Well, because you need information. If you're the interviewer, you need information if the person you're interviewing has the skills to do the job, will fit in at your workplace, and is willing to learn new things. An interviewee has similar needs. They might like to know how much they will be paid, what further training is on offer, which days they will be expected to work.

TASK: Brainstorm all the potential needs of the interviewer and then do the same for the interviewee

Section Four: Expectations in an interview

Just like there are needs in an interview, there are expectations of how the interviewer and the interviewee will both behave. Below is a Monty Python (a very old comedy group from the UK) parody sketch which shows how NOT to behave in an interview. There is also another video on what you, the interviewee, should do.

Task: Once you have watched the videos, write 5 rules for how the interviewer should behave and 5 rules for how the interviewee should behave.

Section Five: Differences between One to One interviews and Panel interviews

There are two main types of interviews that you will encounter:

• One to one interviews involve one interviewer and one interviewee

• Panel interviews involve more than one interviewer and one interviewee

How interviewees behave and respond are different based on the interview type. For example, differences in how you would behave include, but are not limited to, maintaining eye contact with a number of people versus just one, where to sit is different - in a panel interview you need to be able to speak to a number of people so you will need to sit in a way that allows you to talk to everyone, responding to questions is different because you need to be clear for a number of people, and it also helps to be aware of panellists’ roles - for example, when we interview a new English teacher for school, Mr Warburton, Miss Knowles and Miss O'Brien will do the interview. There's a big difference between talking to the Principal of a school and the Head of Department because Mr Warburton will want to know what that teacher can do for the wider school, whereas Miss O'Brien might ask what their favourite film is to see if they will be the right English teacher.

TASK:

1. Watch these videos to find out about panel interviews and what they look like

2. Write down SEVEN differences in how you would react and behave in a panel interview versus a one to one interview (for example, and you can use this as one of your seven) is to have to maintain eye contact with a number of people rather than just one.

Examples

Check out these examples of job interviews so that you can see how interviewers structure their interviews, use their questions to get the interviewee to participate, build rapport and overcome potential communication barriers so that you understand what will happen. You might like to get someone to ask you questions at home as practice as well so that you feel prepared.

Summary

• An interview's main job is to get information - both the interviewer and the interviewee NEED to get information out of the interview.

• To prepare for an interview, research some common interview questions and think about how you would answer them.

• In an interview, there are certain ways to behave. Both the interviewer and the interviewee have these EXPECTATIONS of how people will behave.

• A great interview allows the interviewee to participate and ask their own questions - so have some ready

• It is important to think about potential communication barriers and how they can be overcome

• Interviewees will have to slightly behave and react differently depending on whether they have a one to one interview or a panel interview.

Assessment

• You will be assigned your own copy of this assessment in the Google Classroom.

• You need to plan and prepare for the interview and then do the interview (we can do this on Google Meet or face to face depending on where school is at . Just email your teacher when you are ready to complete your interview)