Structured Interview - Competencies

The employer identifies the competencies (skills, abilities and experience) required for the role. They design the questions to test whether the candidate has these competencies. The questions are often phrased, "tell us about a time when."

Behavioural job interview (situational job interview)

Behavioural interviews are trying to find out how you would act in certain situations. The interviewer wants to be able to predict how you would behave in the role, if they recruited you. So they ask hypothetical questions. These might be about a time in your past, or asking you to imagine yourself in a future situation.

Panel Job Interview

Sometimes employers want candidates to be seen by a number of managers or peer-workers. A panel interview simply means a candidate meets multiple interviewers at once. They may play the "Good cop / Bad cop" routine, where one of them is aggressive and another sympathetic, to see how you perform under stress.

Technical Job Interview

This usually refers to a "hands-on" interview. For example, an engineer might be expected to do some analysis of an engineering problem; a market researcher might be asked to analyse some data; a sales person might be expected to make a mock sales call. This type of interview is designed to predict how you would perform in the role.