Is there any one (interviewer or interviewee) out there who has any experience or knowledge of this area?

Any insight would be useful - feel free to post or PM. Thanks :)

I've done some interviewing, both structured and unstructured. And had some input on designing the questions for the structured interviews.

What is it you want to know?

I'll PM you Cyclone - it's not for me it's for my brother in law.

forgot to add in the pm, from the interviewee's point of view a structured interview will not seem any different from a non structured one.

I had competency based interviews for the police. The competencies were things like:effective communication, personal responsibility, problem solving, resilience, respect for diversity and teamwork.

The interviewer basically asked "Can you give an example of a situation where you've used effective communication?"

You'd then give your answer while they perhaps asked a few more questions about the situation, for clarification etc. then on to the next competency... "Can you give an example of..." etc.

Hope this helps.

-PK-

What is a structured, non-structured interview...?

Originally posted by GimmeSomePK
I had competency based interviews for the police. The competencies were things like:effective communication, personal responsibility, problem solving, resilience, respect for diversity and teamwork.

The interviewer basically asked "Can you give an example of a situation where you've used effective communication?"

You'd then give your answer while they perhaps asked a few more questions about the situation, for clarification etc. then on to the next competency... "Can you give an example of..." etc.

Hope this helps.

-PK-

My brother in law is a Police Inspector. He's hoping to move forces & has been told this is how he'll be interviewed. I think he's trying to cover all bases so he's done as much preparation as possible but I'll pass this on thanks.

Many thanks to Kristian btw who was an absolute star with the email/ documents he sent :)

I had a surreal interview for an estate agent's once.

a group of 20 of us were paired off, and after telling your partner about yourself and vice versa for 5 mins, you had to 'sell' them to the rest of the group for 2 mins. Very difficult when you're competing with them for this job and they may not 'sell' you as well as yo do them ;)

Originally posted by Strix
I had a surreal interview for an estate agent's once.

a group of 20 of us were paired off, and after telling your partner about yourself and vice versa for 5 mins, you had to 'sell' them to the rest of the group for 2 mins. Very difficult when you're competing with them for this job and they may not 'sell' you as well as yo do them ;)

Interviews with silly and embarassing group tasks are the worst kind, IMO. Why oh why do employers use them? Is it because they're seen as "trendy"? They can't possibly be of any use in the application process as 9 times out of 10 the ability to do the tasks effectively is undermined by the fact the tasks are so irrelevant to the job and are just plain silly.

Originally posted by t020
Interviews with silly and embarassing group tasks are the worst kind, IMO. Why oh why do employers use them? Is it because they're seen as "trendy"? They can't possibly be of any use in the application process as 9 times out of 10 the ability to do the tasks effectively is undermined by the fact the tasks are so irrelevant to the job and are just plain silly.

failed a lot of interviews have we? :P

Maybe if one feels silly and embarrassed working in a group of strangers maybe one isn't suitable for that particular job.

You can tell a lot about people by the way they respond to these situations.

Originally posted by Phanerothyme
failed a lot of interviews have we? :P

Maybe if one feels silly and embarrassed working in a group of strangers maybe one isn't suitable for that particular job.

You can tell a lot about people by the way they respond to these situations.


Not at all. :P

The thing is, working in a group of strangers for actual job tasks is a far cry from working in a group of strangers for a silly and falsely contrived task which has no relevance to the job being applied for.

Originally posted by Siân
My brother in law is a Police Inspector. He's hoping to move forces & has been told this is how he'll be interviewed. I think he's trying to cover all bases so he's done as much preparation as possible but I'll pass this on thanks.



If he's already an inspector i'm sure he will be fine, it's not like a rookie signing up with no idea what to expect (like i was, although i did pass)

A few points i've pulled out from guidelines from West Yorkshire Police:

"A 'competency' is described as a mixture of knowledge, skills/attributes and attitudes which give a clear indication of what a person needs to do to carry out his/her job effectively."

If he know's what the 'competencies' are he's going to be asked about, then he should have a different situation in mind for each one.

For each one he should be able to briefly outline the situation, state what HE (not we) did and what the outcome or result was.

Again, i hope this helps.

-PK-

Originally posted by t020
Interviews with silly and embarassing group tasks are the worst kind, IMO. Why oh why do employers use them? Is it because they're seen as "trendy"? They can't possibly be of any use in the application process as 9 times out of 10 the ability to do the tasks effectively is undermined by the fact the tasks are so irrelevant to the job and are just plain silly.

interviews like this have a far higher hit rate than plain or structured interviews alone.
It's not about how you complete the task, it's about how you interact with the group, present ideas and make decisions.

For a single unstructured interview the hit rate (ie choosing someone who will be good at the job) is as low as 20%, structured interviews go upto 40%, assessment centres with silly tests, interviews and psychometrics are up in the 70-80% range.

Originally posted by Cyclone
interviews like this have a far higher hit rate than plain or structured interviews alone.
It's not about how you complete the task, it's about how you interact with the group, present ideas and make decisions.

For a single unstructured interview the hit rate (ie choosing someone who will be good at the job) is as low as 20%, structured interviews go upto 40%, assessment centres with silly tests, interviews and psychometrics are up in the 70-80% range.

Yes, I understand why they're done and I'm not disputing their effectiveness. But perhaps they could make the group tasks more related to the work so that the situation is even more relevant to the job and therefore gives an even truer reflection of how well the people in the group can do the job rather than how well they can hide their embarassment about having to perform ridiculous tasks in front of a group of strangers? Just a thought.

Originally posted by t020
Yes, I understand why they're done and I'm not disputing their effectiveness. But perhaps they could make the group tasks more related to the work so that the situation is even more relevant to the job and therefore gives an even truer reflection of how well the people in the group can do the job rather than how well they can hide their embarassment about having to perform ridiculous tasks in front of a group of strangers? Just a thought.

this type of test is generally not done for a specific role though. It's normally graduate recruitment which means that no role has been identified and that all the candidates may have different backgrounds and aspirations. It could also be useful when any given role will require specific skills that applicants are unlikely to have without some training.
It's more about watching the more generic abilities such as communication and teamworking than any given job specific skill.

Originally posted by Cyclone
this type of test is generally not done for a specific role though. It's normally graduate recruitment which means that no role has been identified and that all the candidates may have different backgrounds and aspirations. It could also be useful when any given role will require specific skills that applicants are unlikely to have without some training.
It's more about watching the more generic abilities such as communication and teamworking than any given job specific skill.

I see, that would make sense. However, you must also see that some people will be very good at the roles applied for, or generic roles, but may be rubbish at an assessment centre as they may find it hard/uncomfortable to get enthusiastic and serious over something as silly as building a tower out of eggboxes.

Thanks to everyone for their responses - they're all helpful & I've passed them onto my bro in law.

Originally posted by t020
I see, that would make sense. However, you must also see that some people will be very good at the roles applied for, or generic roles, but may be rubbish at an assessment centre as they may find it hard/uncomfortable to get enthusiastic and serious over something as silly as building a tower out of eggboxes.

I have a worrying mental picture now of bunch of senior police officers constructing things with egg boxes :hihi:

Originally posted by Strix
I had a surreal interview for an estate agent's once.

a group of 20 of us were paired off, and after telling your partner about yourself and vice versa for 5 mins, you had to 'sell' them to the rest of the group for 2 mins. Very difficult when you're competing with them for this job and they may not 'sell' you as well as yo do them ;)

isnt the point to see how good a salesman you are? So if they cant sell you they probably cant sell a house either and wont get the job!

Originally posted by t020
I see, that would make sense. However, you must also see that some people will be very good at the roles applied for, or generic roles, but may be rubbish at an assessment centre as they may find it hard/uncomfortable to get enthusiastic and serious over something as silly as building a tower out of eggboxes.

Personally i've only ever had to do lego towers, normally with requirements being changed several times and a tight time limit.

But that's neither here nor there.

I agree that some people may find it uncomfortable or awkward to work with a bunch of strangers, this is one of the things they will be looking for. They wouldn't use this excercise if they didn't expect you to have to work in teams and sometimes under pressure and without knowing your teammates.
As to being unable to get enthuisiastic about building a lego tower or whatever, you know it's an interview, either motivate yourself or be prepared to not get the job.

But they may feel perfectly comfortable working with strangers on normal work projects, just not building lego/eggbox towers! Each to their own really. I've only attended one interview like this thankfully, and I wasn't successful. Hopefully I'll never have to attend one again but that's probably unlikely.