Difference Between Structured & Unstructured Interviews

Difference Between Structured & Unstructured Interviews

Interviews come in many different types, and different employers choose different styles after premeditating the kind of result they want from the interview.

A good example would be the structured and unstructured interview types.

A structured interview is a type of interview where the questions that are going to be asked are well and thoroughly prepared before it happens. The questions are going to be asked in the same order as the interviewer writes down the answers for all the interviewees.

An unstructured interview-style just like the name suggests involves unrehearsed questions. The interviewer asks random questions, different for each candidate, most times basing them on your application. Here the employer wants to know if you are the best fit for the job vacancy in Kenya and what you can offer outside the context of the specific job description.

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Difference between structured and Unstructured Interviews

  • In a structured interview, the questions are prepared beforehand to test the interviewee’s past job experience, skills, and assets the person can bring to the company.
  • The information or rather answers gathered from a structured interview are done quantitatively while in an unstructured interview, the data is collected qualitatively. Structured interview style has the same questions for all candidates so what matters is if you offer more than the others do but in an unstructured interview, the impact of what you say in that interview determines whether you are the one they have been looking for or not.
  • Structured interview dictates close-ended questions whereas unstructured interviews give the candidate a chance to answer open-ended questions. Close-ended questions demand a specific answer and this can be very frustrating to an interviewee. With open-ended questions, you have the liberty to answer the question however you chose, just make sure it is related to the job description so that you will not find yourself talking about things that will not make the kind of impact that can get you that job.
  • Structured interviews use an optimistic kind of approach when it comes to the questions asked. Unstructured interview questions, however, are used by realist employers for a lack of a better term. The questions resonate with the sense that the only way to get the perfect employee, is by asking random questions to test their open-mindedness.
  • An unstructured interview is used to probe personal details of the candidate, to judge if he is the right person for the job whereas a structured interview is used to validate results when the number of candidates is quite large.

In conclusion,

To ace this interview, all you need to do is prepare very thoroughly for it. Make sure your communication skills can market you well since at this stage, how you present your skills is all that matters. Just convince the interviewer of what you wrote in your CV because your skills seem to have made an impression on them given you got called for the interview.

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