Regardless  of the amount of preparation,  you never really know what to expect when you walk into an interview, do you?  What’s the interviewer’s style? How much have they prepared? Have they even read your resume? Are they a talker or a listener? Are there going to be any curveball questions? Sense of humor?   The list of unanswered questions is endless BUT--not knowing the answer to any or all of these questions is not worth losing sleep over. It is worth preparing for the most likely scenarios.  As is the case with most processes,  it is possible to identify the most common methods you’ll encounter in an interview:

Phone

Video

Skype

Face-to-face

One-on-one

Group/Panel Interview

Tag Team – all day one after the other

Over a Meal

Stress Interview – least likely, does tell you something about the environment you might be entering though.

Behavioral Interview – asks questions about specific experiences you have had and how you behaved during them.

Audition – very unlikely you wouldn’t know this ahead of time; normally it’s a presentation you have prepared with some guidelines from the hiring company.

Situational – problem solving questions that uncover your thought process. Example:  How many Barbie Dolls do you think are sold in the US every year?

Chronological – typically HR’s approach

“Let’s just chat”  

You typically know ahead of time if it’s a panel or one-on-one.  The panel is much more difficult because you are trying to assess each participant and you could be answering questions from each style above. But the reality is that with panel, one-on-one or tag team, you still have to prepare for all of the styles.  Unfortunately most people only prepare for an interview as though they were conducting it.  So if your experience and comfort is with Behavioral Interviewing, that’s what you will be best prepared for.  This is obviously a big mistake if the person interviewing you is going to put you through a chronological line of questions.

So my advice to those interviewing is to research the different styles and then prepare your cases for EACH ONE. Once you’ve spent some time researching styles they will be easy to recognize and keep you one step ahead of other applicants who are struggling to answer the questions appropriately.  Also, beware that even in a one-on-one the style can shift, so don’t assume that a chronological won’t transition to a situational or any other style combination during the interview.