My Panel Interview Experience

panel interviewThe panel interview or group interview is another type of interview you can attend that I alluded to several days ago in the stress interview entry.

The panel or group interview is exactly as it sounds: instead of being interviewed by one person, you get interviewed by more than one person simultaneously.

Early in my career, I experienced a panel interview where I was interviewed by the general manager, operations manager and sales manager for a sales job I was interviewing for. The interview was a comfortable one for me and the three people who interviewed me were very nice people and kept it very informal.

I got the job too, so I’m guessing the interview went ok…

Companies choose to do panel interviews for different reasons but one of the benefits to you is that you only need to answer a question once rather than having different people asking you the same question in separate interviews.

It also gives the other people in the room the chance to ask a follow up question after you’ve answered someone else’s question so I’d be prepared for an in depth discussion. I’d also be prepared for follow up questions and for different styles of interviewing since you’ll be in the room with different personalities.

Perhaps you get interviewed by 3-5 people perhaps representing different functional groups in the company including the group or division you’re looking at joining.

In terms of the people in the interview itself, perhaps it includes the person you’d be working for, one or more of their staff, an HR staff member, among other people.

One of the keys to the panel interview is therefore finding out ahead of time whenever possible:

1. The names of each person attending the interview

2. The role (job title) of each person attending the interview.

This way, you’ll be able to prepare for different kinds of questions knowing who is attending the interview and if possible you’ll be able to familiarize yourself with their names beforehand. If you’re interviewing with several people in a panel interview, unless they’re wearing name tags (!) you’ll probably have forgotten their name the moment they mention it since your head will already be full of everything else that you’re trying to remember.

If you’re lucky enough to have been handed a business card by each or most of the people in the room I’d lay them out in front of you in the order that they are seated without drawing too much attention to it, to help with remembering names.

When answering questions, remember to address everyone in the room and to pay particular attention to the person asking the question.

After the interview, I’d follow up by email with a short thank you note to each person that interviewed you.

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