Being invited for an interview is a dream come true for those who desire to achieve professional career goals.
It is an opportunity for the interviewee to showcase their skills and competencies to negotiate with the recruiter for a slot in their organisation.
Interview sessions also present a golden opportunity for career builders to pitch themselves for favourable terms of employment.
Interestingly, many job-seekers treat the interview session with fear and trepidation - with the panel interview ranking highest in this regard.
A panel interview is a formal and structured discussion where a job-applicant is screened or interrogated by two or more interviewers from the hiring company.
Normally, the panellists are drawn from different departments with the aim of presenting the organisation’s face to the candidate as well as obtaining the best skilled and competent hire to fill the advertised position.
Unlike one-on-one interviews where the hiring decision is a arrived at on a gentleman’s table between the recruiter and the candidate, panel interviews’ hiring decisions are based on logical conclusions from a matrix of scores from the individual panellists since they each award scores using their unique screening lenses.
Despite panel interviews being nerve wrecking compared to the one-on-one discussions, career experts quip that they may be career enthusiasts’ trump card for clinching their dream jobs, especially those interviews that are professionally conducted.
Panel interviews avoid the bias associated with one-on-one interviews where the recruiter may lack objectivity.
Verbal onslaught
Panel interviews also present a great opportunity for the interviewees to showcase their skills and competencies and pitch themselves for the job at hand.
This is because the lead panellist normally moderates the atmosphere to shield the candidate from the verbal onslaught that characterises panel interviews - bullish behaviour that mentally and emotionally torments interviewees and blind the panel from qualifying great hires that could be assets for the organisation’s quest for growth.
Panel interviews hiring score cards are derived from job specifications which focuses on culture fit, soft skills, hard skills, competencies and also behavioural aspects among other pre-defined qualification criteria.
After the interview, panellists brainstorm and rank candidates according to the weighted scores - meaning only the very best candidate will get the job offer first. Panel interviews enable job-seekers to acquire market intelligence pertaining recruiters’ expectations of the modern job that is crucial when preparing for future interviews.
Deflating interview phobia means having faith in yourself, skills and capabilities to handle the job at hand.
