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Once you’ve successfully mastered the art of drafting resumes and cover letters that can capture the attention of HR personnel and hiring managers, you can expect the calls for interviews to start pouring in. Once that happens, congratulations! You are one step closer to receiving the job of your dreams! Make a point to attend every interview you are invited to. Interviewing is like playing sports – practice makes perfect. To shorten your learning curve and make your life easier, here are tips from our founding team, who have been through hundreds of interviews have been taken. Learn about the different types of interviews.

There are dozens of different ways people are interviewed. These are decided based on the competition for the jobs, hiring timeline, and job type. Some of the most common interview types include:

In most companies, HR personnel screen the candidate through a quick 15 to 20-minute discussion. They will generally ask you about your career goals, your interest in the company, and your compensation requirements. By doing this, they gauge your level of interest and future career expectations.

For students, these types of interviews are usually conducted as talks at career fairs and company information sessions. For those already in the work force, HR generally calls them after looking at their profile and experience.

After the first HR interview, there is often another phone call with the hiring manager that lasts between 30 minutes to one hour. The hiring manager tries to understand the skill set and interest of the candidate and whether or not he or she is a good fit for the position and company.

There is no set rule for this type of interview. It could be a set of behavioral questions, technical questions*, or a combination of both. In cases where the candidate is local, the company may skip the phone interview and call the student in for a site interview.

*A behavioral interview question is one in which the candidate is asked questions about his reaction to different work situations. A technical interview questions the knowledge level of the candidate.

Once the candidate passes the phone interview, he is invited on site, where he will be interviewed by several hiring managers as well as some senior members of the team. He is asked a series of behavioral and technical questions by each interviewer. The interviewers will then discuss each candidate in detail before making the final hiring decision.

Questions asked during this interview vary, depending on the company. Larger companies or MNCs have standardized interview structures with mostly behavioral questions. Managers take notes on the details of the candidate’s interest, technical ability and answer.

In smaller companies or startups, interviews typically follow a casual conversation format. Managers are interested in how a candidate would be able to interact with a small team in addition to his technical skills. It’s extremely important for them to know that potential candidates would get along well with a small team they will be interacting with on a daily basis.

For highly technical positions, candidates may have a written portion of the interview set with technical or problem solving questions. Some of the questions do not have defined answers, but employers are interested in how they arrived at their answer. Managers want to know a candidate’s ability to solve a variety of problems, not necessarily whether they know the right answer.

Abhishek Kumar

Author, Career 3.0