You've made it through to the job interview, congratulations. You are becoming closer to employment. The job interview is probably the most nerve-racking part of the entire job-seeking process. Just remember that in a job interview you will be talking about yourself and what you can do. Once you have done the research on the company, (if you know who you are going to be working for) you will be fine.

Take a few deep breaths and go for it.

There are many different types of interviews, below is just a few and what you might expect from them.

Screening Interviews

Some companies use screening tools to ensure that candidates meet minimum qualification requirements. Computer programs are among the tools used to weed out unqualified candidates (this is why you need a digital resume that is screening friendly). Sometimes human professionals are the gatekeepers. Screening interviewers often have honed skills to determine whether there is anything that might disqualify you for the position. They do not need to know whether you are the best fit for the position, screeners tend to dig for dirt. Screeners will hone in on gaps in your employment history or pieces of information that look inconsistent. They want to know from the outset whether you will be too expensive for the company.

Telephone Interviews:

Telephone Interviews are where an employer will call you at a time that is convenient to them to interview you for the position you applied for. This interview technique is commonly used for government and call centre jobs, or for jobs you have applied for in other cities/countries where you are unable to attend in person.

Some tips for maintaining confidence during screening and telephone interviews:

• Highlight your accomplishments and qualifications
• Get into the straightforward groove. Personality is not as important to the screener as verifying your qualifications. Answer questions directly and succinctly. Save your winning personality for the person making the hiring decisions.
• Be tactful about addressing income requirements. Give a range and try to avoid giving specifics by replying, "I would be willing to consider your best offer."
• If the interview is conducted by phone, it is helpful to have note cards with your vital information sitting next to the phone. That way, whether the interviewer catches you sleeping or vacuuming the floor, you will be able to switch gears quickly.

Remember, be prepared to give short and illustrative answers and that effective communication will have to occur through your own voice and what you say.

You should have the following items beside the telephone with you:

• Your resume and an executive summary of your resume highlighting your most important skills, qualifications and accomplishments
• A crib sheet that gives the answers to the questions that you anticipate
• An up-to-date calendar listing of your obligations
• Copies of any correspondence to or from companies you have queried or to which you have applied
• Notepad, pen and calculator
• A small bottle of water

One-on-One interviews

In a one-on-one interview, it has been established that you have the skills and education necessary for the position. The interviewer wants to see if you will fit in with the company and how your skills will complement the rest of the department. Your goal in a one-on-one interview is to establish rapport with the interviewer and show him or her that your qualifications will benefit the company. This can also be a traditional interview where candidates meet with employers on a face-to-face basis. Each interview is somewhat unique and loosely structured. Both parties typically walk away with a more natural sense of whether or not the fit is right.

Meal-time interviews

For many, interviewing over a meal sounds like a professional and digestive catastrophe in the making. If you have difficulty chewing gum while walking, this could be a challenge. With some preparation and psychological readjustment, you enjoy the process. Meals often have a cementing social effect—breaking bread together tends to facilitate deals, marriages, friendships and religious communion. Mealtime interviews rely on this logic and expand it.

Particularly when your job requires interpersonal acuity, companies want to know what you are like in a social setting. Are you relaxed and charming or awkward and evasive? Companies want to observe not only how you hold a fork, but also how you treat your host, any other guests and the serving staff.

Some basic social tips ease the complexity of mixing food with business:

Take cues from your interviewer, remembering that you are the guest.

Do not sit down until your host does.

• Order something slightly less extravagant than your interviewer.
• If they want you to try a particular dish, oblige them.
• If they recommend an appetizer to you, they will probably order one themselves.
• Do not begin to eat until they do. If they order coffee and desert, do not leave them eating alone.
• If your interviewer wants to talk business, do so. If they and the other guests discuss their upcoming travel plans or their families, do not launch into business
• Try to set aside dietary restrictions and preferences. Remember the interviewer is your host. It is rude to be finicky unless you absolutely must, be as tactful as you can. "I do not eat mammals," or "Shrimp makes my eyes swell and water."
• Choose manageable food items, if possible. Avoid barbecue ribs and spaghetti
• Find a discrete way to check you teeth after eating. Excuse yourself from the table for a moment
• Practice eating and discussing something important simultaneously
• Thank your interviewer for the meal

Panel Interviews

As you interview for positions, you may become the focus of attention in a panel interview. A panel interview is a situation in which two or more recruiters conduct the interview. Being invited to a panel interview often indicates that you have made it to the point of being a legitimate contender for a job offer.

Especially in situations when multiple recruiters are charged with the task of hiring decisions, the panel interview allows those individuals to simultaneously gather information about you and create opinions about your qualifications for the job. When interviewing before a panel, be sure to address each recruiter individually. Here are some additional tips:

• Focus your attention on the recruiter asking the question
• Deliver the beginning of your answer to that recruiter
• Spread your eye contact around the table, engaging other recruiters in your response
• Finish your response by returning your focus to the original recruiter who asked the question

Use this approach through the interview to include the entire panel in the discussion while directly addressing one recruiter's specific questions or concerns. The panel interview can be challenging, but it allows you to interact with multiple individuals and gain a sense of working relationships within the organisation.

There will usually be one recruiter who coordinates the panel interview; that recruiter is likely to be the one who makes the coordinator as your anchor point and when the interview is finished, you should thank the entire panel and address and specific requests or comments to the coordinator.

Stress Interviews

A stress interview is used to determine how the applicant reacts under pressure.

Astounding as this is, the Greek hazing system has made its way into professional interviews. Either employers view the stress interview as a legitimate way of determining candidates' aptness for a position or someone has latent maniacal tendencies. You might be held in the waiting room for an hour before the interviewer greets you. You might face long silences or cold stares. The interviewer might openly challenge your beliefs or judgement. You might be called upon to perform an impossible task on the fly—like convincing the interviewer to change shoes with you. Insults and miscommunication are common. All this is designed to see whether you have the mettle to withstand the company culture, the clients or other potential stress.

Besides wearing a strong anti-perspirant, you will do well to:

• Remember that this is a game. It is not personal. View it as the surreal interaction that it is.
• Prepare and memorise your main message before walking through the door. If you are flustered, you will better maintain clarity of mind if you do not have to wing your responses.
• Even if the interviewer is rude, remain calm and tactful.
• Go into the interview relaxed and rested. If you go into it feeling stressed, you will have a more difficult time keeping a cool perspective.

Behavioural Interviews

The behavioural interview focuses on how you would handle different situations in the workplace. The interviewer asks that you describe a problem or situation in which you used a particular skill. You then relate the actions you took and the result of these actions.

Many companies increasingly rely on behavioural interviews since they use your previous behaviour to indicate your future performance. In these interviews, employers use standardized methods to mine information relevant to your competency in a particular area or position. Depending upon the responsibilities of the job and the working environment, you might be asked to describe a time that required problem-solving skills, adaptability, leadership, conflict resolution, multi-tasking, initiative or stress management. You will be asked how you dealt with the situations.

Your responses require not only reflection, but also organisation. To maximize your responses in the behavioural format:

• Anticipate the transferable skills and personal qualities that are required for the job
• Review your resume. All of the qualities and skills that you have included in your resume are fair game for an interviewer to press
• Reflect on your own professional, volunteer, educational and personal experience to develop brief stories that highlight these skills and qualities in you. You should have a story for each of these competencies on your resume as well as those you anticipate the job requires
• Prepare stories by identifying the context, logically highlighting your actions in the situation, and identifying the results of your actions. Keep your responses concise and present them in less than two minutes

Performance-Based Interviews

Performance-based interview questions are specific to your vacancy, company problems or common culture. This enables performance-based interviews to identify the top performer from the applicant pool every time and also identifies the strengths, weaknesses and organisational, personal and cultural fit of the preferred applicants. It takes only a minimal effort to evolve from structured behavioural or competency interviews to performance-based interviewing and organisations have found the change to be painless and the results, dramatic.

Audition Interviews

For some positions, such as computer programmers or trainers, companies want to see you in action before they make their decision. For this reason, they might take you through a simulation or brief exercise in order to evaluate your skills. An audition can be enormously useful to you as well, since it allows you to demonstrate your abilities in interactive ways that are likely to be familiar to you. The simulations and exercises should also give you a simplified sense of what the job would be like. If you sense other candidates have an edge over you in terms of experience or other qualifications, requesting an audition can help level the playing field.

To maximize on auditions, remember to:

• Clearly understand the instructions and expectations for the exercise. Communication is half the battle in real life, and you should demonstrate to the prospective employer that you make the effort to do things right the first time by minimizing confusion
• Treat the situation as if you are a professional with responsibility for the task laid before you. Take ownership of your work
• Brush up on your skills before an interview if you think they might be tested

Tag-Team Interviews

Expecting to meet with Ms. Jones you might find yourself in a room with four people: Ms. Jones, two of her staff and the Sales Director. Companies often want to gain the insights of various people when interviewing candidates. This method of interviewing is often attractive for companies that rely heavily on team cooperation. Not only does the company want to know whether your skills balance that of the company, but also whether you can get along with the other workers. In some companies, multiple people will interview you simultaneously. In other companies, you will proceed through a series of one-on-one interviews.

Some helpful tips for maximising on this interview format:

• Treat each person as an important individual. Gain each person's business card at the beginning of the meeting, if possible, and refer to each person by name. If there are several people in the room at once, you might wish to write down their names on a sheet of paper according to where each is sitting. Make eye contact with each person and speak directly to each person asking the question
• Use the opportunity to gain as much information about the company as you can. Just as each interviewer has a different function in the company, they each have a unique perspective. When asking questions, be sensitive not to place anyone in a position where they would be forced to compromise confidentiality or loyalty
• Bring at least double the anecdotes and sound-bites to the interview as you would for a traditional one-on-one interview. Be ready to illustrate your main message in a variety of ways to a variety of people
• Prepare psychologically to extend more energy and be more alert than you would in a one-on-one interview. Stay focused and adjustable

Video Conference Interview

Videoconferencing systems provide the transfer of audio and video between remote sites. More than half of the largest U.S. companies already utilize videoconferencing with the use of a microphone, camera and compatible software. Videoconferencing is now on the internet and continues to drop in cost making it a popular resource for business as well as home use.

Tips for video conferences:

• Video Conferencing has similar video and audio to that of a home video camera so choose an outfit that looks good on you. Wear solids and not stripes or plaids to avoid problematic imaging
• Practice a mock job interview with your home video camera to become comfortable before the real event
• Choose full-face (straight) camera angles instead of angled views for best reception
• Seek professional help for makeup matters
• If given a choice, use full view or wide angle shots rather than close up shots. Leave the close up shots to the professionals
• Keep in mind there is usually a lag between when the voice is spoken and when it is heard
• Smile and maintain eye contact as in a face-to-face interview
• Avoid jerky motions and use only fluid motions to maintain video integrity

Informational Interviews

On the opposite end of the stress spectrum from screening interviews is the informational interview. A meeting that you initiate, the informational interview is underutilized by job-seekers who might otherwise consider themselves savvy to the merits of networking. Job-seekers ostensibly secure informational meetings in order to seek the advice of someone in their current or desired position as well as to gain further references to people who can lend insight. Employers that like to stay appraised of available talent, even when they do not have current job openings, are often open to informational interviews, especially if they like to share their knowledge, feel flattered by your interest, or esteem the mutual friend that connected you to them. During an informational interview, the job seeker and employer exchange information and get to know one another better without reference to a specific job opening.

This takes off some of the performance pressure, but be intentional nonetheless:

• Come prepared with thoughtful questions about the field and the company
• Gain references to other people and make sure that the interviewer would be comfortable if you contact other people and use his or her name
• Give the interviewer your card, contact information and resume
• Write a thank you note to the interviewer

Group Interviews

Interviewing simultaneously with other candidates can be disconcerting, but it provides the company with a sense of your leadership potential and style. The group interview helps the company get a glimpse of how you interact with peers—are you timid or bossy, are you attentive or do you compete for authority? The interviewer also wants to view what your tools of persuasion are: do you use argumentation and careful reasoning to gain support or do you divide and conquer? The interviewer might call on you to discuss an issue with the other candidates, solve a problem collectively or discuss your peculiar qualifications in front of the other candidates.

This environment might seem overwhelming or hard to control, but there are other tips that will help you navigate the group interview successfully:

• Observe to determine the dynamics the interviewer establishes and try to discern the rules of the game. If you are unsure of what is expected from you, ask for clarification from the interviewer
• Treat the others with respect while exerting influence over others
• Avoid overt power conflicts, which will make you look uncooperative and immature
• Keep an eye on the interviewer throughout the process so that you do not miss important cues.

Meandering Interviews

This interview type, often used by inexperienced interviewers, relies on you to lead the discussion. It might begin with a statement like "Tell me about yourself?" which you can use to your advantage. The interviewer might ask you another broad, open-ended question before falling into silence. This interview style allows you to tactfully guide the discussion in a way that best serves you.

The following strategies, which are helpful for any interview, are particularly important when interviewers use a non-directive approach:

• Come to the interview prepared with highlights and anecdotes of your skills, qualities and experiences. Do not rely on the interviewer to spark your memory—jot down some notes that you can refer to later in the interview
• Remain alert to the interviewer. Even if you feel like you can take the drivers seat and go in any direction you wish, remain respectful of the interviewer's role. If he or she becomes more directive during the interview, adjust
• Ask well-paced questions. Although the open format allows you significantly to shape the interview, running with your own agenda and dominating the conversation means that you run the risk of missing important information about the company and its needs

Follow Up Interviews

Companies bring candidates back for second and sometimes third or fourth interviews for a number of reasons. Sometimes they just want to confirm that you are the amazing worker they first thought you to be. Sometimes they are having difficulty deciding between a short-list of candidates. Other times, the interviewer's supervisor or other decision makers in the company want to gain a sense of you before making a hiring decision.

The second interview could go in a variety of directions, and you must prepare for each of them. When meeting with the same person again, you do not need to be as assertive in your communication of your skills. You can focus on cementing rapport, understanding where the company is going and how your skills mesh with the company vision and culture. Still, the interviewer should view you as the answer to their needs. You might find yourself negotiating a compensation package. Alternatively, you might find that you are starting from the beginning with a new person.

Some tips for managing second interviews:

• Be confident. Accentuate what you have to offer and your interest in the position
• Probe tactfully to discover more information about the internal company dynamics and culture
• Walk through the door with a plan for negotiating a salary
• Be prepared for anything: to relax with an employer or to address the company's qualms about you