Welcome to blogs.oregonstate.edu. We will discuss the characteristics of interviews that are effective and what makes them possibly ineffective.
Since the day I was able to start working, I have had a few interviews myself, and they have all been very different, and possibly considered unique in some ways. To be more specific on my experience, there are two interviews I’ve had to explain the difference between an effective, structured interview, and one that was ambiguous. The good interview I have experienced was centered on how I represented myself under pressure and how I may respond to particular situation(s) in the potential position. I was able to demonstrate my problem-solving and interpersonal skills through these behavioral questions, which are in line with what The Perfect Hire (Chamorro-Premuzic & Steinmetz, 2013) refers to as “situational judgment,” a technique that improves validity and reliability by forecasting actual job performance.
Whereas, one interviewer focused nearly solely on my previous work titles and responsibilities. Only a list of my experiences was asked, with no questions regarding my motivation, teamwork, or thought process. To make matters worse, it was more of a meeting to describing the entire job, just being informational. That strategy lacks structure, which results in decreased reliability and reduced predictive validity, going back to the lecture “Increasing Interview Effectiveness” (Oregon State University, 2025). In essence, anyone could seem competent on paper, but the interview didn’t assess my suitability for the position.
To better improve weak structured interviews, I would recommend using a consistent rubric to score responses. Which would include structured behavioral and situational questions if I could give that employer advice. Interviews with structured questions increase validity and decrease bias (Bohnet, 2018). Short, work-related simulations, such as Google’s method of evaluating analytical skills, would improve fairness and dependability (Bock, 2014). Beyond just looking over resumes, a successful interview gauges a candidate’s ability to think, adjust, and fit in with the company’s culture. In the end, what makes an interview useful or useless is its framework, consistency, and fairness.
References
Bock, L. (2014, February 22). How to get a job at Google.The New York Times.https://www.nytimes.com
Bohnet, I. (2018). How to take the bias out of interviews.Harvard Business Review.
Chamorro-Premuzic, T., & Steinmetz, C. (2013). The perfect hire.Scientific American Mind, 24(3), 42–47.
Oregon State University. (2025). Week 5 Lecture 4 – Increasing Interview Effectiveness. College of Business.