Conducting a Successful Interview – Pros and Cons of Different Interview Styles

Choosing the right interview style dictates whether you hire a top performer or miss out on great talent. From one-on-one meetings to panel discussions, each technique offers unique benefits and drawbacks. 

In this article, we’ll explore the main formats to help you build a fair and consistent hiring process.

What you’ll learn:

• Structured competency-based and behavioral questions help reduce unconscious bias by evaluating candidates against objective criteria.
  
  
• Review the pros and cons of the seven main interview styles below to determine the best approach for your open positions.
  
  
• SocialTalent helps enterprise talent teams standardize interview frameworks, improve interviewer consistency, and build fairer hiring processes.
  
  
• Panel interviews save time and provide a complete picture of company culture, though they require careful scheduling.
  
  
• Technical interviews and assessment days measure problem-solving skills in real-world scenarios but demand significant preparation.
  
  
• A positive candidate experience relies on clear communication and a fair process across all interview formats. 

The interview is one of the most important steps in the talent acquisition process. It’s where you determine whether or not a candidate is a solid fit for your organization and the position you’re trying to fill. But how do you ensure that you are conducting an effective interview?

What Are the Main Interview Styles Used in Hiring?

Talking to a candidate one-on-one isn’t the only way to interview, after all. There are a ton of different interview techniques, each with its own benefits and drawbacks. Today, we’re going to briefly discuss each one.

Before we do, however, there are a few caveats. First, we won’t be covering informational interviews, as that technique is primarily interviewee-focused. Second, we’re going to be focused on interview styles rather than interview formats—for the most part, the types of interviews discussed here can be applied equally to in-person, virtual, and phone interviews.

So with all that established, here are the pros and cons of each main interview style.

1. Panel Interviews

In a panel interview, there’s more than one interviewer. Typically, the panel will consist of the hiring manager alongside several decision-makers connected to the role being filled. Although they may occasionally be led by a single person, normally it’s a group effort.

Pros of Panel Interviews

• Each interviewer can cover a different aspect of the candidate assessment.
  
  
• Diverse panels reduce the likelihood of a hire being influenced by personal bias.
  
  
• Candidates are given a more complete picture of the company and its culture, as they get to meet multiple decision-makers.
  
  
• For positions where multiple interviews are required, this technique can save time by bundling them together.

Cons of Panel Interviews

• One person may dominate the interview, meaning others don’t get to ask their questions.
  
  
• Panel interviews can be intimidating to prospective candidates.
  
  
• Because there are more people involved, they’re more difficult to coordinate and schedule.
  
  
• May cause a decrease in overall productivity, as multiple leaders are not at their usual place of work.

2. One-on-One Interviews

An individual interview is one of the most tried-and-true techniques, and also one of the simplest. The candidate meets with a single interviewer, usually for up to an hour, during which they’re asked a series of interview questions about their background, experience, and what they’ll bring to the new job.

Pros of One-on-One Interviews

• More efficient than other styles.
  
  
• Highly flexible—the interviewer has total freedom to conduct the interview as they see fit.
  
  
• Tend to be cost-effective, as they don’t require many stakeholders to participate.

Cons of One-on-One Interviews

• Subject to individual bias. One way to offset that risk is to use structured notes, scorecards, and techniques that reduce bias during one-on-one conversations.
  
  
• An inexperienced interviewer may find it difficult to glean an accurate assessment.
  
  
• Not well-suited for a hiring process that requires input from multiple stakeholders.

3. Competency-Based Interviews

A competency-based interview consists of a structured series of questions intended to determine whether or not a candidate has the necessary skills for a position.

Pros of Competency-Based Interviews

• Allows interviewers to directly assess candidates based on skill set.
  
  
• Reduces personal bias through objective criteria.

Research published by Cambridge University Press found that structured interviews provide strong validity while having lower racial-group impact than many other top predictors.

Cons of Competency-Based Interviews

• May make it difficult to get to know a candidate on a personal level.
  
  
• Often overemphasizes past performance.
  
  
• Can favor candidates who overstate their own performance, while being unnecessarily challenging to those without high self-confidence.

4. Technical Interviews

Technical interviews are similar to competency-based interviews in that they measure a candidate’s knowledge and skill set. The main difference is that technical interviews are more focused on problem-solving. 

Instead of answering questions, candidates may be required to complete an assignment, assessment, or series of tasks.

Pros of Technical Interviews

• Can be easily automated.
  
  
• Can reduce bias in the interview process. This works best when teams use structured assessments and inclusive hiring practices rather than relying on pedigree, confidence, or presentation style.
  
  
• Can be easily combined with other interview types for a more comprehensive and holistic approach.

Cons of Technical Interviews

• Don’t generally account for real-world environments and scenarios.
  
  
• Only applicable to certain industries and roles (IT, engineering, software development, design, etc.).

5. Behavioral Interviews

A behavioral interview is like a less-structured competency-based interview. It’s intended to help an organization assess a candidate based on who they are in a professional context—how they think, act, and react.

In practice, the quality of the interview often depends on asking stronger behavioral interview questions that prompt real examples instead of polished, generic answers.

Pros of Behavioral Interviews

• More comfortable and approachable for candidates.
  
  
• Allows interviewers to gain a better idea of a candidate’s personality.
  
  
• Helps determine whether a candidate will be a good culture add for an organization.

Cons of Behavioral Interviews

• Requires extensive training time and preparation for interviewers.
  
  
• Easy for candidates to prepare in advance, which may impact the authenticity of the interview.
  
  
• Questions are highly detailed and open-ended, and the interview can take much longer as a result.

6. Group Interview

While a panel interview consists of multiple interviewers, a group interview typically consists of multiple candidates with a single interviewer.

Pros of Group Interviews

• Efficient, allowing the assessment of multiple candidates at the same time.
  
  
• Allows interviewers to see which candidates work well with others.
  
  
• Provide insight into who’s a decent fit for a company’s culture.
  
  
• Shows who performs well under stress.

Cons of Group Interviews

• May create a sense of competition that mars the accuracy of the interview process.
  
  
• Can be easy to lose control of the discussion.
  
  
• Certain candidates may dominate the interview in spite of being less qualified.
  
  
• Limited in the questions one can ask.

7. Assessment Days

An assessment day is a highly involved, multi-stage interview process with multiple interviewers and candidates. It typically consists of a series of exercises, tasks, and presentations, often followed by an interview at the end.

Pros of Assessment Days

• Provides a more accurate, reliable assessment of candidates.
  
  
• Differentiates between similar candidates.
  
  
• Gives candidates insight into the company and the role.
  
  
• Allows interviewers to judge employee performance “in the wild.”

Cons of Assessment Days

• Costly and time-consuming.
  
  
• Can alienate candidates with less dominant personalities, who may find themselves drowned out or overlooked.
  
  
• Incredibly challenging to administer, requiring extensive training and expertise.

Because assessment days are so complex to run well, many teams start with an interviewer training program before using them at scale.

Which Interviewing Technique Should You Use?

Ultimately, there’s no universally “best” interview style. Each one has its own benefits and drawbacks, and an interview that works in one scenario might not work in another.

Matching Style to Role and Context

The best advice we can give is to choose the technique that will give you the most well-rounded idea of each candidate’s skills, abilities, and personality. Remember, you don’t need to choose just one style. You should always be open to reassessing how you interview.

Keeping Interviews Fair Across All Styles

Whichever style you choose, consistency and fairness should run through the entire process. 

As covered throughout this article, bias can surface in one-on-one interviews where a single interviewer’s judgment goes unchecked, in competency-based formats where criteria are applied unevenly, and in panel settings where one voice dominates. 

Building in structured evaluation criteria, training interviewers properly, and giving every candidate the same opportunity to demonstrate their abilities are practical steps that apply regardless of the format you use.

Sharpen Your Interview Technique with SocialTalent

If you need support making interviews more consistent, interview training for hiring managers can help standardize questions, scoring, and decision-making. You can also find more interview guidance, tools, and hiring resources on SocialTalent.