What in the h**l is the purpose of a group interview???

Question

My cousin calls me up crying because she moved to AZ from CONN. and everything ******* job she applies for play this group interview game. What are these people ******* stupid or what!!! If you support this method you are a certified idiot. What happened to the good old one on one? I told her to get out of that c**p hole state. FRICKING REJECTS!!!

Answer 1

The purpose of a group interview is to see how an individual does in a social setting.  It tests your social skills, and your ability to resolve conflicts with other people.

Answer 2

I do not support it but it is probably the jobs she is applying for that put her in this. There are c**p jobs that have extreme high turn over rates as they build it up but they really are c**p jobs with c**p companies that do these types of interview.  

Answer 3

They probably want to see how well people interact within a group, as it is not always one and one anymore.

Answer 4

Most of the group interview things are for sales positions for things people don't want, Cutco, CitiFinancial, AG edwards, that sort of thing.

Never take a job with them cause you wont make any money, especially if you don't know anybody.

Answer 5

Actually, group interviews make a ton of sense.

As an interviewer, your job is to get to know the candidate and see if he/she is a fit for the company.  Having more people ask the interviewee questions can only help - someone might hear something interesting a candidate says that you wouldn't.

It also removes the variability when a candidate is feeling good / has a good interview with one person, then speaks to the next person and falls on his / her face.

As a candidate, you also get exposed to more people from the firm, so you can ask more questions.

Finally, it can save a ton of time.  If three people need to interview you and like you to give you the job, then why not have two or three of them in the same room at the same time.

Answer 6

Are you talking about one person being interviewed by a panel of supervisors and managers or are you talking about a supervisor interviewing 5 or even 10 potential employees at one time all in the same room?  I have heard that group interviews (where a group of potential employees are all in a room together being interviewed at the same time by a supervisor) are becoming more and more common.  It's crazy because there is no way the employer would be able to really see who the best employee would be.  Basically the person with the loudest personality and the one who really sticks out of the group will get the job eventhough they may not even be the best one for the job.  It's ridiculous I agree.  I think companies are just in a hurry to hire and don't want to waste a few weeks looking for the best person for the job so they just put a bunch of people into one room and do one big interview.  It's not fair for people who are not that out-spoken.  Anyways the best way to get a job is to know someone who already works for the company and that's why getting a job is so hard !

Answer 7

You would be surprised at how common that practice has become. I have read that it's done so that candidates for a job do not have to come back two, three, or four times to interview with another person before they can be hired. If that's the case, it's best to get the interview done in a "group" session.

I have a feeling they do it partially for the reason stated above, but also partially because they want to see how a person performs under immense pressure. We all know that a job interview is stress enough for anyone, put them under the spotlight - or in this case - four spotlights and it's almost impossible to stay composed.

Tell your cousin to stop stressing and just do her best. Chances are the other candidates are just as stressed as she was.