How interviewers decide

An interview is a measurement, not a chat

It can feel like a conversation, but in a well-run organisation an interview is closer to an exam with a marking scheme. Before anyone meets you, the panel agrees what the job needs, usually from the job description and person specification, and writes questions to test each of those things.

Every candidate is asked the same core questions and scored against the same scale. This is called a structured interview, and there is a good reason employers use it: it predicts how people will actually perform far better than an unstructured chat, and it is fairer, because everyone is judged on the same evidence.

The three things every interviewer is judging

However the questions are worded, almost everything an interviewer asks is trying to answer one of three questions about you.

• Can you do it? Your skills, knowledge and experience. For most jobs this carries the most weight, and it is where questions about the work itself come in.
• Will you do it? Your motivation, reliability and commitment. A capable person who does not want this particular job is a risk.
• Will you work well here? How you would fit with the team and the way the organisation works, and increasingly what you would add to it.

Competency, strengths and values interviews

Competency or behavioural questions ask for real examples from your past ("Tell me about a time when...") because what you have done is the best guide to what you will do. Strengths-based questions ask what you enjoy and do well, and interviewers notice energy and detail as much as content. Values-based questions test whether what matters to you matches what matters to them: the NHS, for example, recruits against the values in the NHS Constitution, and the Civil Service scores behaviours, strengths and experience in its Success Profiles.

Many interviews mix all three. The job advert and person specification usually tell you which to expect.

What goes on the scoring sheet

For each question the panel has a list of what a good answer contains, sometimes called positive indicators, and what a weak one looks like. As you talk, they note the evidence you give. Afterwards each person scores each answer, often on a scale of one to four or one to five, and the panel compares scores and agrees a mark.

Two things follow. First, every answer is marked on its own, so one weak answer does not sink you: the next question is a fresh chance. Second, the panel can only score what you say. If you did something impressive but do not mention it, it does not exist on the sheet.

From culture fit to culture add

"Culture fit" used to mean "someone like us", which quietly shut out people who were different. Good employers now separate two things. Shared values, such as honesty, care for customers or respect for colleagues, are essential. Sameness of background, taste or personality is not, and a team of people who all think alike is more likely to miss things.

So interviewers increasingly ask what you would add: a perspective, a skill or a way of working the team lacks. The best answers to culture questions show that you share the values and bring something new.

The biases interviewers are trained to resist

Interviewers are human, and good ones are trained to notice their own shortcuts: deciding in the first minute and spending the rest looking for proof, warming to people who remind them of themselves, letting one impressive answer colour every other score, or judging a candidate against the one before rather than against the standard.

Structure is the main defence, which is why the panel writes things down and scores each answer separately. You can help too: clear evidence for every question gives a fair interviewer what they need and leaves less room for guesswork.

What this means for how you answer

Treat the person specification as the marking scheme. For each requirement, prepare a real example that proves it. Say "I", not "we", so the panel can credit you. Finish your examples with the result and what you learned, because that is often where the top marks are.

And keep going after a stumble. You are being scored question by question, so the next answer counts just as much.