Group & Panel Interview Tips
GROUP INTERVIEW - A group interview is where many candidates are interviewed and/or observed by a small group of interviewers.
The reason behind holding a group interview is to evaluate how each one of the candidates communicates & interacts with the remaining candidates in that group, they are all assigned a single project and your most common responses, interaction manners and behavior is recorded & noted. Following tips would prove helpful.
One must pay attention on their own non-verbal cues and ensure that you neither back off from participating nor do you bluntly make suggestion that away from the group's common thought process.
If there you have a different idea then express it in a constructive manner, possibly with concrete example and try and show that you took a clue from the on going conversation to come up with this idea. Your team work and problem-solving skills will be noted positively.
Do not at any point draw a comparison between you and people in direct contact with you in that group. Put all your efforts & energy in doing your best.
PANEL INTERVIEW - A panel interview can be somewhat intimidating as there are a bunch of interviewers posing question to you and you are very much in the hot seat.
Under most circumstances the interviewee is given prior information in case he/she is going to be interviewed by more than one person (Panel Interview); but such information being passed onto you is not a compulsion. It could be that the panel of interviewers may or may not have a pre-planned list of questions. There is a barrage of questions that will be fired at you, ensure that you are not in a situation where you are juggling between which ones to answer and who asked which question.
Make an eye contact with the one who you will be answering and the start with your response. There is no need to make hurried answers, rather speak as you normally would and ensure that each one of the interviewers are listening to you so your points, answers, achievements, experience and relevant skills are known to all at the same time.
Agreed that facing a panel interview is tough but if they are making things hard for you its basically because they would like to see you react in group sittings as well as see how well you perform. Relax, smile, and do your best!
Both these interviews can take hours to come to an end. There will be various task and questions laid out to the group or an individual and performance will be judged.