hello,
Group interviews are where many candidates gather together with several interviewers to participate in an exercise of some sort.
Because you can't predict the exercise or exercises you'll be involved in, it's less easy to prepare, but there are things you can do to improve your performance in these type of situations.
We'll explain group exercises in more detail and provide some group interview tips to help you prepare.
The employer will already have selected the best candidates through the usual method of reading cover letters and CV but the group interview allows them to reduce the candidate pool further by deselecting unsuitable candidates in bulk. It's less time intensive than interviewing each candidate individually.
Usually the group 'interview' involves one or more exercises designed to imitate a work environment. One example involves dividing the group into two or more teams and giving each team a hypothetical (usually work related) situation or dilemma to resolve. Each team is then asked to present its results in front of the entire group.
Sometimes the dilemma is not work related, such as the case whether candidates are asked to decide how to choose 50 of 100 people to save from a sinking ship. These type of hypothetical situations cause a lot of controversy and interviewers can tell a lot from them about how people interact, influence and reach decisions.
During the group interview exercise, the interviewers often walk around the room observing behavior and listening to conversations. Occasionally they will ask questions and take notes and even throw in a one liner or two to stimulate debate or create argument.
But it is individual performance they are interested in, not group dynamics.
How Should I Perform In A Group Interview?
Interviewers want to know:
How well you interact with others
How good you are at influencing and persuading
Whether you work well in teams
How effective your communication styles are
Whether you reach decisions rationally or on a hunch
If you listen well to others
How well you manage under stress
In addition, the interviewers might be interested in seeing who takes charge and how effectively he or she delegates tasks to others. How individuals react to the leader is also very revealing.
They will be interested to know if the leader:
Involves all other team members, even the quiet ones
Can take on feedback and alter his or her course in light of new ideas
Listens and questions well
Gives praise where due
Important Tip:
During group interview exercises, it is better to be one of the leaders than one of the followers and most people recognize this. But don't get yourself involved in a battle of wills to get elected as leader as this can get ugly and you won't score points.
If you want to lead and have the chance to express an interest and state your case, do so, but be gracious if you're not chosen. And don't sabotage the leader's performance in protest - this is not The Apprentice!
If you are not a nature leader, that's ok. With half the group wanting to lead you won't be forced to. But you must be an active participant as a minimum. Don't simply observe and say nothing.
Group Interview Tips -- Preparation
Because you can't predict what exercises you'll be given it's less easy to prepare than for a regular job interview. But there are things you can do to improve your performance in these type of situations and here are some group interview tips:
Remembering what interviewers look for, spend some time observing your colleagues in the workplace, especially how they interact in team meetings or when decisions need to be made
Watch for good behaviors such as active listening, giving praise and asking questions
Notice when people are left out or don't get heard above the noise and how the group deal or don't deal with this
Write down the good and bad behaviors and attitudes you saw and note the impact these had on individuals and ultimately the team's success
Follow these group interview tips and your group job interview experience will be a positive one. You'll come across as mature, confident and professionally and personally competent.
Sample Resume 
