The interview process for most digital media organisations in Australia involves 2 interviews, usually conducted over the space of one to two weeks. On the rare occasion that a 3rd or even 4th interview is required, your recruitment agent will advise you well in advance.

The process begins when the hiring manager or recruitment agent calls to arrange a mutually acceptable time for you to meet with the employer. At Big Wave Digital we aim to ensure that you are as prepared as possible for the interview by ensuring that you receive all the details you will need to ace the interview.

This includes an email confirming the time and date as well as the location of the interview with accompanying directions and map. Where possible, we will also include a detailed position description which will help you fully understand the scope of the job in question.

Prior to the interview you will receive full details of the person or people you will be meeting, the type of interviews (see below) they normally conduct as well some links which will allow you to fully research the company (always a good idea).

Once the first interview has been conducted the hiring manager will usually provide feedback to your recruitment agent about how the interview went as well as to organise a time to (hopefully) conduct a second interview.

The following are some samples of common interview styles that you may face.

Telephone Interview

Usually short in duration the telephone interview is often utilised by employers to determine if the applicant has enough of the core skills required to be invited for a more formal and in depth face to face interview. For a telephone interview, you should ensure that you are in or can quickly move to a quiet location. This type of interview should also be prepared for with the same thoroughness as if you were meeting the employer face to face.

Unstructured/Informal Interviews

These type of interviews are often called meet the team style interviews and are usually a good sign that you are pretty close to getting a job offer. These type of interviews allow your future colleagues to get to know you a little better and are a great opportunity for you to ask one or two of the more informal questions that you wouldn’t usually ask the boss!

Behavioral Interview

The majority of interviews you will face will involve at least one behavioural style question. Behavioural style interview questions are designed to see how you would react in common workplace situations. These questions often follow the 3 point formula of Situation – Action – Outcome. For example “Tell me about at time that you disagreed with a word decision made by your manager – What did you do – What was the outcome?”

Group Interview

In certain situations an employer may shortlist a group of candidates and bring them all together for a group interview. This style of interview is used to see how the candidates will react in a group discussion with their peers and how the job applicant can get their point of view across. More common in roles that are public or client facing, the group interview can often lead to one final one on one interview.

The Final Interview

If invited for a final interview it usually means that your skills and expertise have been established. During this interview the interviewer is looking to determine how you would fit into their company and their team. Your goal during this interview is to try to build some rapport with the interviewer as well as see if this is a company and a team you would enjoy working with.