Concept and Purpose of Interview,

What is an Interview ?

The most obvious feature of an interview is that it

involves communication between two individuals. But

can all interactions between two people be termed as

interview? When two friends are talking to each other

is it an interview? When a father and son are conversing

with each other is it an interview? No, it is not. You

have to distinguish between mere conversation and an

interview. Not all the talks that take place between two

people can be termed as an interview. Interview is not

a mere conversation but a purposeful, directed

conversation. One person, i.e., the interviewer takes

the responsibility for the development of the

conversation. He/she sees to it that the conversation

moves towards the desired goal.

The professional interview is different from an informal

interview for varied reasons, the predominant feature

being that it is conducted within the framework of a

specialized knowledge and skill. In a professional

interview the interviewer operates within the confines

of a well defined setting and is backed by organised

experience and recognized competence, working towards

known and established purposes.

Interviewing is an integral and important activity in

every profession. Both experienced practitioners and

relatively inexperienced social workers struggling on

the job with all the recurrent problems of interviewing,

and seeking some specific guidelines and answers, may

benefit from an explicit examination of the interview in

this chapter.

Interview --- A Purposeful Conversation

The simplest definition of an interview is that it is a

conversation with a deliberate purpose, a purpose

mutually accepted by the participants. It is usually a

face-to-face interaction which involves both verbal and

non-verbal communication between people during which

ideas, attitudes and feelings are exchanged.

Distinguishing Interview from Conversation

The crucial characteristic which distinguishes an

interview from a conversation is that interview

interaction is designed to achieve a conscious purpose.

If the interaction has no purpose, it may be conversation

but it may not be termed as an interview.

The point of differences between an interview and

conversation are listed below:

1) Since the interview has a definite purpose, its

content is chosen to facilitate achievement of the

purpose. The orientation of the conversation is

associational, and there is no central theme.

2) If the purpose is to be achieved, one person has to

take responsibility for directing the interaction

(designated as interviewer) so that it moves towards

the goal. There are no comparable terms to indicate

status, positions and role behaviour in a

conversation as its participants have mutual

responsibility for its course.

3) In an interview between a professional and a client,

one person asks questions and another answers

them partly because someone has to take the

leadership. Here, two people are working on the

problem of one.

4) The actions of the interviewer must be planned,

deliberate and consciously selected to further the

purpose of interview whereas the behaviour of all

the parties to a conversation may be spontaneous

and unplanned.

5) An interview requires exclusive attention to the

interaction. A conversation, however, can be

peripheral to other activities.

6) Because it has a purpose, the interview is usually

a formally arranged meeting. A definite time, place

and duration are established for the interview.

7) Because an interview has a purpose other than

amusement, unpleasant facts and feelings are not

avoided. In a conversation, the usual tacit

agreement is to avoid the unpleasant.