on matters both parties consider to be of importance (employment, changing professions,
personal, etc.).
Method presentation
Counsellors, according to the role they play in the relationship with their clients, may
treat the interview method from two points of view:
Initial / information interview – this is not necessarily specific to career counselling, it
is part of evaluating the client and the problem, whatever the context (school, family,
psychological, career or else counselling).
Selection, recruitment, employment interview is specific to career counselling and
consultancy, being generally used as an evaluation and decision-making instrument in the
field of human resources. In institutions, specialists in organizational development are
using the promotion / development interview.
In this type of interview, counsellors may play two parts:
a. Recruiter: counsellors are generally in positions, such as human resources
consultants or recruitment specialists.
b. Career development counsellor: when the client is sought to be prepared for
an interview through simulation. This is the form of interview we are going
to insist upon.Considering the organization of the questions, interviews can be: unstructured (when
there is no pre-established order of the questions, and interviewers rely on their intuition
and professional experience), structured (when there is a “scenario” of questions, clearly
set, and rigorously followed throughout the meeting), or mixed (there is a scenario, but
the recruiter is given a time interval to explore other aspects of the candidate’s
personality).
Initial / information interview
This type of interview has two distinct purposes: counsellor collecting information on the
client, which represents the first step in evaluating the nature and severity of the latter’s
problems, and the creation of a positive counselling relationship.
The information interview is generally semi-structured (inexperienced counsellors are
usually recommended to follow an interview guide) and can last as long as a normal
counselling session (maximum 50-60 minutes).