Problems with unstructured interviews Managers at many organizations still use unstructured interviews even though their HR departments have adopted behavioral or structured interviews. An unstructured interview lacks preparation, direction and consistency. The exact same questions are rarely asked of each applicant and interviewers just fly by the seats of their pants. Even if the interviewer asks each applicant the same questions, the questions are usually irrelevant to the job. Certainly, hiring parties should do their utmost at the start of the interview to make each applicant feel comfortable, but these idle pleasantries should not form the basis of an interview or a selection decision.
Unstructured interviews are also the most susceptible to grievances or complaints.
This occurs when an unsuccessful job applicant either complains about the process or asks for a formal review of the process simply because they did not get the job. Another problem with the unstructured interview is its inability to determine how well an applicant can perform all aspects of the job. Structured interviews were an improvement over unstructured interviews Structured and competency interviews with behaviorally-anchored rating scales were introduced years ago. They were designed to ask and rate each applicant using the same job-related questions and set responses. Structured and competency interviews were a vast improvement over the dark ages of the unstructured interview.