Definition · Interviewing and assessment
Unstructured Interview
Definition
Unstructured interview is the term for a job interview with no fixed set of questions or scoring method: the interviewer decides what to ask as the conversation goes, and different candidates for the same role get different questions. It feels natural and builds rapport, but it is less consistent, more open to bias and weaker at predicting job performance than a structured interview.
Also called: Informal interview, Conversational interview, Free-form interview, Non-directive interview
What an unstructured interview looks like
Most people have been through one. The hiring manager opens with "So, tell me about yourself," follows whatever thread the candidate offers, shares stories about the team, asks a few questions that occur to them along the way, and finishes with "Any questions for me?" Afterward, the manager has a feeling about the candidate, often a strong one, and few notes.
Typical features:
- No interview guide, or one that is ignored.
- Questions vary by candidate and by the interviewer's mood or schedule.
- Lots of small talk and shared-interest conversation.
- No rating scale; the outcome is a yes or no based on overall impression.
- Several interviewers ask overlapping questions and compare gut feel in the debrief.
Many interviews are semi-structured: a few standard questions plus free conversation. The less structure, the more the problems below apply.
Why it predicts performance poorly
Decades of research on selection methods consistently find unstructured interviews to be weaker predictors of job performance than structured interviews, work samples and cognitive ability tests. Three reasons explain most of the gap.
Different tests for different people. If one candidate is asked about handling an angry customer and another about their favorite sports team, you cannot compare them.
Impressions instead of evidence. Interviewers form an opinion in the first few minutes, then spend the rest of the conversation looking for confirmation. Without a scorecard, the decision rests on that first impression.
Bias has room to work. Affinity bias (liking people like us), the halo effect, confirmation bias and contrast effects all thrive in free conversation. Our page on interview bias covers how each one shows up.
The result is that two managers interviewing the same candidate often reach opposite conclusions, and neither can explain why in job-related terms.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Feels natural for both sides, which can help nervous candidates relax.
- Good for building rapport and selling the role, especially for senior or scarce talent.
- Flexible: the interviewer can follow an interesting topic.
- No preparation needed (which is also the main problem).
Cons
- Low consistency between candidates and between interviewers.
- Weak prediction of job performance.
- More room for bias and for questions that should not be asked.
- Hard to defend if a rejected candidate challenges the decision.
- Slow debriefs, because there is no shared evidence to compare.
Legal risk
Unstructured conversation is where risky questions slip in. A friendly chat drifts to children, church, retirement plans, an accent, a health condition or where someone's family is from. Even if the answer played no part in the decision, the question can be used as evidence of discrimination under Title VII, the ADA or the ADEA. Inconsistent questioning across candidates also makes it hard to show that the selection process was job-related if it is challenged for disparate impact. Notes such as "not a good fit" with nothing behind them do not help. Rules vary by state and country.
Unstructured vs structured interview
The difference is not formality or friendliness. A structured interview can be warm. The difference is whether every candidate gets the same job-related questions and is scored against the same standard. In a structured interview, the interviewer asks planned questions, writes down answers and rates them on an anchored scale before discussing the candidate. In an unstructured interview, none of that is fixed.
How to add structure without losing rapport
- Keep 5 minutes of open conversation at the start to settle the candidate, and do not score it.
- Ask four to six planned questions tied to the job, the same for everyone, with planned follow-up probes.
- Take notes on what was said, then rate each answer on a simple scale using an interview scorecard.
- Leave the last 10 minutes for the candidate's questions and selling the role.
- Submit ratings before the debrief.
For a high-volume role, even a one-page question sheet with a 1 to 4 scale per question removes most of the inconsistency. The time cost is an hour of preparation per role, not per interview.
Frequently asked questions
What is an unstructured interview?
It is an interview without a fixed set of questions or scoring method. The interviewer improvises questions based on the conversation, so different candidates for the same role are asked different things and judged on overall impression.
What is an example of an unstructured interview?
A hiring manager starts with tell me about yourself, follows topics the candidate raises, chats about shared interests, asks a few questions that come to mind and decides afterward based on how the conversation felt.
Is an informal interview the same as an unstructured interview?
Often, but not always. An informal interview describes the tone, such as a coffee chat. An unstructured interview describes the method: no standard questions or scoring. An informal-feeling interview can still be structured.
What are the disadvantages of unstructured interviews?
They are inconsistent across candidates, predict job performance poorly, leave more room for bias and inappropriate questions, and are harder to defend if a hiring decision is challenged.
When is an unstructured interview appropriate?
For rapport-building and selling the role, such as an informal meeting with a senior candidate who has already been assessed in a structured way. It should not be the main basis for the hiring decision.