Types of Interviewers

There are two types of interviewers: warm interviewers and cold interviewers. You might be thinking: “This sounds like an innocuous personality difference, who cares?” The truth is, handling one type like the other is a common reason for rejections and downlevels.

A simple analogy–it’s as if warm interviewers get paid according to how many words they speak. And cold interviewers have to pay for every word they utter. In either situation, you want to adjust your communication style slightly to be more effective with this specific type of interviewer.

Later in this course, we have a mock interview modeled explicitly for this lesson called “Communication breakdown: Cold interviewer vs warm interviewee,” so you can have a first-hand learning experience for what works and what doesn’t.

The golden rule is wrong.

You’ve probably heard, “Treat others as you would want to be treated.” Decent advice for life, not for interviews.

Warm interviewers want to engage; they place value in the spirit of organic conversation; they like to talk. Cold interviewers prefer not to engage unless they have to; they tend to speak less and expect you to essentially interview yourself.

Warm interviewers vs. cold interviewers

Checking in with your interviewer

“After you answer a question, ask the interviewer if you answered their question.” That is common advice which is harmful for one interviewer type and helpful for another.

Warm interviewers prefer you ask them questions because a question requires a response, and they enjoy providing responses.

However, if you ask a cold interviewer too many simple check-in questions, they might be visibly turned off. They would rather you make statements (instead of asking them questions). That way, they’ll only respond if they decide it’s necessary.

Even in this course, we teach you to ask varying degrees of “Did I answer your question?” when the question is ambiguous or if you’re seeking clarity on your answer. It’s your responsibility to craft a slightly customized message based on the type of interviewer.

Key takeaways

Don’t treat interviewers according to your preferred conversation style. Treat them according to their preferred conversation style.