Group interviews - why oh why?!

I'm just about to go for a 3.5 hour group interview which will decide whether or not I get a residential position for my final year of uni... I hate group interviews. Admittedly I've only had one, for a supermarket, where we had to mkae an impromptu uniform out of bin bags and masking tape. The thing was, of my group of 4 people, one was deaf and didn't lip-read, and the other 2 didn't have english as their first language (and weren't very good at speaking/understanding it)..

Whereas today all the people are probably going to be just as good/better than me.

Why make us befirend the people we're supposedly cometeing with? I know that there's about a 2:1 apllicant-job ratio... so half the people are going to go away unhappy.

And I have an induvidual interview tomorrow as well.. which admittedly is only 20 minutes, but still.. scary.

Why does the interview process have to be so formal/unrelated to the job?

Sorry, just a bit of nervous ranting

GOOD LUCK!

To see if you crack under pressure.............at least, that's what they always do to me!

Keep cool and you'll be fine dude. Ooze confidance (and make sure you look better than all the other peeps [better, not necesaraily smarter.............
............and get your spelling right ] ) and you'll have it nailed!

Good luck mate [insert gremlin giving thumbs up!]

They do group interviews to see how you interact with other people. To see if you are a follower or a leader. It helps them decide how or where you will fit into a group dynamic. My advise is to just go along and be yourself. If you are what they are looking for you will show that. If you go along and try to pretend you are something other than who you are, you might find when they take you on they put you in a possition you hate or can't do because you can't sustain the fantasy of the person you became for the interview. Have faith in who you are and just be yourself.

Good luck!

Thanks for the tips, guys! We've just stopped for lunch.. and it's going well! We've been given slips of paper with all sorts of questions on them.. eg:

If you knew a child was going to be come the next hitler, would you kill it?

Which 2 songs would you like to be played at your funeral?

If you could definitely save only 90% of the group, or take a risk which will either save all of them or kill all of them 50/50, which would you choose?

Well.. I think I did well I didn't speak more than the others in my group, but everyone was talking to me, seemed to be directing their answers at me out of all the 9 people.. the position is one with a little authority so I think that's really positive

Anyway, we'll just have to see. Individual interview tomorrow, I know how to *do* those

thanks for all the support guys

A few tonight, I think!