@bluefineliner he's had Glasgow ( online ) and Edinburgh ( F2F) and has Aberdeen (F2F) later this month.
pro and cons - much like @2025parent said. The online interviews tend to be shorter, so on one hand that is less tiring and of course no travel costs ( time and money ). But you have to get everything you want to say into such a short time and there’s a sense of “ my whole future depends on this next 30 mins “.
It can be hard to get a sense of how you are doing online , there’s less feedback/ interaction. As those of you who have zoom work meetings will know, it’s easy to accidentally cut across people and it can be hard to know when someone is finished / has more to add without the clues from body language .
I think a lot depends on the interviewers making an effort to be friendly and put the applicant at ease when it’s online.
If there is more than one online interviewer , they need to be very structured about who is asking what question so it can seem more formal. And it’s harder to ask follow up questions.
F2F is usually longer, with more than one session and different interviewers. So you have another chance / a fresh start if you feel you have messed up a section / task or if you found the interviewer difficult.
F2F interviews often have a group task, which is a bit of wild card as you have no idea how the other candidates are going to act. I think it’s quite challenging for young people to manage the task and also the process of the group, while being observed and evaluated.