Applying broadly before you know which track you'll land
Say you've sent out applications to a consulting firm doing site assessments for private developers and a state agency reviewing permits, and you don't yet know which one will call back first. Neither has sent you their specific questions, and you have nothing concrete to prepare against.
A general interview fills that gap. It asks why you're drawn to environmental science as a field, what pulled you toward it over a related science degree, how you handled a time a project didn't go the way you planned, and what you're looking for in your next role.
None of those questions assume permitting knowledge or client management specifically, because at this stage in your search you don't know which one you'll need yet.
What a general session actually asks
The general interview type pulls from a fixed base of standard questions rather than a specific posting, since it needs neither a job description nor a resume to start.
For this role that means the conversation stays on background and behavioral territory: what led you into environmental work, how you describe your approach to a project that hit an unexpected obstacle, how you've handled disagreement with a supervisor or teammate.
You can set the interview style to formal, semi-formal, or friendly and choose from twelve interviewer personalities, which is useful here since a consulting interview often runs more formal and client-facing in tone than an agency conversation might, and rehearsing both styles ahead of time means neither format catches you off guard.
Scoring
How the five scoring dimensions read on a general session
Communication and Behavioral tend to carry the most signal in a general environmental scientist session, since there's no posting or resume feeding the conversation toward permitting specifics or field methods for the Technical dimension to grade against in depth.
Technical still generates a score, but it reads closer to a baseline until you run a technical or comprehensive session that gives it real data or method material to work with. The penalty system applies in full regardless.
A behavioral answer about a project setback that skips a clear situation and outcome loses points the same way it would anywhere else, and closing the interview without asking a question back costs points too, a habit worth fixing before a hiring manager notices it.
Frequently asked questions
Should I run a general interview before or after I have a specific posting?
Before is usually more useful. General needs no job posting or resume, so it fits the earliest part of a search when you're applying broadly across consulting and agency roles. Once you have a specific listing, switch to the job-description type to practice against that posting's actual requirements.
Does the general interview ask whether I want consulting or agency work?
Not directly. It stays on standard motivation and behavioral questions rather than asking you to pick a track. That distinction becomes relevant once a specific posting is in hand and you run a session built from it instead.
Will a general session touch on field methods or data interpretation at all?
Only lightly, if at all, since neither a resume nor a posting is feeding the conversation toward specifics. The technical interview type is where data interpretation and method questions get real depth, once you're ready to go deeper than the opening round.
How many times should I practice a general interview before applying?
One or two runs is usually enough to get comfortable with pacing and answer structure. After that, time spent on a job-description or technical session against a real posting tends to pay off more than repeating the general format.
Related pages
Practice the opening round before you narrow your search
Run a general AI interview to check your footing on background and motivation questions before deciding whether consulting or agency work is the next step.