Preparing for an internship interview? Firstly, congratulations! <\/p>\n
To help you, we\u2019ve found the top 10 most common interview questions and let you into some secrets around what the interview is looking for, and some sample answers too. <\/p>\n
Preparing for a specific question? You can cut to the question you\u2019re looking to answer here:<\/p>\n
Want to get your head around situation interview questions and the STAR method? We tell you what you need to know below. <\/p>\n
What they\u2019re really asking: This is a classic interview question that you\u2019ll be asked throughout your career. The interviewer wants to check that you\u2019re not just applying for every job you see and that you\u2019ve put real thought into your application. Similar questions might include, \u201cWhat do you know about this company?\u201d or \u201cWhat do you know about this role?\u201d<\/p>\n
Show that you\u2019ve done your research. Avoid stating the obvious such as \u201cI need an internship\u201d or \u201cI need the money\u201d. Take the opportunity to show that you\u2019ve read the job description or read up on the company, bringing in something about company values can be impressive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know as an organization you have a fantastic reputation and joining your marketing team, even for a short time, will be a fantastic opportunity for me to progress and learn. <\/p>\n What I\u2019m most excited about is your company’s value of continual learning. Learning is really important to me. As well as completing a double honors degree in business and marketing, I also take extra credit classes in advanced Spanish, a skill that could be very beneficial to a company such as Orange with its second-largest market in Southern and Central America. <\/p>\n I would hope that this internship will just be the beginning of my relationship with Orange Inc and that I\u2019ll be able to learn and progress within the company long term. \u201d<\/em><\/p>\n What they\u2019re really asking: This is a question that will crop up a lot in entry-level roles so that the interviewer can understand your motivation. This can help the hiring manager to establish if you\u2019d be a good fit for the organization. <\/p>\n Think about what first interested you in the role, your motivation, and how this position aligns with your career goals. It\u2019s important to focus on achievable results, a lot of internships are only a couple of weeks long so you won\u2019t be able to completely revolutionize the company during this time. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first considered applying for this internship I was able to speak to some former interns via my college\u2019s careers office. <\/p>\n Of the four that I spoke to, they all shared how valuable their mentors had been in terms of getting to know the industry as a whole. I hope that I would be able to build a strong relationship with my own mentor and gain a deeper understanding of the practical ways I can apply what I\u2019m learning in college, particularly around HR in an international setting.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n What they\u2019re really asking: Some of the most prestigious internships receive thousands of applications for just a few spaces, so this is an opportunity for you to differentiate yourself. <\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot you can cover here, but try to pick two to three compelling reasons. This could be previous work experience, your technical skills, or your soft skills. You\u2019ll need to show confidence here, to convince the interviewer that you are the most qualified candidate for this internship.<\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as I saw this internship advertised I knew that I was perfectly cut out for this role. The job description felt like a list of the modules and courses I have taken at college so far, many of which I have completed at the top of my class. <\/p>\n Your three company strengths are communication, collaboration, and community, and these are all strengths I have. <\/p>\n As football captain, I demonstrate all of these qualities regularly. I communicate with my teammates, with our coaches, and with the university. I collaborate with my team to achieve our goals, and I\u2019ve built a community of sportspeople and sports fans who regularly volunteer in our local area. We recently worked on regenerating a local school’s sports facilities!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n What they\u2019re really asking: Similar to the question of why you applied, this is looking to establish that you\u2019ve done your research. <\/p>\n State the obvious but also show that you\u2019ve delved deeper. Say for example you\u2019re applying for a marketing role, you might list off some details of their social media engagement. If you\u2019re applying for a finance role, you might talk about their financial importance. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is a company where \u201ccommunity\u201d is really at the heart of what you do. You\u2019ve built an 18 million strong community of customers in the US alone and a community of 5,000 employees globally. <\/p>\n I love that your HR team is really at the heart of this, building fantastic employee benefits including the \u201cstar package\u201d and creating a tremendous raising and giving scheme in \u201cwe give\u201d. <\/p>\n When I was working on my application I was lucky enough to meet two previous HR interns through my college careers service and they both emphasized how your values of community and collaboration are lived and breathed in everything you do. Both had had the opportunity to work on \u201cwe give\u201d and it\u2019s something I would love to be a part of. As someone who grew up in New York where you do a lot of this work, I\u2019ve seen the benefits directly in my neighborhood\u201d. <\/em><\/p>\n What they\u2019re really asking: This is a situational question, and you\u2019ll be expected to answer this in a certain way. First, address the Situation, then the Task, then the Action you took, and finally the Result. This is called the STAR method.<\/p>\n Your example can come from any situation, it doesn\u2019t have to be in the workplace. <\/p>\n \u201cAs treasurer of my college chess club, I work with a team of five committee members to ensure that the club operates effectively. Following on from things like the Queen’s Gambit, the society has grown from around 100 members to over 500 in the last 12 months. This has meant that our open meetings which we hold once a semester have become too large.<\/p>\n As a committee, we needed to represent our members so we sent around a series of surveys to understand what people were looking for. It became clear that EDI was very important and not something we had as a specific job on our committee. <\/p>\n We, therefore, worked together to add a new committee member to our team and set up some sub-committees so that we could address our members\u2019 needs more effectively. <\/p>\n This has greatly improved communication and has boosted our member satisfaction rates by 10% in the last semester.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n What they\u2019re really asking: This question is about how you manage challenges and conflict. Again, the STAR method is super helpful here. <\/p>\n Don\u2019t turn this into an opportunity to bad mouth a previous colleague. Make sure you choose a scenario where your professionalism has shone through. <\/p>\n \u201cI work twice a week as a server at a large restaurant called Bob\u2019s that on a busy night can have up to 200 customers. <\/p>\n On one particular evening, I was supervising, a huge, unbooked party of 50 people showed up. <\/p>\n I immediately made sure that I communicated with all of our employees from the kitchen to the front of house and asked some of my colleagues who were about to leave if they could work some additional hours. <\/p>\n I created a small team that would look after this party and allocated the customers a function room to make it as easy as possible. <\/p>\n It was an all hands on deck situation but we pulled it off. The party left a 30% tip!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n What they\u2019re really asking: This is a question that you\u2019ll be asked early on in the interview process, potentially in a screening call. This question aims to establish whether or not your resume is just loads of buzzwords. This doesn\u2019t need to be as detailed as you might think, you might choose to highlight a few examples. <\/p>\n This can feel like an overwhelming question. If you\u2019re on a call, have your resume in front of you to prompt you. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m currently a freshman doing a double major in business and finance at Mississippi University and I love it. I\u2019ve been specializing more recently on sustainable technology and sustainable investing and I wrote a top-scoring paper on the negative environmental impact of cryptocurrencies. <\/p>\n Alongside my studies, I also run a tabletop games society, which has around 75 members and I\u2019m part of my college\u2019s ultimate frisbee team, we\u2019re currently ranked 9th nationally.<\/p>\n Last summer, I did my first internship in banking with JJ Scott. It was a 12-week paid position focused mainly on the stock market, trading, and investments. I had the opportunity to visit the New York Stock Exchange, join client meetings, create reports, and delve into financial data. <\/p>\n I\u2019m hoping that this internship will provide me with a more rounded understanding of the banking industry, particularly around sustainable investments.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n What they\u2019re really asking: As someone early in your career, you might not have a 5-year plan, and that\u2019s totally ok. The interviewer is trying to establish where you think this specific internship might take you and if your long-term goals align with what the internship offers.<\/p>\n Revisit the job description when preparing for this question. Look out for any key points around what you\u2019re going to learn, and use these to inform your answer. <\/p>\n \u201cIn five years, I see myself continuing to develop my skills and expertise and business consulting. I will have graduated from college, completed my MBA, and be working at an organization much like this one that has a global reach, and a strong sense of comradery and teamwork. <\/p>\n I would like to think that with two years of full-time experience under my belt, I\u2019ll have received my first promotion and soon be in the position to take on some managerial responsibilities.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n What they\u2019re really asking: The workplace is really different from school and education, so employers need to know that you can handle the change in pace and environment. <\/p>\n This could be answered with a specific example using the STAR method. <\/p>\n \u201cTo best answer this question I will be using a specific, recent example that I feel demonstrates my skills in handling a stressful situation. <\/p>\n I\u2019ve worked as a brand ambassador alongside my studies for a couple of years, and am now in a supervisory role. I was recently working for a large drinks brand at the Kentucky Derby. This involved giving out free samples, answering questions, and encouraging people to take vouchers to shop in-store. <\/p>\n Of the original team of 10, only 6 showed up on the day. A lot of people were also people I hadn\u2019t worked with before, so before we got going I arranged a team meeting. I asked everyone to give me their strengths and weaknesses. For example, someone was very new and didn\u2019t know the product at all but was very physically fit so was happy to carry boxes of stock, while others were sales whizzes. I also spoke to head office to find out if there was anyone else, what the original client brief was, and if the pay could be altered to reflect a smaller team. <\/p>\n I reshuffled the rota, got an additional pair of hands for the afternoon shift, and negotiated a 10% hourly rate increase for everyone involved which was a huge motivator in a more stressful scenario. <\/p>\n I think it\u2019s always important to take a breather, take time to reflect, and communicate clearly.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n What they\u2019re really asking: The employer wants to know that you\u2019re a safe pair of hands that is going to resolve conflict rather than cause drama. <\/p>\n A situational question equals the STAR method. Think about examples from outside of work, especially if you don\u2019t have a lot of experience. <\/p>\n \u201cI was recently working on a class project for my class on modern-day American politics with a student that I hadn\u2019t worked with before. <\/p>\n When we initially got paired, we worked together on a timeline and agreed on deliverables. However, the first deadline came and went and the other person went AWOL. <\/p>\n I asked them if we could have a quick catch-up after class to discuss. Rather than accusing them of anything I asked if they were ok, as I had noticed that they hadn\u2019t been communicating recently and that we were behind on the project. <\/p>\n They entrusted me with some personal issues that had led to these delays which would have been grounds for an extension so I asked if this would be something they\u2019d like me to investigate. <\/p>\n Once asking for an extension was agreed I approached our tutor, explained the scenario, and arranged the paperwork. <\/p>\n This helped build trust with my classmate, and when we came to the project the second time around it felt easier for us both to communicate and get the job done. We ended up scoring 92% on that project.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n A situational question is a question that starts with \u201cTell us about a time when\u201d, \u201cDescribe a time when\u201d, or \u201cCan you give us an example of when you..\u201d These are questions that normally test a soft skill, such as teamwork, conflict resolution, or communication, or certain key skills such as managing a budget.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a specific formula for answering these questions called the STAR method. This stands for situation, task, action, and result. <\/p>\n Situation<\/strong> – This is what you were doing and for who. Early in your career, this could include examples from studying, extracurricular activities, and volunteer work. <\/p>\n \u201cFor the past two years, I have been captain of my college frisbee team.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Task<\/strong> – Normally this is an issue that you have had to resolve in some way. <\/p>\n \u201cThis year, we didn\u2019t have enough people attend tryouts, which meant that our funding from the college was at risk of being cut.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Action <\/strong>– Explain what you did to solve this problem and how you did it. <\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people don\u2019t know about this sport, while others are worried they won\u2019t be good enough. I rallied the current team to arrange some friendly taster sessions, and to establish if we had links to other societies that we could advertise through.<\/p>\n In just 4 weeks, we held 6 taster sessions, and had advertised frisbee with 10 societies that our current members were members of.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Result <\/strong>– Describe a positive result that occurred following the above. Try to include numbers or statistics. <\/p>\n \u201cA month after missing out on our minimum numbers, we\u2019d doubled our sign-ups which meant the team could continue. Nearly a year on, we\u2019ve tripled our membership which has meant we\u2019ve been able to compete in 50% more tournaments and improve our national rankings by 10 places.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Before an interview, spend time preparing some answers. Ask yourself:<\/p>\n This will give you a big bank of answers that you can use in an interview. <\/p>\n Need more advice regarding internships? Looking to know where to apply, how to apply, and to improve your resume and cover letter? Check out the ultimate guide to internships here<\/a>. <\/p>\n Ready to apply for internships? We have 100s of 1000s of internships available to apply to here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Preparing for an internship interview? Firstly, congratulations! To help you, we\u2019ve found the top 10 most common interview questions and let you into some secrets around what the interview is looking for, and some sample answers too. Preparing for a specific question? You can cut to the question you\u2019re looking to answer here: Why did Continued \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":3994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123,287],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-graduates","category-internships"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3983"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4373,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3983\/revisions\/4373"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What do you hope to learn from this experience?<\/h2>\n
What to consider<\/h3>\n
Example answer<\/h3>\n
Why do you think you\u2019re the most qualified candidate for this internship?<\/h2>\n
What to consider<\/h3>\n
Example answer<\/h3>\n
What do you know about our organization?<\/h2>\n
What to consider<\/h3>\n
Example answer<\/h3>\n
Describe a time you have been part of a team<\/h2>\n
What to consider<\/h3>\n
Example answer<\/h3>\n
Describe a time you faced a difficult situation, and how you overcame it<\/h2>\n
What to consider<\/h3>\n
Example answer<\/h3>\n
Can you take us through your resume? <\/h2>\n
What to consider<\/h3>\n
Example answer<\/h3>\n
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?<\/h2>\n
What to consider<\/h3>\n
Example answer<\/h3>\n
Explain your process for working through stressful situations<\/h2>\n
What to consider<\/h3>\n
Example answer<\/h3>\n
Describe a time when you have overcome conflict<\/h2>\n
What to consider<\/h3>\n
Example answer<\/h3>\n
Situational questions and the STAR method<\/h2>\n
\n