The interview process for an internship program should be similar to any other full-time, regular employee recruitment process because selecting the right interns is just as important as selecting the right career employees.
Pre-Interview
Assuming that organizations have taken advantage of all possible marketing strategies to promote their internship program, they should have a large enough applicant pool to start the interview process. After receiving the application materials, organizations will start reviewing all applications to find the student(s) who have the skills and experience that fit with the organization’s needs. If the goal of the internship program is to develop potential career employees, then selecting students to interview that have similar skills and experience to new grad hires will be most effective. At no time should any organization rely solely on students’ application materials without interviewing.
The Interview
Keep in mind that all principles regarding employment interviewing for career employees also apply to internship interviews. All organizations should develop a set of interview questions so that the interview process has a structure and a focus. Interviews that are free flowing and lacking in structure can discourage a student from wanting to serve in an internship at any organization.
When developing a list of interview questions, remember that questions normally asked to a career-level applicant might not be appropriate for a student-level internship interview. Here are some samples of questions to ask in an internship interview:
- Tell me a little bit about yourself and why you are interested in working with us.
- What do you know about our organization?
- How can you contribute to our organization?
- How would you describe yourself?
- What are your strengths and areas of improvement (weaknesses)?
- How did you choose your major?
- What courses do you like the most? The least? How do they relate to your career goals?
- What do you expect to gain from an internship with us?
- What are your plans, if any, for graduate study?
- Tell us about a time when you’ve used teamwork to solve a problem.
- Give an example of a situation during which you worked under pressure with a tight timeframe to complete a project.
Most students aren’t able to answer long-term career questions ("Where do you see yourself in five years?") or salary questions ("What are your salary requirements?"). Behavioral questions, such as the last two in the list above, can be very helpful in determining whether students have the desired skills and abilities. Organizations should ask the same questions of all applicants to ensure equity.
Many organizations have a two-step internship interview process — either a phone interview followed by an in-person interview, or a panel interview followed by a one-on-one interview with the internship supervisor. Organizations should decide what type of interview process will work best for their organization. No matter what process organizations select, it is important that NYUAD students leave an interview with a positive impression of the organization.