Five questions you must ask while interviewing a prospective intern
Human psychology is the most intricate thing to deal with, and it’s really a daunting task to judge someone in a 20 – 30 minute chat . But still, if interview is done smartly, there is a high chance that you’d get all the required information to take a final call on a prospective intern. In our experience, these 5 questions are a great help to understand whether a student is a good fit for the internship or not.
1. Why do you want to do this internship with us? – highlights both her career interests and her interest in your company – another variant of this question is What do you want to pursue upon graduation and how this internship fits with that?
Either the career interest (Oh, I want to work at Google upon graduation and this internship will give me hands on programming experience) or interest in the organization (I want to do a start up in Education domain myself and hence want to learn about the industry) should make logical fit with the internship.
2. What are your expectations from this internship? – helps you understand whether there is a good fit between the role and the candidate’s expectation and saves first day surprises for both the parties when its too late. A related question is What concerns you may have in joining this internship?
3. What are the other internships you have applied to and is there any particular internship you would like to wait for results to come out before you decide on this internship? – again helps you better understand the candidate’s internship preferences and also understand the uncertainty about the candidate actually joining your internship even if you make an offer.
4.If you were hired, what are the 3 things you would like to change in company’s products/services? – helps you understand whether candidate has made an effort to understand your business and if there is an emotional connect that he has with your organization.
5. What are the other commitments (academic / non-academic) that you are likely to have during the internship period? – some may have exams, or a technical competition that they have to participate in, a long family trip or may even be pursuing another internship/training in parallel or freelancing (yes, happens!). Knowing all this upfront would save LOT of heartburn later.
Hope these tips are helpful, and help you find the right candidates.
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