All About Internship Interviews
So, my first internship interview was on Wednesday afternoon. I haven’t heard back from them yet, so I plan on giving them a call at the beginning of next week. I would like to get the internship, but the most important thing that I wanted to get out of this interview was a test run of my skills as an interviewee.
Because this was my first face-to-face internship interview, it was important for me to really pay attention to my behavior as well as my interviewer’s. There are several recommended guidelines that people are given for interviews. Here are a few:
- Look presentable. Granted the weather is very cold right now, so walking outside in a skirt is not my cup of tea, but still wear nice clothes (aka no holes, stains, etc.) and have a nice appearance. Also very important is to smile (genuinely of course). It is said that most interviewers make their decision within the first minute (even less) of meeting you.
- Have some background knowledge of the company you’re interviewing for. At the very least, know who they are and what they do. It doesn’t hurt to have some knowledge on what you could be doing for them as well. Being informed will only benefit you and not being informed can be the end of your chance for the job/internship.
- Have some questions prepared. This was a difficult one for me this time because my interviewer was just starting up a new project for the company that I had not found any information on, so I thought up some questions on the spot. One thing I did was I asked my interviewer questions about her relationship to the company, as in what she does within the company, how she does these things, etc. I’ve heard before that making the interview more personalized regarding the interviewer can help your interview. You need to be informed about the company itself, but have questions to ask the people in the company about their jobs. Keep it professional, but make it more personalized so that the interview isn’t rigid.
Whether these tips helped me is yet to be determined, and if they didn’t, I’ll be on the lookout for more and better advice to give from my own experiences. In one of my next week’s blogs, I’ll post an update on this first internship of whether I got it or not.