As mentioned in my previous post about tips for before, during, and after an interview, here I will go into more depth about how to make your very own interview guide. My best friend, also an intern, recommended I make one and sent me hers as an example. I honestly couldn’t believe I didn’t have one of these already, as it makes the interview and preparation process that much simpler.
At the top of my interview guide, which I keep as an icon on my desktop at all times, I start with Q&A that are specific to the company to which I am having the interview with. I am applying for a summer internship, so the first thing I put on the top is my availability. “AVAILABLE: Monday, May 21 – Friday, August 3.” Instead of shuffling around through my agenda or giving them the date of a Wednesday to a Monday, I’ve got it ready to say without any unnecessary hesitation.
Below this, I have various topics with bullets underneath. You don’t want to sound like you’re reading verbatim or memorized lines. I then have information about the company that I’ve compiled from my research: amount of people in the company, some of their clients, what awards they’ve won, anything they are known for, their niche, their mission statement. Much of this can be simply found from your Google Docs Internship List, which I have a previous blog post on that I highly recommend you check out!
Next, I have “Questions to ask __(the person interviewing you)__.” As mentioned in my previous post, always have questions to ask them at the end. Typically, they will ask, “do you have any more questions?” The answer is YES! You can prepare possible questions to ask in this section. However, make sure you are paying attention so you avoid asking something that was already addressed. Some examples of questions I have are:
– What brought you to work for ____?
- This is interesting and more personal. Their reason and explanation may give you a new outlook to the company. Plus this interview has been all about you, it’s nice to know more about the person you may be interning for.
– What is the work/office environment like?
- I love this question as a way to prepare for the vibe of the company. Some places will say, everyone’s friendly, it’s an open office, relaxed, young atmosphere, etc. while others may be more of the cubicle, keep to yourself, or the fast-paced, always running around type atmosphere.
– What are the day-to-day tasks as an intern?
- What will you be doing each day? This question may be answered with utilizing social media, assisting a particular person in the department, running errands, organizing, updating media lists, etc.
I leave a little space to fill in information quickly as they are talking (phone interviews ONLY). I write things here such as unpaid, pitch at end of summer, total of 5 interns, information about the company.
Tell me about yourself. One of the most common interview statements! This is where they want to know something beyond what is already on your resumé to get to know your personality and what makes you stand out. Don’t go on and on about yourself, just the highlights. You can repeat a few things from your resumé such as where you’re from, where you go to school, what your major/minor is, what activities you are involved in. Then, tell a story to make you stand out. An award you were recognized for. Something that makes you different. For example, I use how I have grown up my entire life with my parents owning and running a family business and how I have first-hand seen the hard work, challenges, time, and dedication that it takes to be successful. From working with them, I was introduced to the field of public relations and from there was always interested in this side of the business world.
Another great thing to say here is something about why YOU are a perfect fit for THEM, or why you are interested in working there. I title this section “Why __(company name)__? For example, if I was applying for a position in Beauty PR, I would say I’m a huge fan of their brand and am loyal to many of the products, and how my passion and love of beauty products as well as my eagerness to learn more about PR makes me a perfect fit. This is also where I say that I have two blogs. For a beauty internship, I’d mention my beauty blog more specifically than my intern blog, even though both definitely apply. I also would write down a few of my favorite products and shades. If it’s a company that is PR but also has “green” aspects, I would mention how I’ve worked for a year and a half at a LEED Certified Apartment Complex. Make connections from yourself to them.
One of the other most common questions is strengths and weaknesses. Strengths/best qualities can include things from dependable, loyal, hard-working, strong work ethic, attentive, positive-attitude, organized, detail-oriented, proactive, open-minded, ability to adapt to change and facilitate it in an efficient way, works well on teams/collaborating with others, passionate, enthusiastic. Do NOT say you are unique. The word unique is incredibly overused, making the word itself lose its value. For weaknesses, don’t say, none. Obviously no one is perfect, and you should be mature and modest enough to admit a weakness. However, don’t say “I’m always late” or something along those lines. Rather, take the weakness and make it into a positive. Common weaknesses that with the right support behind it do work are saying you can be too much of a perfectionist. How do you turn that around? Say “I can be too much of a perfectionist at times which can slow me down, but I’ve learned to pick up the speed and work efficiently.” Another way to turn around a weakness is by saying that during the semester/year you have been balancing internships, jobs, classes, and extracurriculars and have been giving yourself time limits to work as time-efficient as possible. The point of this is, take a weakness and say that you are working on it or how you are working to turn it into a positive.
Next you can list achievements and obstacles or challenges. Achievements can be awards, successful events you planned, or even statistical results through the use of social media or market research. Obstacles and challenges are tricky in my opinion. You know you’ve had those rough days on the job but you’ve tried to forget about them! Come up with one or two just in case they ask so you don’t pull the “uh…um…”
A concept to consider an example for, to evaluate behavior, is STAR: S-Situation, T-Task, A-Action, R-Results. When telling a quick story of one of those challenges or even an achievement, this is a nice guide to follow.
While all of the above is optional and can be as long or as short as you need to prepare. What I put next is practice questions to use on yourself or for a mock interview. This is very easy to Google common interview questions, but if you want some assistance, feel free to let me know (comment, twitter, e-mail) and I’ll share all of them that I have with you! However for this post, it is already long enough and with all those questions would be almost a novel!
I hope you ALL make a guide for yourself. It’s great for a last-minute job interview offer with little time to prepare, as a way to organize yourself and prepare for an interview, and to keep up on your computer screen during a phone interview.
My next post will be all about my personal interview experiences…good AND bad! Stay tuned….
Xo,
Ariana
Tags: interview
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