Interviewing an intern - need some good Qs!

[midjd]

The powers that be have decided to grant me a summer intern (woohoo!) This is my first time on the other side of the interviewing table, and though I have a list of basic questions, I don't want to miss anything. Right now there are 2 people being considered for the position.

So, hiring people - what do you usually ask?

Non-hiring people - what are some good questions you've been asked?

All I know is that I *always* bomb the "Tell me about yourself..." and end up rambling about cats or something, so I'm going to stay away from that one

[CarolinaKat]

"What do you plan to get out of this internship?"

[thyme4change]

Tell me about a time when...

And then think of situations this person might be in like:
- You had to go somewhere when you didn't know anyone else.
- You had to do something that you had never done before.
- You had to work in a group of people and not be the leader of the group.

So far, what has been your biggest acccomplishment?
What do you think a successful intern brings to the company?

[illinicheme]

How do you deal with failure?

[CarolinaKat]

"If you were in a work situation and did not know the correct way to procede, how would you handle this?"

[Pants]

On your second day of work are you going to ask me if I like cats and then try to show me your new tattoo of a cat with wings instead of the business-relevant reason for which we are meeting?

[thyme4change]

What has been your favorite class and why?

Hint, if they answer something that has nothing to do with their major...you've got a wobbler!


Honestly, with an intern, you aren't getting as much skill as you are personality - so you want to ask questions to let them reveal themselves to you. You can ask what they do for fun, what other jobs they have had, what activities they do (sports, music, etc.) and look for a pattern of responsibility and hard work. If they have never had a job, and play video games for fun, and their goal in life is to get paid a lot and not work hard, you will most likely hire a slacker that is too stupid to lie during the interview.

[CarolinaKat]

Except I got one guy who wouldnt STFU about 'Semi-professional Paintball.' Someone else in the dept hired him and was very unhappy.

[thyme4change]

Well, yes, and you also want to look for general, overall annoyingness. If they annoy you during a 60-minute interview, you aren't going to want to spend 40 hours a week with them (or whatever.)

Also, have lots of questions relating to school work. You don't want to sit around and talk about their job at McDonald's, but you don't necessarily want to get the guy that already had a couple internships. So, think of school questions - grades, what teachers they liked best and why (gives you an idea on what style boss they might do well with), which projects were most fun and why (gives you an idea on what type of things excite them), try to gauge their work-load during school - work and clubs and school, but only 12 credit hours - maybe that is okay. etc.

[pepper112765]

What do you consider your greatest failure and what did you learn from it?

If one person gave you an assignment and then another comes to you with another assignment and both indicate they need them right away, how would you handle that?

[midjd]

Thanks, guys! LOL Bschool.

My main concern is that they'll be expecting to do actual legal work, when most of it is going to be extremely boring, non-law-related stuff like processing invoices and organizing the files on the shared drive Definitely going to make that clear up-front so I don't get complaints later... I do have a couple of fun (IMO) resume-worthy projects, but certainly not 10-12 weeks' worth.

I'm also not great at delegating, so I think this will be a good challenge for me

[Pants]

Honestly though: Do you work better alone or in a group? Do you prefer to be self-directed or work collaboratively? Do you work better with frequent small deadlines or with larger less frequent deadlines?
Then decide what a good answer is in what you would prefer. If you want someone who will wander away and mostly complete a project by themselves, you don't want the person who wants to sit at a conference table with you and do the whole thing in tandem.

[CarolinaKat]

Jun 23, 2011 14:50:48 GMT -5 midjd said:

Thanks, guys! LOL Bschool.

My main concern is that they'll be expecting to do actual legal work, when most of it is going to be extremely boring, non-law-related stuff like processing invoices and organizing the files on the shared drive Definitely going to make that clear up-front so I don't get complaints later... I do have a couple of fun (IMO) resume-worthy projects, but certainly not 10-12 weeks' worth.

We always give a breif intro of all of us in the inverview room + what we do (very general terms). Then give a synopsis of what the job entails. Then we say "Is it alright if we ask some questions?"

The intern we got last year looked like a deer in the headlights the WHOLE interview. But actually ended up getting herself the job when I was taking her to security to check out and she wasn't freaking out, she did much better selling herself when she wasn't staring down 3 people.

[chiver78]

Jun 23, 2011 14:50:24 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

You don't want to sit around and talk about their job at McDonald's, but you don't necessarily want to get the guy that already had a couple internships.

why? I went to a school that had co-op terms built into the curriculum and schedule, so we were in the work force from the end of freshman year all the way through to January of senior year - a 5 year degree. I found that the employers were happy to receive upperclassmen if there were more detailed projects that would require skills and knowledge from higher-level classes.

jd - what do you intend for this intern to do?
wait, just saw in a post that showed up as I hit "reply" um - will the filing and such take up all their time, or is there an opportunity to kind of let them shadow you? is your office conducive to that sort of thing? I basically shadowed my co-op boss all over the place, and ended up landing a job at one of that office's customers - I've been here 10 years.

[robbase]

One recommendation, AVOID one of those "thinking" questions- like- "if you were a tree what type would you be and why?" or something like that.....in 3 years I should have FU money and after that if I ever go on a job interview where they ask something like that I am going to politely excuse myself from the interview

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Question I always wish my bosses would ask: "Are you here planning to actually do work?"

We have students come thru the lab all the time, it is a very rare thing to find a student who is actually interested in doing lab work and committed to it. Most just want to breeze thru long enough that they can then put your name on their resume and get their names on a couple of posters/papers for graduate school or whatever.

Then they leave and you spend the next six months cleaning up the mess they left behind.

[ihearyou2]

This is a damn intern, we brought on three unpaid since they wanted to. Don't spend time on sophisticated questions. My criteria would be interest in the industry/from a decent school/some third party giving them the thumbs up and come on board.

[Deleted]

I like thought provoking questions

"what three adjectives would you use to describe yourself?"

"how do you think your professor(last boss) would answer the same question?"

"what do you expect to achieve here?"

"where do you see yourself in 10 years?"

[crockpottin]

I would think about the projects you expect the intern to work on and ask questions that would give you an idea of how that person would handle those projects. For example, if the project would involve creating something in a group, maybe ask them some questions about how they handled a group project in a class.

Also, I second the advice about skipping stupid questions. Unless your workplace is building a time machine, the historical figure your intern would most like to meet is not important.

[tskeeter]

I like to use "Tell me about your greatest accomplishment."

If they start to talk about something completely unrelated to work, with no possible way to connect it to work, they don't have great judgment. Obviously you don't give a rip about their kids, their religious practices, etc.

If they talk about struggling, but succeeding in the end, they have some perseverance.

If they talk about gathering a group of people to accomplish a task, they have some team and team building skills.

If they talk about experiencing conflict, you get some insight into their conflict resolution and relationship management skills.

If they talk about the process they went through, they have organizational skills.

If they talk about setting a deadline, they are probably goal oriented.

If they talk about working hard, long hours to get the job done, you see the level of accountability they demonstrate.

If they talk about using a non-standard approach, they have displayed a bit of creativity and innovation.

If they talk about the results that were delivered, they have a results orientation.

If they talk about what they would do differently if they were doing the project again, they show that they are a bit introspective and interested in learning from an experience in addition to just getting the job done.

If they talk about how they came up with the idea for the project, they are showing some initiative.

I also usually ask why this is their greatest achievement.

In some cases you may have to coach the candidate through the process by asking questions. How did you approach that? Why did you do that? How did you figure out that? Did you do this alone, or did other people help you? Did you ask others to help you, or were they assigned to your project by their boss? Did you have anyone who wasn't doing their share? How did you deal with that situation? Did anything go wrong during your project? What did you do about it?

In the end, I don't really care that much what you consider your greatest accomplishment. I'm really more interested in the personal attributes that are apparent through your description of your accomplishment.

Another thing I like to find out is if the candidate worked during college or if they worked a summer job, etc. I have found that those who had work experience from a fairly young age and had chores to do while they were growing up are usually more willing to work hard and to put in extra effort when needed, etc.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Many of these questions are not relevent with regards to interns. For the most part, this is going to be their first professional experience, so they probably have limited experience in identifying problems and fixing them, defining priorities, etc. If they have had a job, it's likely that they were slinging burgers or some other job where the decisions were made for them.

I think that you need to ask them what Drama said.....interns (like the students we get in the lab) are using this position to jumpspring to another job and gain experience.

I'd stick to questions about their classes and how they feel about group projects. Everyone HATES group projects in college, but they are one way of determining how a person works and interacts with other people.

[tskeeter]

Many of these questions are not relevent with regards to interns.

I disagree. Many of these questions are pretty standard behavioral type interview questions. Even though an intern's technical experience is somewhat limited, by the time they have gotten to law school they have have certainly experienced successes, failures, conflict, etc. For example, I need to decide whether to study or drink beer and watch football with my friends. This is priority setting at its most basic. Figuring out how to pay for next semester's tuition is a problem solving exercise, and maybe an exercise in innovation.

Since the OP has now talked about the routine nature of some of the projects the intern will be involved in, I would be inclined to ask about a time they had to do a boring task and how they approached it and whether they got anything out of doing the task or not (did they take the opportunity to learn something in the process). If it's strictly sour grapes in respect to the boring stuff, next candidate please. I don't want to fight you tooth and nail to get you to do what I need you to do.

[souldoubt]

Ask them if you called them frantically at night asking if they had a pick up truck and knew of any desolate spots in the desert how they would react.

On a serious note - behavioral interviewing. You want to ask them questions that get them talking so avoid yes/no questions. The goal is to get them to do about 70% of the talking. I realize it's an internship but like a full time job you want to pinpoint core skills for the position and come up with questions based on those skills to see whether or not they're a fit.

[midjd]

LOL Souldoubt! I was thinking of maybe showing clips from Office Space and asking how they'd deal with these situations, as they will be facing them every day...

Thank you all for the awesome questions, I feel much more prepared now. It was just 2 years ago in September that I was sitting in the interview chair, so it feels a little odd (but good!) to be on the other side.

ETA that it is just a 12-week internship, but there is at least a small chance that the intern will stay on (that's how I got my job!) Plus, like my boss says, who you hire reflects well or badly on you - so I want to get a good one

[ejd86]

What tree best describes your personality and why?

Decent way to see the type of person they are- can they think fast? How do they describe themselves? etc. and a little fun too!

[robbase]

What tree best describes your personality and why?

[midjd]

Rob, are you trying to say something? I don't quite understand.

[robbase]

well I say if the tree question is in than how about

"what is your opinion on sexual harassment in the workplace?" (if it is a hot guy)

or "do these pants / skirt make my butt look big?"

[maraqxa]

Jun 23, 2011 23:04:47 GMT -5 @robbase said:

well I say if the tree question is in than how about

"what is your opinion on sexual harassment in the workplace?" (if it is a hot guy)

or "do these pants / skirt make my butt look big?"

This would be hilarious! Can you imagine having these questions asked to you?

[Regis]

I always ask how they handle conflict. It tells me how direct and truthful they're going to be.