Internship interview advice. GrouperEye’s top 8:
8. Be specific. I can help you with marketing and branding. Or, I can grow your twitter following by 200 in 2 weeks, increase inbound links by 24%, and create a direct mail package with a 37% response rate. A possible hire, indeed!
7. Honesty. Every hiring manager or internship recruiter knows that you are just a college student. Honesty is an advantage because it allows you to connect. It also shows confidence. It’s okay that you drank a beer, watched a football game, or asked a girl to date you. Don’t be afraid to be honest.
6. Humor. People like to laugh. Yes, even HR people like to laugh. Finding the correct cultural fit for a hire is important. No one prefers to work with someone who doesn’t have a personality. When a lady from Google interviewed me over the phone, she asked, “Have you ever been out to the West Coast?” I responded, “No, but I watched a lot of BayWatch as a kid and it seems amazing.” She laughed. Then a got a follow up email with my plane ticket information.
5. Tell a story. I created a website and sold ad space. Or, I sat in the crowded, sweaty kitchen of a place called Frank’s Subs and sold $320 of banner advertising while Frank made a chicken parmesan sub – it increased student traffic. Stories resonate and can be retold to the hiring manager or the rest of the team. Tell them in your internship interview.
4. Immediate impact. If you can have an immediate impact on a business, tell them. For example, if you are interviewing for a club promoter internship, it is important to share with him that you have 200 friends in the area and they love to drink liquor drinks and party all night. Immediate results matter.
3. Be niche. Don’t be a generalist. Generalists like to sit around white boards and talk a little about everything. A company needs only a handful of generalists and certainly not a generalist intern. In your internship interview, talk about the one thing you do really, really well.
2. Get crazy with passion. I know it is hard to take this advice during the internship interview process, but hiring an intern just doesn’t matter that much. For example, a mediocre intern maybe has an ROI (Return of Investment) of 100%. A terrible intern maybe has an ROI of 10%. But, a killer intern can have an ROI of 1,000%. It is fruitful to hire passionate students, so go ahead and show some real passion in the internship interview.
1. Do the job. Tell the manager and/or recruiter, “I’m sorry, but instead of answering questions, may I go up to that white board and show you exactly what I would do?” Do this and you get the job, every time.
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