Students or a fresh graduate interview is not usually the same as that of professionals who already have experience in their field and job experience. Don’t let the fact that you do not have much work experience deter you from going to that interview and outshining others. You are unique and still, have a lot to offer to that industry even though you are a fresher. So what are typical student job interview questions, and how do you make a good first impression?
Answering Student Job Interview Questions
A good start to impress your interviewer is to:
- Research on the company. You should get information about the company’s goal, mission, values, and culture. It would do you some good to know how things are being done in the company to project your answer in the right direction. You can research the company by going through the company website, their social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn or by making inquiries from people.
- Go through the job requirements as it is written in the job posting. Make a list of your qualifications and skills and match them with the job requirement. It is better to list out skills that are relevant to the job. Employers would prefer hiring a candidate that has valuable skills to offer to the company.
- Practice before the interview. Practise always makes for perfection. Even professionals flunk interviews much less you that is a student job applicant. This is not to bring down your morale but to make you see the need to get yourself prepared. Here we would be giving you sample questions you should expect in your interview. Practice these questions on your own, or you could enlist the help of a friend, a colleague, or even a family member.
Types of interviews questions for students and entry-level jobs
If you are a student or a fresh graduate, there are types of interview questions you are likely to encounter in your interviews such as:
Behavioral interview questions
Interview questions usually come in the form of behavioral interview questions. These sort of questions are usually open-ended and require that provide a response as to how, when, or where you carried out a particular action. These questions require that you give an illustration or tell a story of when you carried out a job- related task in the past. The question usually comes in the format of “tell me,” “describe when” or “have you ever.”
To give an impressive response to this question, it is usually advisable to use the STAR interview question response technique. This technique allows you take your response one-step at a time as you start from stating the situation (that is the particular scenario, problem or condition you want to talk about), followed by the task you were meant to carry out under that situation. You follow this up with the action you took. This means the way you responded to that bad situation and tell, finally, you talk about the result of the action you took. The result is meant to be a positive one: one that helped improve the situation or else you shouldn’t be telling that story in the first place.
Related: Student Time Management Interview Questions & Answers
Situational interview questions
This type of interview is more like asking you to imagine a scenario. It could also be a question asking you how you have handled certain situations in the past. For instance, an interviewer could ask, “if your manager or team leader brings up an idea you do not like, or you are not in support of, how do you go about handling it?” The question might as well come in this form, “how would you handle a team member that would sacrifice quality over the deadline?”
By asking these questions, interviewers are gaining more insight into your personality. With this, they can tell your ability to analyze and resolve issues. When answering these questions, you should go ahead and draw on experience from your past. You could give examples from what happened at school or during your school days, your internship experience, or even your experience during volunteer service.
Questions about the hiring company
Employers are usually impressed when they find out that a candidate has done his or her assignments right and have made some researches on the company. It shows your interest not just in the job but on the company as a whole. Therefore, don’t be surprised when questions about the company comes up during your job interview. A sample question is “what values do you have to add to this company?” you can see from this question that you cannot talk effectively on the values you have to add when you don’t know exactly what the company is all about or what it needs.
Get an insight into the company’s goal, mission, and culture.
Questions about yourself and your abilities
Expect lots and many questions about yourself. Remember, the main point of the interview is to get to know you. So, the interviewers would not hesitate to make you talk about yourself. These questions may come directly or indirectly. However, in most cases, they are direct and can ask you to talk about your education, your work history, your motivation, your strengths, and your weaknesses.
In whichever format, these questions come to remember to speak of yourself with confidence (note not arrogance), be specific when selling your pitch. Even when using stories to illustrate and back up your claims, still ensure that you keep it concise and straight to the point. Do not bring in your personal life into it and be honest with your response.
Example student job interview questions
- What do you really want out of life?
- What are your career goals? How do you plan to achieve them?
- Why did you choose this particular career path?
- How would you describe yourself if you were asked to?
- How do you evaluate success?
- Tell me about yourself
- In what ways do you think you can contribute to the success of this company?
- What qualities should a good leader possess?
- Why did you choose your field of study?
Job Interview Topics – Common Job Interview Questions & Answers
Below you can find a list of common job interview topics. Each link will direct you to an article regarding the specific topics that discuss commonly asked interview questions. Furthermore, each article discusses why the interviewer asks these questions and how you answer them!
- Accomplishments
- Adaptability
- Admission
- Behavioral
- Career Change
- Career Goals
- Communication
- Competency
- Conflict Resolution
- Creative Thinking
- Cultural Fit
- Customer Service
- Direct
- Experience
- Government
- Graduate
- Growth Potential
- Honesty & Integrity
- Illegal
- Inappropriate
- Job Satisfaction
- Leadership
- Management
- Entry-Level & No experience
- Performance-Based
- Personal
- Prioritization & Time Management
- Problem-solving
- Salary
- Situational & Scenario-based
- Stress Management
- Teamwork
- Telephone Interview
- Tough
- Uncomfortable
- Work Ethic
