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30 effective intern interview questions for businesses

admin March 24, 2023

Interviewing interns is a process that helps businesses find talented candidates for their unit. In this article, Vietnam Manpower will suggest readers 30 best and most effective interview questions for businesses in the article below. Let's find out together!

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1. Is recruiting interns beneficial to businesses?

Implementing an intern recruitment program will bring benefits to businesses whether large or small. Some of these benefits include:

  • Opportunities to connect with young talents: Usually, interns are always looking for opportunities to learn and hone their skills. If the enterprise finds suitable interns, the unit can train and connect young talents in the current market.
  • Paving the way for potential new employees: Internships are a great opportunity for businesses to consider whether personnel are suitable for their units. After interns get acquainted with how the unit works and start working, businesses can feel the potential of these candidates. If it is found that this is a suitable candidate, the enterprise can ask them to become full-time employees and stick with the unit longer.
  • Improve productivity: Enterprises can assign or support interns to carry out certain projects. However, businesses also need to assign the appropriate number and difficulty of projects. First, businesses can start with simple projects, then add some other tasks for interns to develop their capabilities.
  • New approach, new way of thinking: When working with interns, businesses can come up with new and creative ideas such as: Using social media platforms, adding modern features for website, targeting new customer segments… Sometimes, these ideas can help businesses find new directions that they have not had time to research.
  • Provide opportunities for current employees to be mentors: Internships are an opportunity for current employees to enhance their responsibilities. During intern training, current employees can practice their leadership and management skills. At the same time, they also learn how to decentralize, guide, evaluate performance, and give feedback.
Intern InterviewRecruiting interns brings many benefits to businesses

>>>> Read Now: What is Mentoring ? Classification and role of the Mentoring model

2. Things to keep in mind before hiring an intern

Some things that businesses need to keep in mind before recruiting interns such as:

  • Determine the needs and scope of recruiting interns according to the HR plan : First of all, the enterprise needs to determine if it has the need to recruit interns or not. Questions businesses can consider include:
    • How many interns can the enterprise hire and how long does it work?
    • Where will the intern work and who is the manager?
    • What jobs will the interns do?
    • What is the level of support for interns?
    • Businesses need to recruit new graduates or are still studying?
    • How long is the internship?
  • Internship period: Enterprises can stipulate that the internship period lasts from 5 to 6 months. This is the right time for interns to get acquainted and start working most effectively.
  • Salary and working time: Interns cannot be considered as Freelancers. Therefore, enterprises need to strictly comply with the rules on salary regime and working time as prescribed in the Labor Code to ensure the welfare of interns.
  • Specific onboarding and training plan: Usually, inexperienced interns will face many difficulties in their first working session.  Therefore, enterprises should introduce interns an overview of the unit's working process, set up preliminary internal training programs  and appoint a mentor to manage.
Interview questions for traineesNotes when recruiting interns

3. A set of 30 effective intern interview questions

Questions that businesses can apply to the  intern interview process :

  • Please introduce yourself
  • Why did you choose to attend your university?
  • Why did you choose that major and your future direction?
  • Have you ever taken a course that should be related to this job?
  • What strengths or weaknesses do you think you have?
  • What do you enjoy doing the most and why?
  • Have you had experience doing this work before?
  • How do your friends rate you?
  • Did you participate in any extracurricular activities or volunteering, what did you learn?
  • What's your hobby?
  • What do you know about our business?
  • Why did you choose to practice in our company?
  • What do you know about this job?
  • What do you hope to gain from this internship?
  • What do you expect from this internship?
  • What skills do you possess that are suitable for this job?
  • What can you bring to your work?
  • What are your future career goals?
  • Why should we choose you?
  • Do you have any question?
  • What achievements have you achieved?
  • Have you ever made any mistakes? What lessons have you learned from those mistakes?
  • Have you ever had to make difficult decisions?
  • How will you react when there are negative/positive reviews about yourself?​
  • Do you prefer to work alone or with a group? Why?
  • What do you do when you have to explain a complicated problem to someone else?
  • How would you handle it if your coworker didn't complete his task?
  • When faced with stress and pressure at work, how will you deal with it?
  • When do you want to learn new things?
  • Have you taken on a leadership position before?
Intern Interview30 questions when recruiting trainees

>>>> See More: How to impress employers during phone interviews

4. Criteria for evaluating intern interviews

Criteria for evaluation after interviewing interns :

  • Careful and meticulous: For interns, the business cannot ask them to have too much experience. Instead, businesses need to assign work and then guide and correct them. A good trainee will be careful, meticulous, and avoid repeating the mistakes that he has been instructed before. If the intern has these qualities, the business can choose them.
  • Knowledge: Enterprises can test interns' knowledge of the applied field. Through this way, businesses will evaluate what candidates have learned? Have you ever worked part-time? Do you have experience in running projects?
  • Attitude at work: If recruiting an intern who does not have the spirit of proactive learning, the business will face some difficulties in the future. Therefore, when interviewing, businesses must assess the candidate's attitude and candidly exchange to know their working spirit.
  • Is the intern suitable for the working environment? Finding the right candidate for the working culture will help the business maintain a healthy and productive environment. Businesses can assess the suitability of candidates through their posts and shares on social networks. In addition, businesses should also ask some more questions about orientation and self-development during the interview process.
  • Career goals: Candidates whose long-term career goals are not suitable for the internship position will be very depressed and lose interest in working. However, if the candidate has expertise and interest in the company, the business may consider letting them work in another department that is more suitable.
  • No motivation: Usually, interns will stick with the company for 3 to 6 months to gain more experience after graduation. However, businesses should note, there will be some interns who consider this time as just a task and are not motivated and try their best at work.
  • Lack of professionalism: Trainees who are late, late to deadlines, arrogant are bad personnel that businesses need to pay attention to. For such unprofessional cases, it is best to refuse in the first place.
trainee interview questionsCriteria when interviewing trainees

5. Interview experience for corporate trainees

Some tips that businesses need to consider when interviewing interns :

  • The is clear: The interns are usually first-time or don't have much experience when interviewing. Therefore, during the interview process, businesses should clearly explain the recruitment process so that candidates can understand the most details.
  • Identify recruitment purposes and expectations with candidates: When recruiting, businesses should set requirements and expectations as clearly as if they were recruiting a full-time employee. Businesses can ask questions such as: What is the desired salary of the candidate? Remuneration?... to assess the trainee's attitude.
  • Assume tasks to evaluate candidates: Give candidates hypothetical situations and projects to evaluate their solutions. Thereby, businesses can know what knowledge candidates have learned and offer appropriate advice and solutions for them.
  • Build a professional image with candidates: Show candidates the company's dedication and professionalism throughout the recruitment and working process. From there, candidates will feel that this is a good environment for them to learn and work in.
Intern InterviewInternship interview experience

Above are 30 best and most effective intern interview questions that businesses can apply. In addition to the above questions, businesses should also evaluate the candidate's attitude and personality during the interview process to get the best options. .

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