Interview Questions to Ask Interns
A first-round screening set for the stage where you have forty applicants and twenty minutes each. These questions are meant to be asked in the same order to everybody, so the answers can be compared side by side, and they front-load the things that end an application early: dates, travel, hours, other offers, and whether the job they are picturing is the job you are offering. Save the longer evidence-gathering conversation for the second round, where the set at interview questions to ask an intern picks up.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Tell me a bit about what you are studying and where you are in the course.
Why ask it
A settling question that also gives you the timetable constraints: someone between second and third year has different availability, and different reasons for wanting the placement, than a final-year student.
What kind of work were you hoping to do this summer?
Why ask it
Their answer either matches the job or does not, and it is better to find out in minute two. Candidates describing something adjacent can still be excellent, but you should say plainly what the role really involves.
What have you done that is closest to this kind of work, paid or not?
Why ask it
The paid or not clause matters, because it opens up society roles, volunteering, and personal projects. Listen for whether they can describe what they produced, not just what they were involved in.
How did you come across this posting?
Why ask it
Costs ten seconds and tells you which of your channels is working, which matters when you are running a batch. It also separates the applicant who was sent it by a tutor from the one who went looking.
Are you applying for other placements, and where are you in those processes?
Why ask it
You need this in round one, not round three. A candidate with a decision deadline in ten days changes your scheduling, and asking early makes the answer routine rather than a negotiating move.
Is the location and the commute workable for you, and have you done that journey before?
Why ask it
Travel cost and time end more placements than any skills gap. Students say yes to an hour each way in April and discover in June what it costs them by Friday.
Have you worked somewhere with fixed hours before, and how did you find it?
Why ask it
For many students this is the first job with a start time. An honest answer about finding early mornings hard is more useful to you than a claim of perfect punctuality, because you can plan around the former.
Tell me about a time you had to ask someone for help. How did it go?
Why ask it
You are checking whether asking is a normal act for them or a last resort. The detail to listen for is what they had tried first, since that is the balance you want on the job.
Have you done a placement or internship before, and what was it like?
Why ask it
A quick way to learn what they will compare you to. Someone whose last placement was three months of filing will be listening hard for whether this one is different, and you can answer that directly.
Have you ever had to tell someone a deadline was going to slip? What did you say?
Why ask it
This is a skill more than a trait, and most students have practised it with a tutor. What you want to hear is early warning with a revised date, rather than an apology delivered after the deadline passed.
What is the longest thing you have worked on, and how did you keep track of it?
Why ask it
A dissertation, a build, a season of running a club, all count. The tracking method, however scrappy, tells you whether they will hold a multi-week task without someone chasing them weekly.
When someone explains something to you once, how do you make sure you remember it?
Why ask it
Interns get shown systems and processes exactly once in a busy week. Candidates who take notes or write their own steps down need far less repetition, and they usually mention it without prompting.
What would make you decide not to take an internship?
Why ask it
This gets at their real constraints: travel cost, hours, pay, the type of work. Hearing their dealbreakers now prevents an offer that gets declined, or accepted and then abandoned in week two.
Looking at the job description, which part are you least sure about?
Why ask it
You want them to point at something. A candidate who names a specific task is engaging with the work; one who says all of it looks fine has either skimmed the description or is not comfortable admitting uncertainty.
If we made an offer, how much notice would you need before a start date?
Why ask it
Exam boards, notice periods at a term-time job and tenancy dates all sit behind this. Two weeks and six weeks are both fine answers, but only if you know which one you are dealing with before you plan the cohort.
Where would you be living over the summer, and is that already settled?
Why ask it
An unresolved housing question is the quiet reason offers get declined in May. You are not prying; you are finding out whether the placement is actually possible for them.
Was there anything in the posting that nearly put you off applying?
Why ask it
Screening rounds are the cheapest place to fix a badly worded advert. The answer either flags a real concern you can address now or tells you a phrase in your listing is scaring off people you want.
What are your available dates, and is anything already booked in that window?
Why ask it
Holidays, resits, family commitments, and other offers all live here. Asking plainly gets you a plannable schedule, and treating the answer as normal rather than a problem gets you a truthful one.
Is there anything we should know that would make this placement work better for you?
Why ask it
An open door for travel constraints, caring responsibilities, or adjustments they need, without requiring them to disclose anything specific. Many will say no, and the ones who say yes are usually easy to accommodate once asked.
What would you like to ask me about the team or the placement?
Why ask it
Closing here shows what they care about and gives them information they need to accept. Volunteer one honest detail about the least glamorous part of the job to make the exchange two-sided.
Running a short intern interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Structure a thirty minute call
- Spend the first five minutes explaining the work, the dates, the pay, and who they would sit with. Candidates answer better when they know what they are answering about.
- Keep six or seven questions for everyone and ask them in the same order, so you are comparing answers rather than moods.
- Use the middle stretch for one worked example: describe a small real task from the team and ask what their first three steps would be.
- Leave the final five minutes genuinely free for their questions, and treat what they ask as part of the assessment.
What to look for at this level
Behaviour when stuck beats knowledge
An intern's technical knowledge on day one is largely irrelevant to how the placement goes. What decides it is how long they sit silently on a problem, whether they write down what they are told, and whether they volunteer bad news. Weight your questions accordingly.
Reliability shows up in small commitments
How they handled a fixed shift, a club they ran, or a deadline they renegotiated predicts attendance and follow-through better than enthusiasm does. Ask for one of those stories and follow up on the details.
Nerves are not a signal
For many candidates this is a first professional interview. Slow, halting answers with real specifics inside them are worth more than fluent generalities, and a short pause after your question is usually thinking rather than blankness.
Set expectations before you finish
Say the unglamorous part out loud
Every placement includes repetitive work, and interns who were told about it in advance take it far better than those who discover it. Naming it also builds credibility for everything else you have said about the role.
Be clear about what happens afterwards
Say whether a permanent offer is a realistic outcome this year, whether you can act as a reference, and what the midpoint and end-of-placement reviews will cover. Ambiguity here creates disappointment that has nothing to do with the work itself.
Confirm the practical terms in writing
Dates, hours, pay, location, and expenses should go to the candidate in writing after the call. Students are often comparing several offers with different arrangements, and a written summary prevents a misunderstanding on the first morning.