Questions to Ask a Potential Intern
Twenty interview questions for hiring an intern, written for the manager doing the interview. They assume the candidate has little work history, so they ask about coursework, self-started projects, asking for help, tedious tasks and availability rather than career track record.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What made you apply to us rather than somewhere else?
Why ask it
Someone who spent ten minutes on your site will say something concrete about a product, a client or a team. A generic answer about growth and culture usually means a mass application, which also predicts how they will treat the offer.
What do you know about what we do, and what part of it is still unclear to you?
Why ask it
The second half is the real question. Naming a specific confusion shows they read enough to hit the edge of their understanding; claiming everything is clear on a business they have never worked in is the weaker answer.
Tell me about something you built, wrote or organized that nobody assigned to you.
Why ask it
With no work history, unassigned effort is the closest thing to evidence of initiative. Scale does not matter: a club schedule, a script to save an hour, a newsletter for forty people all count. Nothing at all is worth probing gently, since some students carry jobs or caring duties instead.
Which class or project taught you the most this year, and what did you actually take from it?
Why ask it
Watch whether they can explain the substance to someone outside their field. Interns spend much of their time explaining their work upward, and this is a live sample of that skill.
What tools or software have you used, and what were you doing with them?
Why ask it
Ask for the task, not the tool list. Familiarity claimed from a single tutorial sounds identical to a term of daily use until you ask what they made with it.
Is there a piece of your work you could show me or walk me through?
Why ask it
Two minutes of real output tells you more than any answer about strengths. Note whether they can say which part was theirs on a group submission, and which part they would redo.
If I gave you a task and the instructions turned out to be unclear, how would you spend the first hour?
Why ask it
The useful answer includes both attempting something and coming back with a specific question. Interns who wait silently for clarification lose days, and those who guess and build the wrong thing lose more.
Tell me about a time you got stuck. How long did you work on it before asking for help, and who did you ask?
Why ask it
You are calibrating their timer. Thirty seconds is too soon, three days is too long, and the fact that they can quote a rough number at all suggests they have thought about the cost of both.
What is something someone told you that you did badly, and what did you do next?
Why ask it
Most candidates have a rehearsed weakness answer; almost none have a rehearsed criticism answer. Listen for whether they can restate the feedback accurately rather than defending against it.
Describe a group project where someone did not do their part. What did you do?
Why ask it
Nearly every student has this story, so the content is expected and the handling is the test. Answers that go straight to reporting the person, or straight to silently doing the work alone, both leave out talking to them.
If two people here gave you instructions that conflicted, what would you do?
Why ask it
This happens to interns constantly and they usually respond by quietly obeying whoever spoke last. A good answer involves raising the conflict rather than resolving it privately.
When someone asks you a question in a meeting and you do not know the answer, what do you say?
Why ask it
The habit of saying I will find out and follow up is more useful in an intern than knowledge. Any hint of improvising an answer to look prepared is worth a follow-up question.
What is the most tedious task you have been given, and how did you get through it?
Why ask it
A fair amount of internship work is unglamorous. This tells you whether they can be honest about disliking something while still finishing it, and occasionally you learn they found a way to make it faster.
Have you handled information you were not supposed to pass on? How did you know where the line was?
Why ask it
Interns get access to customer data, salaries and unreleased plans. Someone who has thought about asking before assuming is safer than someone who has never considered that the question exists.
What kind of check-in works best for you: a short one each morning, one longer one a week, or something else?
Why ask it
Asking lets you say what you can actually offer. An intern expecting daily guidance from a manager who travels every other week is a mismatch that shows up in week two.
How many hours a week can you work, and what else is on your calendar this term?
Why ask it
Ask about exam periods, a second job, a thesis deadline and any planned travel now. Availability problems surfaced in an interview are scheduling; surfaced in July they are a staffing gap.
What do you want to be able to do at the end of this that you cannot do now?
Why ask it
A specific skill you can plausibly teach means you can build the placement around it. If what they name is something your team does not do, say so in the interview rather than letting them find out.
What would make this a bad internship for you?
Why ask it
Easier to answer honestly than a question about preferences, and it surfaces the real deal-breakers: no contact with the manager, months of data entry, no one to ask questions of.
Where do you imagine yourself a couple of years after you graduate?
Why ask it
You are not checking loyalty, you are checking whether their direction crosses your work at any point. Candour that they are still deciding is fine; a stated plan that has nothing to do with your team is useful information for both of you.
What do you want to ask me that the posting did not answer?
Why ask it
The questions candidates arrive with reveal what they have thought about: the work itself, who they report to, what happens after. No questions at all, in a candidate with the whole thing ahead of them, is its own signal.
Running the interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Interviewing candidates with little work history
Let coursework count as experience
A student cannot answer a question about handling a difficult client. Ask the same underlying question about a lab partner, a team captain, a group submission or a part-time shift, and you get comparable evidence.
Ask the same core questions of everyone
Pick five or six from this set, keep them fixed across candidates, and write your notes before you discuss anyone with a colleague. Freewheeling interviews reward whoever is most socially comfortable, which is not the same as most capable.
Use a short work sample instead of a hypothetical
Twenty or thirty minutes on a scaled-down version of real work, with the option to ask you questions, separates candidates far better than another round of talking. Keep it small enough to be unpaid without being an imposition.
Say out loud what the job actually involves
Name the proportion of routine work, who they will sit with, and how much of the term is training. Interns who leave disappointed usually got a version of the role that only existed in the interview.
Settle the practical terms in the interview
Pay, hours and dates on the table early
State the rate or the fact that the role is unpaid, the weekly hours, and the start and end dates before the second interview. If the placement is unpaid, check what the rules in your jurisdiction require of you before advertising it.
Confirm any academic requirements
Many placements come with a credit form, a supervisor sign-off, a mid-term evaluation or a required number of hours. Ask what their institution needs from you so it does not arrive as a surprise in week six.
Name a supervisor, not a team
Decide before the offer who answers their questions day to day and who signs off their work. Interns assigned to everyone in general are supervised by no one in particular.
Common mistakes
Hiring on polish
Some candidates have been coached and some have not, and the difference reads as competence. Weight what they have actually done over how smoothly they describe it.
Grades as a stand-in for everything
A transcript tells you about steadiness and preparation, not about asking for help, finishing dull work, or working with people who annoy them. Those are the failure modes for interns, so ask about them directly.
Interviewing for a role you have not scoped
If you cannot describe the first two weeks of work, no set of questions will identify the right person. Write the task list before the interviews, then interview against it.
Leaving candidates without an answer
Students are often holding several timelines at once, including a term start. Give a decision date in the interview and hold to it, even for the candidates you are turning down.