Questions to Ask an Internship Interview
The full list, for picking from rather than reading out. Thirty questions run from the work itself through supervision, feedback, hours and pay, what the team is like, and what happens when the placement ends, so you can pull four or five that suit the round you are in. Narrower sets exist for the pay and dates conversation, for a structured graduate programme and for a small company with no programme at all.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What would I be doing in a normal week?
Why ask it
Internship adverts describe the team rather than the job. A specific weekly picture, meetings, tasks, tools, is the fastest way to tell a structured placement from one that will improvise around you.
Is there a specific project waiting, or would it be decided once I start?
Why ask it
A named project means someone has planned for an intern. An undecided one is not fatal, but it means your first weeks depend on whoever has spare work, and you should ask who that would be.
Who would I report to, and who would I sit with day to day?
Why ask it
These are often different people, and the second matters more. A supervisor two floors away and no nearby colleague is how interns end up spending afternoons stuck on things anyone could have unblocked.
How much of the work would I do alone rather than alongside someone?
Why ask it
Tells you how much of the learning is by instruction and how much by figuring it out. Both are fine to accept, but they suit different people and it is better decided now than in week two.
What did your last intern work on, and where are they now?
Why ask it
The most informative question in the set. A concrete project and a traceable outcome mean the programme works; a hesitation suggests either no recent intern or one nobody wants to discuss.
What does a good intern here do differently from an average one?
Why ask it
You get the real evaluation criteria, which are frequently about behaviour rather than skill: asking early, writing things down, following up. It is also directly actionable if you get the job.
How would I know if I were doing badly, and how soon?
Why ask it
A team with a review point can tell you when it falls. A team that says you would simply be told usually means you find out at the end, when nothing can be corrected.
What are the hours, and how much do they stretch when things are busy?
Why ask it
Ask about the busy period specifically. The stated hours are usually accurate for a normal week and misleading for the two weeks that matter, especially in seasonal or deadline-driven work.
Is the internship paid, and is there anything toward travel or housing?
Why ask it
A direct question that is entirely reasonable to ask. Get the figure, the payment schedule and whether expenses are reimbursed, because unpaid extras decide whether a placement is affordable.
What does the first week look like: training, shadowing, or straight in?
Why ask it
Onboarding effort is a good proxy for how seriously the placement is taken. No plan for the first week often means no plan for the tenth.
Which tools or systems would I need to learn?
Why ask it
Lets you start reading before day one, and tells you how much of the placement will be spent on software rather than the work you came for. Ask which ones they expect you to be slow with.
Do interns get to see work outside their own team?
Why ask it
The breadth of exposure often matters more than the tasks, especially if you are still deciding what field you want. Ask whether it happens by default or only if you push for it.
How often do interns come back or get offers?
Why ask it
Ask for a proportion or a recent example rather than whether it is possible. "It happens" and "two of last summer's four" are very different answers.
What do most interns find hardest here?
Why ask it
Invites an honest description of the difficulty, which most interviewers will give if asked this way. If the answer is the pace or the ambiguity, you can decide whether that suits you.
Is there anything about the team's workload right now that I should know?
Why ask it
A team in the middle of a crunch or a reorganisation has less attention to spare for an intern. It is better to know that before you arrive and interpret the neglect as your own fault.
Would I be able to talk about this work publicly, in a portfolio or on a CV?
Why ask it
Often overlooked and hard to fix later. Confidentiality rules vary, and a placement whose output you can never show is worth less to you than one you can point at in interviews.
Who could I go to with a question that is not about my tasks?
Why ask it
Interns need somewhere for the awkward questions: how expenses work, whether a comment was serious, what to do about a difficult colleague. A named person makes the placement much easier to navigate.
Is there room to propose something myself if I spot something worth doing?
Why ask it
The answer tells you how much initiative is genuinely welcome. Teams that say yes and can name an example of an intern doing it are describing a real thing rather than an aspiration.
What happens if the project I am on gets cancelled halfway through?
Why ask it
Priorities shift and interns are the least protected people on a project. Hearing that there is a plan, or hearing that nobody has considered it, tells you how much slack the placement has.
What are the next steps, and when will you decide?
Why ask it
Internship timelines run against academic deadlines and competing offers. A date lets you follow up once, politely, instead of waiting three weeks and guessing.
What does the team expect an intern to know already, and what will they teach?
Why ask it
This tells you how steep the start will be and whether they have thought about the gap. If the honest answer is that you need everything on day one, the placement may not be built for a student.
Who decides what I work on each week, and how far ahead is that planned?
Why ask it
Weekly assignment by whoever is free is a different experience from a planned block of work. It also shows how much of the placement has been prepared before you arrive.
What would count as a mistake worth worrying about here?
Why ask it
Asking where the real lines are is more useful than asking whether mistakes are tolerated. The answer tells you how much room you have to try things.
How much of my work would be reviewed before it reaches anyone else?
Why ask it
Review is how you learn quickly, and its absence is how interns quietly go wrong for six weeks. Ask who does the reviewing as well.
Would I be given anything that is genuinely on the team's list, or work created for an intern?
Why ask it
Both can be worthwhile, but they lead to very different things to talk about afterwards. Ask which the last intern got.
What do you expect to be busiest during my dates, and how would that affect me?
Why ask it
A team in the middle of a launch supervises differently from one in a quiet quarter. The answer helps you plan the questions you ask on day one.
Is there anyone here who did this internship themselves, and could I speak to them?
Why ask it
A former intern will describe the placement more plainly than a hiring manager can. Asking is normal and refusing looks odd.
What happens in the last two weeks: handover, a presentation, a review?
Why ask it
The ending tells you what the placement is designed to produce. Knowing it up front lets you work towards it from the start.
Would I get a written reference or a named contact I could approach later?
Why ask it
For a short placement this is often the most durable thing you take away. Most managers agree readily if you ask before you start rather than after.
Is there anything about my application that made you hesitate?
Why ask it
It sounds bold but it usually produces a straight answer and a chance to address it. Ask it last, once the conversation has warmed up.
Asking Well in an Internship Interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the interview
Choose five questions and rank them
You will usually get five to ten minutes at the end. Decide in advance which answers would actually change your decision, and ask those first, because the time often disappears.
Look up what you can, so you do not spend a question on it
Founding date, headcount and product list are on their site. Spending your one slot on something published makes you look unprepared and wastes the only part of the interview you control.
Know what you need from a placement
A named skill, a portfolio piece, a reference, or exposure to a field you are considering. Interviewers answer questions differently when you tell them what you are trying to get out of the summer.
Reading the answers
- Specifics about previous interns are the strongest signal available. A programme that has run before can describe it.
- Watch for who supervises. "The whole team helps" often means nobody is accountable for your ramp.
- If nobody can describe the first week, expect the first month to be improvised.
- Note whether they mention any difficulty at all. An interviewer who says the placement has no hard parts is selling.
- Ask about pay, hours and expenses plainly. Hesitation on these is information.
Common mistakes
Asking only what you think sounds impressive
Questions designed to demonstrate ambition rather than gather information leave you with an offer you cannot evaluate. Ask what you actually need to know; interviewers can tell the difference.
Accepting without settling the practicalities
Pay, hours, location, start and end dates, and whether the work is confidential are all easier to raise before you accept. Afterwards they read as renegotiation.
Skipping the question about supervision
The single largest difference between a useful internship and a wasted one is whether a specific person is responsible for you. If the answer is vague, ask again more directly.