Vital Marketing Internship Interview Preparation Guide

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This internship question gives the candidate an opportunity to provide details of a situation where they excelled. Ideally, they will use the ‘situation, task, action, result’ (STAR) technique. This method involves the candidate describing a task they were given, the action they took and the outcome.

Ideally, I would like to be hired by the same company, so that I can give back what I have been taught. And since I will know exactly what the digital marketing is all about, I will be able to contribute to the cause in an effective manner.

Asking candidates what their expectations of the internship are is a great way to ascertain whether or not they understand your company and the work they’ll be doing. Making sure both you and the candidate are clear about the work involved, the required hours, and the pay (if any) is the first step to ensuring a successful setup for both of you.

Within the next 5 years, I would want to see myself as a successful and contributory digital marketing specialist.

Unfortunately, not every candidate that attends the internship interview will really want to work with your company. They may have applied because they need a position. This question will help you to decide whether the candidate is interested in your company’s mission and whether they’re enthusiastic about joining your team.

I am a pro when it comes to forecasting marketing campaign growths, due to an exceptionally insightful nature, and a great ability to keep abreast of new digital marketing technologies.

Ability to communicate effectively, technical prowess, proficiency in managing large amounts of data and extract meaningful information from it, knowledge of SEO best practices and good content management are top of the list.

This is an internship question that can be challenging to answer. Ideally, the intern candidate will be honest about areas that they need to develop. Be aware of ‘canned responses’ such as “perfectionism.” The candidate should be willing to talk about their weaknesses but should also have come prepared to the internship interview with practical examples of how they’re trying to strengthen their areas of weakness.

When speaking with a potential intern, allow them to share something they’ve accomplished either at school or in their extracurriculars. By keeping the question open-ended, you’ll help them feel empowered because they can choose what they want to discuss with you. Maybe it’ll be work related or maybe based on something completely different. Either way, this question is sure to garner a good response you can use to judge whether or not the candidate will be a fit for your team.

Even the most mundane college class has some professional benefit to it. There are the obvious ways—if you’re looking for a PR intern, then having someone who is majoring in marketing or public relations and has worked on projects that relate to your industry is a clear connection.

But other classes have indirect benefitsas well—for example, writing papers takes research, organization, time management, and editing skills, and foreign language classes require communicating effectively in a diverse environment. By having candidates identify and articulate those connections, you’ll get a good sense of where their strengths lie.

Learning about candidates’ long-term goals can give you insight into the kind of people they are (and want to become).

They don’t necessarily have to perfectly align with the role and industry, but the internship will be a better experience for both of you if it’s at least somewhat related. Especially if you’re hoping your intern will eventually turn into a full-time hire, a candidate who, say, aspires to work for a large investment banking firm after graduation might not be a great fit in your mission-driven nonprofit.

An intern project may end up becoming a new product, feature, service, or marketing plan for your company. It’s important for all employees, no matter how junior, to feel comfortable expressing their ideas.

The answer to this question will tell you whether the student has done their homework on your organization. Look for answers that demonstrate depth of awareness and passion about your company’s core product lines, showing that the student has taken the time to read up on your company.

In addition to learning about the intern, you’ll also set a great management precedent — that new hires should feel comfortable sharing their thoughts, feelings, and ideas. You’ll help your prospective interns feel excited about working at your company.

The way the candidate answers this internship question will give you an insight into how they solve problems. The candidate can use the STAR technique again to show how they’ve dealt with a challenging situation. If the candidate hasn’t had a difficult situation at college, encourage them to talk about a scenario from a different part of their lives, for example, a seasonal job.

Experiences like volunteering in the community, planning on-campus events, or participating in clubs or Greek life can be incredibly valuable in developing professional skills.

I once hired an intern who had no paid work experience but a resume chock-full of impressive volunteer work. She planned an annual 5K for cancer research on her campus for three years (hello, leadership and event planning skills), worked at the local elementary school reading to children (clearly, she was responsible), and was the treasurer of her sorority (i.e., had top-notch budget management and organization skills).

Asking candidates to describe what they’ve learned and gained from these experiences can be a great way to determine what they’ll bring to a professional setting.

Even more important than the work that the intern will produce is the energy that he or she will bring to your organization. You’ll want someone on board who will bring positive energy to your team.

Ask this question to learn what your intern is like in a social environment. Will he or she make the office culture and team events more fun?

Give the applicant an opportunity to share a story – let her know that she’ll be encouraged to bring her whole identity to the office.

The workforce is evolving at a rapid pace, with new roles and opportunities evolving each year. Not to mention, the average tenure at an organization, especially among young workers, is getting shorter.

Organizations need to invest in building a talent base of people who are genuinely interested in sticking around to grow their careers. The challenge, however, is that entry-level professionals have a very limited view of how their careers are going to evolve.

☛ How will this internship prepare you for your future career goals?
☛ What are your plans following graduation?
☛ Where do you see yourself in five years?
☛ What are your long term and short term goals?

☛ What were your reasons for selecting your college or university?
☛ Which college classes or subjects do you like best? Why?
☛ How will the academic program and coursework you’ve taken benefit your career?
☛ Give an example of how you applied knowledge from previous coursework to a project in another class.
☛ Tell us about your extracurricular involvement. How has that prepared you for this internship?
☛ What has been your most rewarding accomplishment?

☛ During your experiences while attending college, tell me about a time when you demonstrated that you have leadership ability and skill.
☛ What are the three most important values you demonstrate as a leader? Tell me a story that demonstrates each of these leadership values in practice within your workplace.
☛ What type of people do you work best with?
☛ Give an example of a situation when you had to compromise your own goals/objectives for the sake of the team.

☛ During your work experiences while attending college, tell me about a time when you demonstrated that you have the ability and desire to work effectively with your coworkers.
☛ What have you learned for your experiences outside the classroom or workplace?
☛ At what point did you choose this career path?
☛ What excites you about this internship?

☛ Tell us about a time when you experienced a problem or obstacle that had no clear solution. What did you do, and what were the results?
☛ How do you determine or evaluate success? Give me an example of one of your successful accomplishments.
☛ What will it take to attain your goals, and what steps have you taken toward attaining them?
☛ What steps do you follow to study a problem before making a decision.

1. What are your long-term goals?

2. Where do you see yourself in ten years? Twenty years?

3. What makes you stand out?

4. What's the most important thing to you on your resume?

5. What are you most proud of on your resume?

6. If you had to describe yourself as a brand, which brand would you choose and why?

7. What sort of leadership experience do you have?

8. Talk about your leadership style in the past and how you lead now.

9. Define the word "leader."

10. What does it mean to be a great leader?

11. What does the term "management" mean to you?

12. What would you do if you were a leader of a group project and one member of the group wasn't doing their work?

13. What drives you to succeed?

14. What quality do you most like to see in a team member?

15. How do you feel about working in teams and is that something you have experience in?

16. Give me some examples of your teamwork skills.

17. If you had a problem with a coworker, how would you solve it?

18. Describe a time where you had to correct someone's actions by showing them how to do a task in a better way.

19. Walk me through how a client meeting should go.

20. If a client were on vacation for the past two weeks, what would you tell her were the most important news events that she missed?

21. Tell me about some things currently going on in the news [and/or in the financial markets if interviewing with a finance firm]?

22. Tell me about an interesting news story you've followed lately.

23. Tell me about a time when you dealt with people who were difficult to work with or when you had a difficult deadline.

24. Give me one example of when you've used your problem-solving skills?

25. How would you balance school with work [if the job takes place during the school year]?

26. Tell me about a time when everyone on the team was against your opinion as a leader and how you handled it.

27. Tell me about a time you failed, what you learned from it, and how you would act differently if you encountered something similar again.

28. Tell me about a time when you faced some adversity in your life and how you overcame it.

29. What are your three best qualities?

30. What are your three greatest weaknesses?

31. Tell me about a time when you had to say "I don't know" and what were the results of saying that?

32. Describe an instance in the workplace where you were aware of someone doing something wrong or unsafe. How did you respond to it?

33. Talk about a time when you went against policy to do what you felt was morally right.

34. Tell me about a time when you showed the ability to keep confidential information locked up.

35. Talk about a time you had to settle a dispute between two people.

36. Give us an example of a time you were faced with an ethical dilemma and how you handled it.

37. Explain a situation where you used technology to solve a problem.

38. What would you do if a PowerPoint presentation you or your team was giving included a mistake, but you didn't know until the last minute?

39. What do you anticipate learning during this internship?

40. How is an internship here going to benefit you?

41. Tell me about a time when you had to make a hard decision that didn't please everyone that it affected.

42. Tell me about a time you had to break a promise. What was the situation and how did you handle it?

43. How do you resolve conflict?

44. Which area in our firm are your most interested in and why?

45. Are you able to sort through and make sense of large data sets? If so, give me an example when you had to do that.

46. Would you be willing to work on projects somewhat but not closely related to your field of study?

47. What would you do if it were 6pm, everyone in the office has left for the day, you were helping to prepare a project for a client that was due the next morning, and you noticed a mistake but couldn't get ahold of anyone else above you who was also working on the project?

48. How would you grade yourself on your Excel proficiency?

49. Why do you want to work for our firm specifically?

50. Do you know what the Cloud is? Could you explain it to me?

51. If you found yourself sitting at a desk, bored, what would you do?

52. What gets you up in the mornings?

53. You have to build a clock for someone and can only ask six questions about the clock you need to build. What would those questions be?

54. What is/was your thesis on? Tell me about it.

55. Describe some projects you worked on in previous internships.

56. How was your previous summer internship? Was there anything interesting you picked up during your previous summer?

57. Tell me what you know about the industry we operate in.

58. Where do you think our industry is going? What are the general trends within it?

59. How do you approach a problem when you encounter one?

60. How many cigarettes are smoked each day in the world? [Note: This is a typical "guesstimate" question, which is usually asked in consulting interviews but could be asked in other types, too; it gauges thinking process, as opposed to knowledge of the exact answer.]

61. Why should we hire you?

62. What is something Excel is useful for?

63. As a first-year master's student, how do you think you'll perform compared to someone who is almost through their PhD?

64. What sorts of skills do you have?

65. Walk me through your resume.

66. Tell me about your classes and coursework relevant to this job.

67. Which subject in school do you like most?

68. Why is your GPA this number?

69. a) Design a catapult and talk me through it while you design it. b) Now, redesign it to shoot further and talk me through your thought process on your redesign.

70. You have a 100-pound stone and you need to measure its weight accurately but your scale can only measure up to 50 pounds. How can you weight it?

71. Why do you want to work in this industry?

72. What personal traits do you posses that would make you a good fit for our company?

73. What are some of our major competitors?

74. What is the biggest problem our firm is facing?

75. Tell me about a time when you had a difficult roommate.

76. Why did you choose the university you enrolled in?

77. What kinds of things are you involved in at school?

78. What is your philosophy on education?

79. What's your biggest concern about this job?

80. Tell me about yourself.

81. What do you do for fun?

82. Tell me about your hobbies.

83. When were you most creative?

84. Describe a time you took initiative.

85. Give an example of a time you showed marketing skills such as selling a service or a product.

86. Describe an example of when you showed excellent customer service.

87. Tell us about a time you had to think on your feet.

88. Please describe your perfect work environment.

89. What environment do you think you would thrive in best?

90. Describe a past experience where you met a whole new group of people and how you bonded with them.

91. Thinking of your three closest friends, what do they have in common with each other?

92. If I met one of your closest friends, what might they tell me about you?

93. Who is the main person in your life that has made a difference?

94. Other than a tragic life event such as a death, what would you say is the most difficult thing that has happened to you professionally?

95. If you could choose two celebrities to be your parents, who would you choose and why?

96. You have a major presentation in ten minutes. You found out that the data in your presentation is incorrect. What do you do?

97. Give me three things about yourself that make you a good fit for this job.

98. Do you know a lot about a little or a little about a lot?

99. Tell me a joke.

100. If you could choose just one, what would your superpower be?

Sometimes just asking the question directly is best. Candidates may have great skills that aren’t reflected in their coursework or on-campus activity—or, they may know that they need experience in a certain area, and that your internship will provide them with just that.

Either way, look for people who have really thought through what they’ll bring to and take from the opportunity.

Describe what first inspired you or what has fascinated you about the industry as you’ve investigated it further. Give specific examples that show you have done some research about whether you are suited to working in that industry, such as attending a careers talk or choosing a related coursework subject. Avoid giving reasons to do with pay or working hours.

What if you don’t know if you want to go into this industry when you graduate? This is fine. After all, getting exposure to a particular sector, profession or role to find out if you like it is one of the main points of an internship. Explain to your interviewers that you haven’t completely decided about going into that industry yet (as long as you haven’t said the opposite in your application). Follow this with reasons why you are keen to find out more and how you hope the internship will help you decide.

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