An Introductory Guide to Interviews – for Students

Posted on: January 22, 2023

Last Updated on: February 19th, 2023

Post Category: Personal Development

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When I started as a student at University, I got to expose myself to my first set of interviews.

At that stage of my Uni journey, I somewhat KNEW that interview skills were important to have – to land the opportunities and roles you want. But I found that practicing those skills can be a challenge, without the right foundation.

This post is all about the foundation – what an interview is and why It exists, the different types of questions, and some standard preparation methods.

After you read this, you might want to also learn little tips you can use to help with your interview preparation and performance. You can read about some of them here:

• NINE interview tips for Uni students
• My THREE GO-TO interview tips – in detail
• Quick and practical preparation advice for interviews and assessment centres

Note that while these posts will give (what I hope to be) a comprehensive spill on how to tackle interviews, you will (unfortunately) only become better when you do more and more interviews. Just keep that in mind.

BUT without further adieu, let’s learn all about the interview!

The what and why of the interview

When applying for a new role, you will most likely come across an interview. The interview is a chance for you to show your potential employer that you have what it takes to succeed in the role.

When candidates are being selected for a new role, it is expected that the candidate can fulfil the requirements/duties of the role and align themselves with the company values and culture. This is generally assessed using an interview.

Note that assessment centres may also be used, but these are more common when applying for graduate and internship programs. You can read about assessment centres and how to improve your likelihood of success here.

The typical interview structure

A typical interview has 3 parts: (1) the opening, (2) information gathering, and (3) the closing.

The opening basically starts when you enter the interview room. After you enter the interview room and greet the members of the panel, the interviewer(s) will give you a brief overview of the format. Typically, you would hear things like:

• Interviewers will be taking notes
• Interviewers will take turns asking questions
• The purpose/objective of the interview
• You can ask questions at the end

Note, for interviews that form part of an assessment centre, the interview will start once you enter the venue – not the interview room. To get a better view of how assessment centres work, you can read this post here.

Sometimes, the interviewer(s) will give you an overview of the business, the role you applied for and the business need that the role serves.

After the opening, there is information gathering. During this part, the interviewers will:

• Ask relevant questions about you, your competencies/skills and work history
• Listen intently to your answers
• Takes notes of what you say

After information gathering, there is the closing. Here, you will be told about the next stage of the application process should you be successful, and when you will be contacted regarding your interview outcome. After this, the interviewers will thank you for your time.

The types of questions you could be asked in an interview

There are many questions interviewers could ask you, but interview questions can be put into one of three main categories.

Do keep in mind though that interviews are, by nature, conversational – so they can ask you anything to gauge your fit for the role. The categories listed below are more for the formal/standard questions that could pop up.

(1) Motivational questions: used to examine your interest in the role/company/industry, and what you hope to gain/learn from picking up the role. Motivational questions are typically asked at the start of the interview – before getting into more specific questions. When it comes to motivational questions, it is important that you are prepared and do your research. Some examples of motivational questions include:

• Why do you want to join [Company Name]?
• Why do you want to join [Team Name]?
• What are some things you hope to give and gain from this role?
• What do you think are some of the upcoming issues that [Industry]/[Company Name] will face (in the context of the area you applied for)?
• What do you expect from this position?

(2) Behavioural questions: used to assess whether you have the required traits to be successful in the role. For behavioural questions, it is assumed that you are able to recall a story or previous experience, highlighting a key skill that is required for the role. When it comes to behavioural questions, it is recommended that you structure your responses using the STAR framework – this will be covered more in detail later in this post. Some examples of behavioural questions include:

• Tell me about a time where you were an effective team player who led a team to a successful outcome
• Tell me about a challenge you experienced and how you overcame it – this challenge can be in your personal or professional life
• Tell me about a time you failed and the actions you took to become better
• Tell me about a time where you have went above and beyond in a team
• (If you are applying for a client-facing role) What do you think makes outstanding client service? And tell me about a time where you demonstrated this.
• How well do you fare under pressure?
• How do you effectively manage your time?
• How do define success and how do you measure up to it?

(3) Situational questions: situational questions will simulate or present a situation that you may encounter while in the role, and you will be asked about how you would respond/act in that situation. Some examples of behavioural questions include:

• You are currently managing tasks with a couple of tight deadlines, and you are asked by your manager to work on something urgent. You feel that you do not have extra capacity to pick up this task. What would you do in this situation?
• It is the middle of the day and you just completed your last task. Some of your team members are in the office, and some of them are online and working virtually. What would you do in this situation?
• You shared some analytical insights with your manager so that they can forward it to the client. However, earlier today, you revised the analytics you performed and noticed that you made a mistake, which led to some significant changes in the insights. What would you do in this situation?

Alongside these three categories of questions, you may be asked about:

• Strengths and weaknesses. For example:
  • What are your greatest strengths?
  • What is your greatest weakness?
  • What challenges do you think you’ll face if you are successful in securing this role?
• Work preferences and logistics. For example:
  • Can you describe your ideal company and job?
  • Are you willing to relocate or travel for work?
• Your areas of passion, goals and interests. For example:
  • What do you hope to accomplish in the next 5 years?
  • What are some of the things you are passionate about?
  • What are your interests outside of work?
• Specific experiences/items on your resume – if you interviewer does decide to go through it with you. Note: in some interviews, the recruiter will just read your resume and only ask you questions like this.

Some important things you need to do when preparing for interviews

Everyone has their own unique approach when preparing for interviews. But there are some methods that are more standard and consequential than others.

If you’ve been to an interview workshop – or have watched a crash course on how to prepare for a interview – most of these methods will pop up. Here are some of them:

• Do organisational research. Research about different aspects, like the people and culture, parent company, main products/services, problems they are facing, main competitors, competitive advantages, and current/anticipated changes in the market. Furthermore, know your personal/professional goals and make sure you can explain how the role and company can help you achieve those goals.
• Take stock of the job requirements. When a job description is published, there will be sections that list the key responsibilities/duties, and the expected/desirable knowledge and experience. Use the items from these lists to infer what competencies, traits and skills the recruiter are looking for.
• Take stock of your experiences – that match with the job requirements. After you infer what competencies, traits and skills are required for the job, think about what experiences you could talk about to highlight those.
• Use the STAR approach. The STAR approach prescribes a way that you can structure responses to interview questions – particularly for questions where you are required to recall an experience (i.e., behavioural questions). STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action and Result:
  • Situation: when recalling the experience, give relevant context and set the scene.
  • Task: specify the task you were given and what problem you encountered (if any).
  • Action: walk the interviewer through the steps you took to complete the task or overcome the problem. Make sure you clearly highlight the skills you used.
  • Result: explain the result and the impact of your actions. If the result was positive, try quantity and qualify how it was positive, and explain how you were rewarded. For example, a client who openly expresses their satisfaction to you (and your team), or provides a strong satisfaction rating, would be evidence you can share for a positive result. If the result was negative, talk about what you learnt from the experience, and the progress you have made towards responding more effectively – whenever a similar situation comes around.
• Think of questions to ask during the interview. Asking questions at the end of the interview reinforces your interest in the role to the interviewer. And chances are, there are some things you still might not know about after just browsing the company’s social media and website. So before you sit your interview, write down a list of questions you would like to ask. Note: some interviewers may provide comprehensive explanations about the company and the role, so your questions may be well-covered before you reach the end of the interview. In this scenario, be prepared to come up with new questions at the end, or at least mention that the questions you were going to ask have already been answered.

And that was the introduction to interviews!

Here are some of my other posts on interviews and assessment centres:

• NINE interview tips for Uni students
• My THREE GO-TO interview tips – in detail
• Learn about the Assessment Centre and how to succeed – with Tony Weightman
• Quick and practical preparation advice for interviews and assessment centres
• An intro to UNSW student society subcommittee applications and interviews

You can also see more of my posts at jason-khu.com, follow me on LinkedIn, or see the rest of my ‘Uni for students’ guide here.