Interview Questions and Answers for students

Please note that the information we provide here is designed specifically to help students who are being interviewed for their first career step. Interviewer styles and questions will differ even in the same company, so to provide an exact idea of the questions and their order would be misleading. So, we’ve picked the standard questions that you’re very likely to be asked and suggested a range of answers for each. We obviously can’t guarantee your success as so much depends on how you perform on the day, your current qualifications and experience and how you come across. This is why our interview training is important, as it gives you the opportunity to really practice and build sustainable interview skills. The questions we’ve listed have been placed into 3 categories: Interview questions about you, interview questions about the company and role and finally, questions you need to ask in the interview.

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 Questions about you: 
 

This is what’s called an open ended question because you can choose to answer just about anything. By asking this question,     the interviewer is looking for the following things:

• Your level of self-insight. Are you able to show that you have good insight into who you are in your response?
• What you focus on in your answer. As it’s an open question, whatever you choose to answer will tell the interviewer about your priorities and what is important to you. We’ll make some recommendations in the suggested answers section.
• Your command of English and ability to express yourself well. 

 Suggested answer framework:

 We recommend the following structure (background and family, key events and motivation and focus) for answering this question so that you avoid rambling and provide as strong an answer as possible.

1. Background and family: “As you’ll notice on my CV, I’ve been brought up in a middle class family in a suburban environment – so, at face value I’ve had a conventional upbringing. We did however spend 2 years in India when my father was seconded to a project there and during that period we all learned to speak Hindi and lived in a very rural and deprived area. I realised then how fortunate I am and vowed never to take anything for granted in life”.
2.  Key events: “My father passed away when he was relatively young, so my sister and I had to take more responsibility around the house early on and while it was hard at the time, I learned to take ownership of tasks, particularly the maintenance of the house and we really had to work as a team to keep it together”. 
3. Motivation and focus: “My exposure to maintenance around the house is largely responsible for my interest in project management. While I started with maintenance around the house, I started helping neighbours with small renovations and decorating and impressed them with my use of project planning software to help them plan their projects. I’ve advised at least 10 families in our area on their renovations and have recently started charging for my services”.   Tip: Be ready to give an example, as it’s likely the interviewer will ask for one.

 “What are your strengths and weaknesses”? This is not open ended as the interviewer is looking for specific answers. As with question 1, the interviewer is looking for your levels of insight, the ability for you to show honesty/integrity and also your ability to sell yourself around your strengths and weaknesses. Listing only strengths and no areas for development (weaknesses) will not be credible though.

 Suggested answer framework

1.  “Let’s start with weaknesses. I imagine most people are not that comfortable talking about weaknesses. I would prefer to talk of development areas as I believe that most weaknesses can be overcome with the necessary focus and that some can even be turned into strengths.Firstly, I would say that I’m not that comfortable with negotiations yet. When sitting with a “client”, it’s been hard for me to ask a price that reflects the value of my services even though I know that professional companies are charging double for the same thing. The fact that I know the people, makes it harder for me as well. Also, I haven’t yet run any big projects, but that’s really not a weakness but a lack of opportunity to date and one of the reasons I’m applying for this role”.
2. “Moving on to my strengths, my technical knowledge of project management is strong as is my attention to detail. As you can see on my CV, I have successfully completed the Prince 2 qualification and although I don’t have a degree, this is the industry standard qualification for project management. I often spot spelling mistakes and faulty logic in documents and I think this is an essential skill in this career. I believe my teamwork skills are well developed, not only because of the family situation I described but I’ve played a lot of team sport and captained the football team through some tough situations”.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? This question is used a lot and interviewers are generally looking to get an idea of your ambition, motivation and how realistic you are about your career path.

Suggested answer framework

We suggest breaking the answer into different time periods. One of the reasons for doing this is that by breaking down your answer into different time periods, you are showing that you are capable of independent thinking and it’s a subtle way of taking a little control back from the interviewer (without being confrontational in any way).

1. “For me, the first 2 – 3 years will be about finding my feet. I’d like to gain exposure to a broad range of project activities within the company”
2. “After that, I will probably look to specialise in an area. At this stage, I’m not sure which area and that’s why the broad exposure initially for me is important”.
3. “Within 5 -7 years, I would like to have gained some people management experience as I don’t want to focus purely on the technical aspects of project management”.
4. “To project further than that is difficult. Change is such a big part of our lives. What I do know is that I am committed to continually developing my skills to be ready for that change”

Why should we recruit you? Right now, with competition for places so intense, if you can’t provide a compelling answer to this, you probably won’t be considered. There’s an American term used in Sales called the “elevator pitch”. So if you’re in an elevator with someone and you have 45 seconds to make an impression, what would you say? You need to have rehearsed your personal elevator pitch.          

 Suggested answer framework  

 This question lends itself to preparing 2 or 3 points in your answer. By doing so, your answer has a better chance of standing out and being remembered when the interviewer is comparing the merits of all the candidates.

1. “Firstly, I have already accumulated useful experience in project management and it’s something I have shown that I’m good at and enjoy. So you won’t be recruiting someone who likes the idea of project management but doesn’t really know what it’s about”.
2. “Secondly, I hope I’ve demonstrated that I have the desire and motivation to develop myself. Although I do expect the company to help with my development I know that I am ultimately responsible for my growth and performance”.
3. Lastly, I believe that I can make a big contribution to the company. I’m sure that I’ll be able to bring some of my own ideas and apply them to the benefit of the company and its customers.  

 Questions about the role:

What do you know about the company? By asking this question, the interviewer can tell in a minute whether or not you’ve done any research. If you haven’t done any research, you can almost certainly forget about being offered the job unless you’re outstanding in every other area. This is a relatively easy area in which to stand out from the others and it should take you no longer than 1 hour to prepare.

Suggested answer framework:

We suggest that you should prepare answers in 3 categories: the market the company operates in, recent company performance and company reputation.

1. The Market: “Well, I know that you’re a public company in the construction sector employing 7000 people in 14 countries and that the company’s origins are in Hong Kong”.
2. Recent Company Performance: “I see that your turnover is approaching £3 billion and that most of that comes from your consulting business. I did get the impression though that your outsourcing business is experiencing rapid growth”
3. Company reputation: “The company has a reputation for being very ethical but has received some bad press for being hierarchical in its management style. What are your views on that?”

What is it about the job that appeals to you? Unless you have a really good understanding of the job description, you’ll find it tough to answer this question. Once you’ve finished summarising the role, it’s always a good idea to ask the interviewer if your understanding of the role is correct.

1. “Let me start by summarising my understanding of the job description. The opportunity is to act as a project coordinator on the new M25 motorway contract. I will primarily be responsible for co-ordinating project activities on behalf of the project manager and for ensuring that project updates are on time and fully completed. I will also be tasked with identifying any likely problems and bringing these to the project manager’s attention.  In a way, the role could be described as being responsible for making sure there are no surprises on the project. I will report to the project administration manager and work within a small project admin team.  Is that an accurate picture of the opportunity?”
2. I’m excited about the fact that this is obviously a large, complex and long term project. I like the fact that this is a high value and very visible project and I’m looking forward to getting a good grounding in project co-ordination. This will help me when I look to move into running a small project team in a couple of years.”

How do you feel your strengths and weaknesses match up to the requirements of the job? Note that there’s a clear link between this question and whatever you may have answered to an earlier questions about your strengths and weaknesses. We recommend that you finish with a summary to this question.

1. “Even if the company doesn’t use Prince 2 methodology, I’m sure that my knowledge and personal experience with project planning will enable me to get up to speed very quickly, particularly with the reporting requirements of the job. I have provided 2 sample client reports as attachments to my CV to give you an idea of my skill in that area.  My attention to detail should also stand me in good stead with making sure that all the necessary information is provided. I assume that there will be no immediate need for me to conduct any negotiations, so that should give me more than enough time to build up my skills in this area.
2.  In summary then, I believe that the skills I’ve accumulated to date mean that I’m a good match for this opportunity. In my view, there’s nothing that either I or the company should be concerned about should I be appointed to the role.”  

 Your questions to ask:   

As a rule, we recommend that you ask between 2 and 4 questions. Not asking any questions gives the impression you haven’t prepared properly and asking too many is inappropriate and could be regarded as showing off or being pedantic. In order to ask good questions, you will need to have done your research. As a rule, we suggest asking one question in each of the following:

 Ask a specific question about the performance of the business or organisation. For example:

1.  “I notice your turnover is down 20% in your UK business. What are the reasons for that and what steps are being taken to fix the problem?”
2. “I read online that the company might be the subject of a takeover. I know that takeovers often bring a lot of change. To what extent have you factored this in to your hiring plans?”
3. “I saw a recent report showing that you’ve gained a lot of market share from your competitors. How has the company been able to achieve that?”

 Ask a specific question about what it’s really like working there

1.  “Your annual report talks about the company really valuing its people and that they’re an asset. If I’m hired, how will I experience that at a practical level?”
2. “Do you conduct staff surveys?” If the answer is yes, then your follow up question should be ….”What are the 2 points that are most positive and what areas require most improvement?”

 Ask a specific question about the development opportunities on offer.

1.  “What kind of development opportunities can I expect within my first 2 – 3 years”?
2. Is development for new starters based on individual development plans or do all new starters go through the same development programmes?

 Lastly – get some feedback

When it is clear that you’re coming to the end of the interview, find an opportunity to ask for feedback. some interviewers won’t be honest enough to tell you (particularly if it hasn’t gone well), however you should always try. You could ask the following questions:

1.  “Is there anything that you would like a little more detail on?”
2. “Now that you’ve got to know me better, how do you feel about my application?”

 Good luck and remember, if you want to stand out from the crowd, book an online training session with an experienced recruiter.