Getting ready for job interviews - tips from our employer panel for intern candidates
This week we welcomed Buzzy back to facilitate our ever-popular recruitment panel! We heard from a diverse range of hiring managers from the Summer of Tech community, their goal is to give candidates a flavour for how different companies interview, what they’re looking for, tips and tricks.
Key insights
Show up! Do your best on the day. You will almost never be 100% perfectly prepared.
We want the best candidate, not the candidate who interviews best. We’re looking for curiosity, communication, and a willingness to learn, plus what you can add to our team.
We can teach the technical skills, but it’s hard to teach the soft skills. Tell us stories that demonstrate your problem solving, learning, empathy, customer-centric thinking, adaptability.
Ask questions! Prepare a few, and use them to dig deeper into things you genuinely want to know about the role.
Interviews can cause anxiety. If there’s specific support you need, ask!
Communication is the essential thing: verbal, written, whatever your medium, we want you to be able to share your ideas.
PREPARE! PRACTICE! Build your stories before the interview. “Tell me about yourself” (tell your story in 2-3 minutes, if it’s a speed interview!!)
Some employers will look at your Summer of Tech profile (or CV or portfolio) to see how engaged you are with learning. How many Summer of Tech events you’ve been to? What are you learning? Have you been to CV reviews and mock interviews? Have you utilised the resources available to help you find a job?
If you’re not successful, ask for feedback! That’ll be great advice for future interviews.
A photo of Summer of Tech speed interviews in the pre-Covid times.... in-person!
What format can interviews take?
Summer of Tech Meet & Greet: not a formal interview, a chance to come and chat to us, find out how we work, let us get to know you. Meet as many people from the team as you can. There’s likely a team involved in hiring interns, get momentum behind you by connecting with as many representatives as you can.
Summer of Tech Speed Interviews: they’re fast! Some companies will ONLY use speed interviews to hire. You should focus on leaving us with a strong impression of YOU. What do you want us to think or feel about you at the end?
Be ready for potentially weird questions, these are to help us quickly identify what type of person you are, your character. Are you curious? Keen to learn? Are you ready to work with new technology?
Technical interview or skills assessment: good, inclusive technical interviews will reflect what you’ll be doing in the job. It’s not actually a technical test. We’ll give you something that you’ll come across in your job, and work it through with you. We want you to ask questions as you go! We might ask for your opinions, your approach, your process. It’s not a test, it’s a way to tailor the interview to YOU.
As an intern candidate, we care more about your collaborative and communication skills. How do you think? How do you learn?
Show your working! Talk us through what you’re doing, how you’d deal with the situation. Show us your underlying thinking. If you get it wrong, admit it! Ask questions, show how you’d deal with it in the job.
Are you ready for a technical interview or skills assessment? Top Tip: it's not (all) about the tech.
No technical interview! Another panelist said:
We have zero expectation that you’ll know about our tech stack, we don’t ask any technical questions at all, we expect the first month or so to be spend learning our tech stack, our business, our domain, and the remainder of your internship will be working on your project.
Coffee chat: informal conversation makes the whole process more chill.
Panel interview: 1-3 people asking questions, including behavioural questions (covering collaboration, communication, how you think about work). A great way to answer those is the STAR method. Here’s an awesome resource from Trade Me Jobs about how to prepare for behavioural questions. Thanks Trade Me :-)
Team meet & greet: we want you to meet the team before we join us. It’s chill, informal chat, more about having fun and getting to hear about the team, their work.
The Clutterbot team, ready for more interns!
What’s important to Summer of Tech employers?
Core skills: a startup company might be looking for empathy! Problem-solving and adaptability. Being an eager learner, ready to grow with our business. Customer-centric thinking! We’re developing a product, so you need to be interested in our customer’s pain points. We can teach the technical skills, but it’s hard to teach the soft skills. Attitude and enthusiasm is essential. Are you super-keen to learn new tools and techniques? Add value to our company?
Learning & adaptability: show us that you’re interested in the NEXT tech skills. Constantly learning and evolving your thinking.
Problem-solving: especially if you work for a startup, we’ll need you to find your feet quickly, be a problem solver and help us build the plane as we fly! Bring your stories that show off these “soft” skills.
Culture add: we are genuinely interested in your interests and values! Tell us about you: your interests and activities outside of study or work. Talk about what YOU did, showcasing your transferable skills that relate back to the role. Loop it back to what you want them to remember about you.
Ask us questions: Show you’re interested and use your questions to find out more about the role, would you like to work there?
Use your questions to show your strengths. Here’s some ideas:
What do you think my biggest challenge will be in this role?
What will Day 1 look like? Day 100?
How do people learn at your company?
What support do you have for interns?
Why should I work for you?
What is it about the culture that makes you stay?
Huge thanks to our panelists representing our sponsor companies: Z Energy, Mercury and Pushpay. Thank you to Buzzy for once again facilitating, and to our volunteer panelists too. SUCH amazing advice for candidates preparing for interviews.
