9 common interview questions career service offices help students prepare to answer

If the idea of going through your first job interviews makes you break out in a cold sweat, you’re definitely not alone. Job interviews are nerve-wracking even for experienced professionals, and even more so when you’re a student just entering the workforce.

Preparation and practice can help students calm their nerves, or at least give them some idea of what to expect when their interview day comes. In that spirit, here are nine common job interview questions for students and some tips for how to impress with your answers. 

• Describe a time when you made a mistake. How did you respond and what did you learn from the experience?
• How do you approach learning a completely new skill or concept?
• How do you manage your time and prioritize work when you’re juggling multiple responsibilities or deadlines?
• What personal values influence how you work, and why? How do you show those in the workplace?
• Tell me about a time that you received difficult-to-hear critical feedback. How did you respond?
• Imagine that you’ve been given a task that you’ve never done before and you aren’t sure how to tackle it. How would you approach the situation?
• How do you stay motivated and focused when you’re working on a task that you find boring or repetitive?
• Describe a project or assignment that you’re especially proud of. What was your role in completing it, what was the outcome, and what did you learn from doing it?
• How do you approach working in a team with people whose work or communication style is different from your own? 

Describe a time when you made a mistake. How did you respond and what did you learn from the experience?

Let’s be real: everybody makes mistakes, no matter how much experience they have, but beginners are likely to make the most. That’s not a problem or an insult, simply the reality of being human. 

What I’m looking for when I interview students isn’t someone who’s going to do things perfectly every time. I want to know that, when they do make a mistake (because it’s a when, not an if), they’re going to take accountability for it and do what they can to fix the problem instead of trying to cover it up or pretend like it wasn’t their fault. 

This is one of my short list of questions that I’ll ask in pretty much every entry-level interview for that reason. How a candidate talks about their past mistakes tells me a lot. What I want to hear is a quick explanation of what happened, how they noticed their mistake, what they did to fix it, and what they do differently now to make sure they don’t make that same mistake again. 

What I don’t want to hear is a list of excuses, defensiveness, or finger-pointing that insists the problem was someone else’s fault. That’s a red flag for me that the candidate won’t take ownership for their mistakes if they’re hired.

Ben Lamarche, Managing Director, Lock Search Group

How do you approach learning a completely new skill or concept?

Even the best degree program cannot teach a student everything they need to know for every role in their industry. When I hire students who are entering the workforce, it is with the understanding that they likely still have many things to learn before they will perform at the same level as an established professional. 

My goal in asking this question is two-fold. First, I want to understand the candidate’s learning process. Along with this, I also want to gauge their curiosity and initiative. The strongest candidates demonstrate that they can teach themselves and will proactively seek out learning resources when they come across a new concept or need to learn a new skill, rather than waiting for someone else to give them direction. This discipline to constantly be learning is critical in today’s energy industry, and especially so for those who are early in their careers.

Jon Hill, Managing Partner, The Energists

How do you manage your time and prioritize work when you’re juggling multiple responsibilities or deadlines?

As a construction and manufacturing recruiter, my clients are in industries where timelines and deadlines are non-negotiable. Materials show up on a schedule, subcontractors are coordinated in sequence, and production runs need to stay on track. If one person misses a deadline, it creates ripples that can derail a project or blow up a budget faster than you might expect. 

Entry-level workers usually have supervisors keeping them on-track, but that doesn’t mean they’re exempt from managing their own time or workloads. They still need to stay organized, communicate clearly about work progress, and consistently follow through on the work assigned to them. 

This question helps me identify candidates who can keep themselves organized and on track even when things get busy – because in these industries, things are almost always busy. I’m less concerned with the specific steps or systems that a candidate mentions. What I want to hear is that they have some kind of structured process in place beyond a mental to-do list or deadlines scrawled on scraps of paper.

David Case, President, Advastar

What personal values influence how you work, and why? How do you show those in the workplace?

Assessing cultural fit is always challenging, and especially so with student candidates who aren’t yet proven in a workplace context. But this is also a critical ingredient for a candidate’s long-term success. I work with companies in sectors where values like teamwork, reliability, and accountability aren’t just “nice to have.” These values are foundational to ensure they can effectively perform hands-on work that directly impacts productivity and safety. If someone cuts corners or ignores protocols in a heavy industry role, that can have very serious consequences.

When I ask how a candidate’s personal values influence their work, what I’m really asking is:

• Can people count on you?
• Do you treat your work and team with respect?
• What type of person are you when nobody is watching?

I often tell candidates that character is the foundation supporting the rest of your career, and that starts from the very first position you land. In fact, I would argue that intangibles like integrity, honesty, and work ethic are even more critical early in your career when you don’t have accomplishments or prior experience to point to. When I trust that a young candidate will contribute to and enhance the culture of safety and excellence within a client’s workplace, I feel much more confident about recommending that candidate for their team. 

Linn Atiyeh, CEO, Bemana

Tell me about a time that you received difficult-to-hear critical feedback. How did you respond?

Feedback is really all about growth, and that’s what I want to assess when I ask a candidate this question. If someone’s response to feedback is to shut down, make excuses, get defensive, or blame others, that’s a problem for two reasons. For one thing, it means they’re less likely to actually learn and grow from that input. That’s also a recipe for negativity and toxicity in a workplace. Nobody wants to work with someone who takes feedback as an attack and needs to be handled with kid gloves all the time. Those are the kinds of employees that are difficult to both manage and work with, and aren’t going to be the best fit for any team, no matter what other skills they bring to the table. 

As a general rule when I’m interviewing students for roles, I’m looking for coachability, not perfection. I want to hear about a real situation where they received feedback. If they say “I can’t think of anything,” that tells me either they haven’t really reflected on the question or they avoid feedback, and either way that gives me pause. At minimum, the candidate should have the emotional maturity to absorb the feedback calmly and professionally, even if it was uncomfortable for them to hear. Even better is when they take it a step further and tell me how they acted on that feedback and used it to improve.

Jim Hickey, Managing Partner, Perpetual Talent Solutions

Imagine that you’ve been given a task that you’ve never done before and you aren’t sure how to tackle it. How would you approach the situation?

This question isn’t just one of my go-tos when I’m interviewing students, but I would also say is the question most likely to trip them up. Many candidates default to describing how they learn a new skill. That’s useful insight, too, but isn’t quite what I want to hear. What I’m really looking for is a more top-level response about how they respond when faced with a new task. I want to hear how they break that task down to identify which parts of it are familiar and which aspects are things they need to learn. I also want them to acknowledge that they may not have all the information on their own, and to demonstrate self-awareness about when it’s smart to ask for guidance from a coworker or manager, as opposed to when the best course is to figure things out on their own. That’s something that can be challenging for professionals at any stage of their career, so if a student can show that level of discernment, I’m going to take notice and keep them on my radar, even if they aren’t ultimately hired for the specific role they’re interviewing for. 

Matt Erhard, Managing Partner, Summit Search Group

How do you stay motivated and focused when you’re working on a task that you find boring or repetitive?

When I ask a candidate this question, I’m not trying to trick them into admitting they find work boring. I’m acknowledging a reality: with entry-level roles, you’ll often end up handling tasks that aren’t especially interesting or glamorous. In the insurance and employee benefits sectors where I focus, for instance, early career professionals are often tasked with data entry, documentation, paperwork, and routine communication. All of this is necessary even if it’s not exciting. 

What I want to assess with this question is whether the candidate understands that this work is fundamental and has the maturity to give this “boring” work their full attention. A great answer will convey:

1. A positive attitude that makes me confident you won’t complain or check out just because your work isn’t the most interesting
2. An intentional strategy or system to keep yourself on track, like setting micro-goals or using checklists
3. A sense of ownership and accountability that shows me you understand that getting the details right matters, even when you’re doing seemingly small tasks
4. Recognition that even ambitious and highly skilled individuals sometimes need to do routine work

If a candidate can hit all of those points in a concise answer, I feel much more comfortable recommending them for a client’s role or bringing them on to our team. 

Steve Faulkner, Founder & Chief Recruiter, Spencer James Group

Describe a project or assignment that you’re especially proud of. What was your role in completing it, what was the outcome, and what did you learn from doing it?

One of the most common questions I get from the student job seekers I work with is how they should answer interview questions about their past workplace experiences when they haven’t yet had a job in their field. What I tell them: even if you didn’t get paid for a project it can still count as relevant experience if it’s related to the work you’ll be doing. This includes independent projects, class assignments, or things you did for a club or volunteer group. When I’m interviewing a student, and I can see from their resume that they don’t yet have relevant work experience, I’ll usually phrase situational questions in this kind of format to make it clear that school or volunteer work can be a viable answer. 

What I like about asking this question specifically is that it gives me a glimpse into the candidate’s personality and interests, along with his or her work style. It’s a window into the types of projects he or she prefers and what he or she prioritizes when it comes to what makes a project successful. Honestly, I usually learn more from how the person talks about the project than the details of the project itself. 

As far as tips for how to answer it, my advice would be to focus on relevance, value, and growth. While you definitely should pick a project you’re legitimately proud of, ideally that should also be something related to the role you’re applying for. It’s also best to pick a project where you had a prominent role as a leader or primary contributor so you can showcase the key strengths you would bring as an employee. One last tip: spend less of your answer on the practical details about the project itself, and focus more on your specific contributions and the things you learned in the process.

Travis Lindeeoen, Managing Director, Nexus IT Group

How do you approach working in a team with people whose work or communication style is different from your own? 

Our work at CitizenX is global by nature. We collaborate across cultures, which means our teams bring together people with disparate backgrounds and personalities. Some communicate directly while others are more diplomatic; some work through their thoughts aloud while others would rather think quietly before contributing. 

For someone to succeed in this environment, it is imperative that they are able to adapt, listen, and collaborate with people who work at a different pace or in a different style. If you can’t do that, you’ll struggle in a company that thrives on diverse perspectives. 

When I ask this question, I want to hear the applicant recognize that differences in work style are normal and not something to avoid or complain about. They should demonstrate respect and curiosity, showing that they seek to understand others’ communication styles rather than assuming theirs is right by default. I also want to hear that they can adjust their approach when needed and are willing to talk openly about expectations, roles, and structure so that the team can work smoothly together. 

If the student can give an example that demonstrates this kind of awareness and communication in the real-world, that’s even better. Even a small moment from a group project in class or a part-time job can highlight how they adapt to communicate well with a variety of people. I don’t expect perfection, but I do expect emotional intelligence, empathy, and curiosity about how other people work. 

Alex Recouso, CEO, CitizenX