How to Leverage the Academic Experience in an Internship Interview

Students preparing for an internship interview tend to worry due to the lack of work experience they haven’t acquired yet. However, it’s only one part that they can easily overcome by highlighting specific achievements and skills they improved or gained during their academic journey.

By making the best of their academic experience, students can ace their internship interview with ease and start getting ready for the second part of their programme.

Highlighting The Study Abroad Experience

A great conversation starter, especially since experiencing another culture and making new connections allow students to expand their skill set and broaden their perspective; both topics are of great value during an interview. By showing how studying abroad had and impact beyond the academic level leaves the recruiter with the impression that the person in front of them is ambitious, resilient, and open to improve.

Researching Company Before Internship Interview

Before going into an interview, researching the company and the job position of the internship is key. Preparing in advance gives students more insight into how they can link their academic experience with the company values and goals. Tackling researching the company pre-interview can be done in a few easy steps:

• Checking out the company’s website and online presence
• Discovering the culture and values
• Spotting the key clients and operation landscape
• Researching competitors
• Looking for the key players in the operation
• Browsing for recent news, events, updates of the company

Showcasing Knowledge in Industry

Work experience is important but nowadays employers also want prospects to have a good understanding of the job and the overall business industry by being up to date on its current issues. and a great knowledge of the industry their business operates within. A good way to leverage the education experience is to use the research skills gained in the courses as well as the case studies and projects worked on in teams which will help the interviewer assess the education is aligned with what the interviewee is expecting.

Telling a Story During the Internship Interview

Interview questions used to be simple yes or no answer questions or a list of presets that check the list of the basic criteria applicants should have; however, with the rise of demand in soft skills, interview questions shifted towards more open-ended questions to allow a little story telling in the process to allow recruiters to see how applicants perform in unprecedented and unscripted questions.

At EMLV business school, the MBA, MSc Digital Business Analytics, and MSc International Business programmes are accompanied by internships to help students adapt to the business world. In fact, to prepare for their upcoming interviews, international students participate in an original job fair where they pitch themselves to multinational companies or even potentials recruiters. After the pitch, students can be asked some questions to further discover them on professional level. Afterwards, the students receive feedback and a quick assessment of their pitch with some pointers and recommendations on how to improve, what to highlight, or maybe refrain from mentioning later in their interviews.

More about the post-grad Programmes at EMLV business school.