11 interview tips recruiters want career services to share with every student was originally published on College Recruiter.
As a student or recent graduate, job interviews can be overwhelming. It can feel like everyone you’re competing with has more experience and skills than you do, and it’s difficult to show the value you bring to the workplace when you don’t yet have any relevant experience to point to as proof.
The good news is that employers aren’t looking for a perfect resume from student and early career candidates. Instead, they want people who show curiosity, initiative, and the potential for growth. That was a recurring theme from the recruiters and hiring experts we spoke to: if you can demonstrate those qualities, you’ll be poised to make a strong impression. They also offered some more specific tips for students going into interviews which you’ll find below.
- Be genuine and let your personality shine
- Focus on the right strengths for the role
- Turn extracurriculars into experience
- Use the STAR method to structure your answers
- Be specific when describing your past projects
- Frame your weakness to show growth
- Show enthusiasm for learning
- Highlight your soft skills
- Practice speaking for pacing and clarity
- Prepare smart questions to ask the interviewer
- Send a thank-you message and follow up if you don’t hear back
Be genuine and let your personality shine
I think a lot of students feel like they need to put on their “professional persona” when they’re going into a job interview, like if they show the slightest hint of humor or individuality they’ll be chased out of the room. The truth is, though, employers want to hire people who are authentic and genuine. I talk to a lot of hiring managers as a recruiter, and what I hear from them consistently is that they want to get a sense of who the candidate is during their interview, not to just hear someone parroting what they think the interviewer wants to hear.
When you show up as your authentic self, that lets the interviewer picture what it’ll be like to work with you. And that’s really what an interview is for. It’s not just to prove you can do the job but to show that you’re someone their team will enjoy working with on a day-to-day basis. You don’t need to be overly polished or aggressively outgoing if that’s not your personality. Just be engaged, honest, and let your natural self and strengths come through.
Ben Lamarche, Managing Director, Lock Search Group
Focus on the right strengths for the role
Success in any role comes down to understanding which strengths matter the most in context. Even as a student who is early in your career, you have developed more skills and areas of expertise than you can reasonably discuss in a single interview. The key to getting the interviewer’s attention is understanding which of those skills are the most relevant for the position and how to frame them to demonstrate your suitability for that role.
This starts by understanding the purpose of the role and what problems it is most focused on solving. Study the job description, identify the key responsibilities or objectives of the position, then tailor your answer accordingly. For example, if the role primarily involves engaging with clients or customers, then you want to highlight strengths like relationship-building and communication. For a more analytical role, you will instead want to emphasize strengths like research skills, data literacy, or attention to detail.
When you take this approach, you demonstrate not just that you have the right skills to succeed, but also that you understand the position and what kinds of competencies it requires.
Alex Recouso, CEO, CitizenX
Turn extracurriculars into experience
Just because you don’t have any paid, professional experience in your field doesn’t mean you have none to discuss. Having interviewed thousands of early career candidates, I can tell you that extracurricular activities can be just as effective for demonstrating the skills employers look for, especially if you’ve held a leadership position or taken on other high-level responsibilities. If you’ve organized an event, led a student club, or participated on sports teams or in volunteer activities, these are all things that can show skills like communication, time management, teamwork, and problem-solving. The key is to talk about these activities the same way you would a job, focusing on the specific ways you contributed and what results you achieved. Just saying “I was in the engineering club” doesn’t add much, but if you say “I developed a testing checklist for our robotics builds that reduced troubleshooting time by 25% and helped us complete competition-ready prototypes two weeks faster than in previous semesters,” that’s showing real value an employer would want on their team.
Matt Erhard, Managing Partner, Summit Search Group
Use the STAR method to structure your answers
Having coached many early-career job seekers through interviews, one area I’ve found they consistently struggle is knowing how to answer behavioral interview questions. It can be challenging to correctly convey not just what you did but what impact that had and what this shows about you as a professional. The advice I always give is to use the STAR method. This stands for:
- Situation – A brief explanation of the task or scenario that sets the context for your answer. This should be the shortest part of your answer.
- Task – Your responsibilities or role in that situation you described. This is another part that should be fairly short, I’d say around a single sentence.
- Action – What you did to complete the task or resolve the problem. This should be where you focus most of your answer, and you should get specific with the strategies and tools you used.
- Result – The outcome of your actions and what you learned during the process. Again, it’s smart to get specific here and cite measurable results if you’re able.
Using this format gives your response structure and keeps it organized, which helps the interviewer to follow your line of thought and see how you think and solve problems. You can use this method to discuss classroom projects, part-time work, or other activities, as well, which can help you to frame these as being equally relevant to real-world work experience.
Linn Atiyeh, CEO, Bemana
Be specific when describing your past projects
Something I often see students struggle with in interviews is knowing how much detail to go into when talking about their past work. There are two ways they often slip up here. One is that their answers are too short and vague, only getting to the surface level of what the project was without going into enough detail about their work. The other mistake I see is rambling and unfocused answers that go into the wrong kind of detail, usually focusing too much on the minutia of the task instead of the ways the candidate actually contributed.
To make the best impression, you need to focus on the right details. Interviewers ask about your past work because they want to understand how you approach your work, what you personally contributed to projects, and what kind of outcomes you’ve achieved. Think about past projects you’ve worked on with this in mind when you’re preparing for an interview. Break each one down into your specific role, the steps you took, the tools or methods you used, and the meaningful results that came from your contributions.
For an example: it doesn’t tell me much if a candidate just says “I helped to build an app.” A better answer would be something like “I designed the front-end interface using Figma and React, and streamlined navigation based on user testing feedback, which improved task completion time by 30%.” That level of detail gives me much better context for the skills you bring to the table and whether you’d be a good fit for the position I’m filling.
Rob Reeves, CEO, Redfish Technology
Frame your weakness to show growth
One area where candidates consistently struggle in interviews is answering questions about their weaknesses. What students should know: no one expects a new graduate to have everything figured out or be a perfect candidate. What I do expect is for them to have self-awareness and be willing to learn, and you can show both of those qualities when talking about your weaknesses.
First, you do want to honestly acknowledge a real weakness that you have. Recruiters can hear a cop-out answer like “I work too hard” for what it is. That kind of answer fails to demonstrate that you understand where your actual strengths and weaknesses are.
Once you’ve identified an actual area where you need to improve, think about the ways you are currently working to develop further in that area. In your answer, focus primarily on these improvement efforts. Briefly explain the weakness, then spend most of your answer discussing how you recognized the issue, what steps you have taken to address it, and the progress you have made. That kind of growth-focused answer will go a lot further to impress hiring managers than a canned response that pretends like your weaknesses don’t exist.
Jon Hill, Managing Partner, The Energists
Show enthusiasm for learning
When you’re early in your career, you aren’t going to have the same experience and skills as an established professional—and that’s okay. Nobody expects you to be an expert yet. However, companies do look for entry-level candidates who can become experts given enough time and training, and if you can show that kind of potential in an interview, you’ll definitely stand out as a contender for their short list.
One of the main things I look for when interviewing students is genuine curiosity and motivation to grow. There are a lot of ways you can demonstrate these traits. One of the simplest is to use general questions like “Tell me about yourself” to talk about why you’re interested in this field and the types of things you’re currently learning. Bringing up current side projects or online courses you’re taking of your own volition shows initiative and a commitment to self-improvement.
Another time during the interview where you can demonstrate your love of learning is when you get the chance to ask questions. Asking about how the company supports continuous learning, or about what mentorship or upskilling/cross-training opportunities they offer, signals that you want to keep growing and want to do it with this company.
Finally, keep this in mind when you are asked a question you don’t initially know how to answer. If the interviewer asks about your experience with a tool or process you haven’t yet used, you can be honest about that then make it clear you are eager to gain these skills. Acknowledging the gaps in your knowledge won’t count against you if you also show genuine interest in filling in those gaps.
Travis Lindeeoen, Managing Director, Nexus IT Group
Highlight your soft skills
Technical skills and domain knowledge can be taught, and when I’m working with a candidate who’s early in their career, I don’t expect them to have the same expertise as someone who’s a decade into their career. What I’m really looking for in a student candidate are those more intangible traits that are harder to teach, things like interpersonal skills and the ability to stay motivated and organized without someone constantly checking in on them.
As a student, absolutely don’t overlook your soft skills, because these can be some of your most employable traits at this stage. Things like communication, relationship-building, teamwork, organization, and adaptability can absolutely help you to stand out from the pack, even if you don’t have the same extent of technical skill sets as more experienced candidates.
One other tip here: don’t just say that you’re “a team player” or have “a sharp eye for detail.” Anyone can claim these skills, but the real value comes when you demonstrate them. Prepare examples of these skills in action from your coursework, extracurriculars, or part-time jobs and internships you’ve held. If you can show you work well with others and can communicate clearly and respectfully with both coworkers and clients, that’s what will really make a company want to invest in you.
Steve Faulkner, Founder & Chief Recruiter, Spencer James Group
Practice speaking for pacing and clarity
In an interview, how you communicate can be as much of a factor as what you say. It’s natural to be nervous when you go into a job interview, but you don’t want to let those nerves impact how you express yourself.
My first advice is that you should know how nerves are likely to affect you. A lot of people have a tendency to speak faster when they’re nervous. For others, being anxious can lead them to ramble or lose their train of thought.
Once you know your tendencies, you can counteract them. Practice answering common interview questions and record yourself doing it, then listen to your answer. Do you sound rushed or relaxed? Do you express yourself in full sentences that flow logically from one to the next? Are there a lot of filler words? Remember that you’re likely to speak even faster once you’re in the interview room, so if you’re even slightly rushed in practice you want to work on slowing your pace.
Just doing this kind of practice can help you to calm your nerves, or at least make you more aware of when your pace starts to pick up.
Jim Hickey, Managing Partner, Perpetual Talent Solutions
Prepare smart questions to ask the interviewer
A job interview shouldn’t be a one-way conversation, and treating it like one is among the most common mistakes I see early-career candidates make. Students especially are often too passive during interviews and don’t make enough effort to engage in genuine dialogue with the interviewer. This is a problem because conversation is what will allow you to make a real connection, and that’s often what makes candidates stick and stand out in their minds.
One of the best ways that you can have this kind of two-way interaction is to prepare thoughtful questions to ask the interviewer. Asking the right questions shows that you’re genuinely interested in the role, understand the industry, and have done your research into the company—all things that interviewers look for from candidates at any level, but that can especially impress at the entry level.
When you’re asking these questions, you want to go beyond the basics. Don’t just ask something like “What does the company do?” That can work against you because it makes it seem like you haven’t researched the company at all. Instead, focus on questions about the role, like how teams collaborate, what the main priorities or challenges are for the role, or how success is measured. You can also ask about things like the culture, work environment, or management style, things that you couldn’t learn just from reading the organization’s website. Asking these kinds of strong questions shows your maturity and helps to make the interview more of a two-way conversation, while also giving you useful information about the role and whether it fits your goals.
Jason Grable, Principal, Tall Trees
Follow up proactively after the interview
The interview isn’t your only opportunity to make an impression on the interviewer. With entry-level positions especially, recruiters and hiring managers are often interviewing several candidates, and it can be challenging to keep yourself front-of-mind and stand out from the crowd.
Following up after the interview can go a long way toward that goal. I recommend a two-step follow-up. First, send a thank you message within 24 hours of your interview. This can be just a quick message that thanks them for their time and mentions something specific that you talked about during the interview to trigger their memory. Then, if you don’t hear back within a week, you can send another quick message that expresses your continuing interest in the role and asks about the next steps and timeline.
One reason I think candidates don’t follow up is that they don’t want to annoy the hiring manager. You definitely don’t want to go overboard with sending repeated messages, or send the impression that you’re impatient or angry that you haven’t heard back. However, a quick, polite message is appreciated and a sign that you’re genuinely invested in the position, and can help to shift your resume up higher in the stack. Even if you don’t get selected for that role, it can also set up future opportunities because the hiring team will be more likely to remember you when you apply for another role with them down the line.
David Case, President, Advastar
