Interview guide for internships: a short loop from application to return offer

Interviewing for internships means choosing among students who have done very little paid work in your field, often under a campus recruiting calendar that rewards speed. The risk is falling back on proxies such as school name, grades and confidence, which say little about who will learn fastest in your team. This guide gives hiring managers a short internship loop: an application with a few targeted questions, a screen, one structured interview with a small task, example scorecard weights, a decision rule and a plan for using the same scorecard when deciding return offers at the end.

For evaluating students and recent graduates in a single interview, see how to interview new graduates. For permanent entry-level jobs, the interview guide for entry-level roles is a closer fit.

The loop at a glance

An example for a summer internship on a business or technical team. Change the task for the track.

Students give up an hour or two at most for each stage. If you hire many interns at once, batch stage 3 into set interview days so everyone is assessed by calibrated interviewers in the same week. The reasoning behind keeping stages few is in the interview process template.

Stage 1: application questions

Replace a resume-only screen with three short written questions. They give students without polished resumes a fair way in, and they are faster to review than resumes.

• "Describe a project, assignment or job where you made something work. What was your part?" (150 words)
• "What would you like to learn in this internship, and why this team?" (100 words)
• "Confirm the dates you are available and your expected graduation term." The graduation term is relevant here because it determines availability and eligibility for return offers.

Look for: specifics, their own contribution, and an answer to the question asked. Do not screen on school name or grade point average unless the role has a documented reason; both narrow the pool without telling you much about the work.

Stage 2: the screen (20 minutes)

• "Walk me through the project you wrote about. What was hardest?" Listen for: detail beyond the written answer and a real difficulty they worked through.
• "What do you think someone in this team does day to day?" Listen for: a reasonable picture, or honest curiosity. Correct any misunderstanding now, so nobody accepts an internship that is not what they expected.
• "What else are you balancing this term or summer?" Ask only to plan schedules, and accept any answer; do not probe personal circumstances.

Stage 3: structured interview with a task (60 minutes)

The future manager and a future mentor run it together. Same questions in the same order for every candidate, and examples from coursework, clubs, part-time jobs and personal projects all count.

Questions (35 minutes)

1. Learning speed: "Tell me about something you had to learn quickly for a class, job or project. How did you do it?" Listen for: a method and a result, including how they knew they had learned it.
2. Follow-through: "Tell me about a group project where someone did not do their part. What did you do?" Listen for: raising it early and directly, and finishing the work, without either doing everything silently or only complaining.
3. Feedback: "Tell me about feedback on your work that changed how you do something." Listen for: specific feedback and a specific change. Interns spend most of their time receiving feedback.
4. Foundational skill: one track-specific question. For example, for a marketing intern, "How would you find out whether our last email campaign worked?"; for a software intern, "Walk me through how you would find a bug in code you did not write."

The task (20 minutes, plus 5 minutes of discussion)

A short exercise using the same materials for everyone, done in the room or on the call with documentation allowed. Examples by track:

If you prefer a take-home for technical tracks, cap it at two hours and discuss it live; see how to evaluate a take-home assignment.

Scorecard competencies and weights

Example weights for a summer intern. Set yours before applications open and use the same sheet for return offers.

Anchors on a 1–4 scale: 1 no example, 2 a general description, 3 a specific example with their own actions and a result, 4 the same plus something they changed. Build the sheet in the scorecard builder; potential is assessed through these anchors, not as a separate gut feeling. More on that in how to interview for potential.

The decision rule

1. Score independently straight after the interview, before the manager and mentor compare notes.
2. Gate: at least 3 on either foundational skill or learning speed. An intern needs one of the two to contribute within a short program.
3. Floor: no 1 on follow-through.
4. Weighted total: in this example, 2.6 or higher on the 1–4 scale is an offer, filled in order of score if you have more qualified candidates than places.
5. Decide within three working days, and tell unsuccessful candidates promptly with a short, kind message; many will apply again next year.

Return offers: use the same scorecard

The internship itself is the best work sample you will ever get. Score the intern against the same competencies at the midpoint and in the final week, using evidence from their actual work: the project output, code reviews, written updates and how they handled feedback. The manager and mentor score separately, then meet.

• Set the bar before the internship starts, for example 3 or above on every competency at the final review.
• Share the midpoint scores with the intern, with specific examples, so the final decision is not a surprise.
• Guard against visibility bias. Interns who presented to leadership are not automatically stronger than those who did quieter work well.

Paid or unpaid: check before you design the program

As of October 2026, the US Department of Labor's Fact Sheet #71 (last updated January 2018) explains how it decides whether an intern at a for-profit employer is an employee who must be paid under the Fair Labor Standards Act. It applies a "primary beneficiary" test with seven factors, including whether the internship is tied to the intern's formal education, whether the intern's work complements rather than displaces paid employees, and whether both sides understand there is no expectation of pay. The fact sheet says no single factor is determinative. It also notes that unpaid volunteer internships at public sector and nonprofit charitable organizations are generally permissible. State law can add requirements this page does not cover.

This is not legal advice. If you plan an unpaid program, review it with counsel. If any intern may be under 18, read hiring minors: work permits and hours before you set schedules.

Common mistakes in internship hiring

• Screening on school name. It shrinks the pool without predicting performance in your team.
• Experienced-hire loops for students. Four rounds during exam season loses strong candidates.
• No mentor in the interview. The mentor will work with the intern daily; let them score.
• Return offers by impression. Use the same competencies and evidence you used to select.