How to express your skills during an internship application

Applying for internships can seem like an intimidating task, as even applicants that have a multitude of skills and experiences can find themselves falling short during various stages of the application process.

4most consultant Joe Walter shares his advice on how to effectively showcase your skills when applying for an internship, ensuring you maximise the chance of landing your desired position.

Preparation, preparation, preparation

Make sure you research the organisation beforehand. What services do they offer and to whom? What are the challenges they face? What are their values? You don’t need to scour every single page on their website and remember every last detail. But knowing the key facts will demonstrate that you have put in a level of effort and understand the purpose of what they do, which is essential for being considered for the internship. While interns are not expected to be industry experts, it is important they are able to approach problems with an open mind and put together a sensible plan of action, therefore It is worth being mindful of how you can demonstrate that you are able to approach tasks in a thoughtful and strategic manner.

For an interview, there is no crystal ball available to let you know what questions will be asked. That being said, most of the questions will expand on your CV and knowledge of the role. Equipped with the tried and tested STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Results) framework, recall the relevant details from each experience/skill you have listed, and how they relate to the required skills mentioned in the job spec.

Expect questions on how you’ve worked as part of a team, how you’ve resolved conflict, why this particular internship etc. There are endless online resources available to you which can be found by entering “common interview questions” into a search engine.

Furthermore, why not practice with a friend or a family member? They’ll provide feedback and allow you to embed STAR, whilst giving you a clearer understanding on what a sensible pace to which you give your responses is.

Answer the question

We come out of higher education with a myriad of technical and soft skills developed and shaped by the experiences we have. Ensure that when you do express your abilities, always keep the specific topic/question in mind when providing a response.

Avoid providing long-winded paragraphs with intricate language (particularly when outlining your academic work), as this may only result in confusion for the reader/interviewer. By keeping things relevant, you demonstrate how you meet the requirements for their internship, tilting the decision being made towards you!

Elaborating on your skillset in a simple yet effective manner is crucial, but you will also need to evidence a time and a place to which you applied these skills. You can add an extra layer of validity to your answers by commenting on how easy or difficult you found a particular task, ensuring you expand on why this was the case and how this influenced your strategy.

Understand your audience

Whatever stage you are in the application process, being concise will help you provide an effective response. Understand the purpose of the stage you are currently at; in the earlier stages of the application, there is a greater focus towards assessing your industry knowledge, technical abilities and your own background. During the latter stages, where you will be verbalising your responses, the interviewer will be observing your communication and reasoning skills, so it’s often best to keep your responses straightforward and easy to understand, unless requested otherwise.

If you are presenting, keep the slide deck to a minimum, only including the key points and annotate any diagrams so it can be understood by a regular person. Go over the material but always remember your audience. Complex formulas and diagrams? Put in the Appendix. There’s no point getting bogged down in the details if the interviewers cannot understand the topic, so keep it high-level and easy to follow.

By omitting non-essential content, you afford yourself the space to talk around your presentation opposed to reading straight off it. Equally, this gives you the flexibility to lead the interviewer to ask certain questions which you can prepare for in advance.

Remember that an interview is a two-way conversation, so make sure you prepare some thoughtful questions to ask the interviewer. These should be specific to the role you are applying for and aim to give a deeper knowledge of how the company operates and how well you might fit their culture.

Internship applications can feel lengthy. Interviews are daunting. Being put on the spot and presenting in front of others is challenging. If you misspeak or make a mistake – don’t let it stifle you. Remember, almost all interviewers are not trying to catch you off guard or waiting for you to slip up. They are not focusing on such trivial signs, rather they are seeking whether you are a good fit for the role, and more broadly, for the values and culture of the organisation.

You can find out more about internships at 4most by visiting our careers page.