Keep it cool in your advertising internship interview
So you’ve crushed it with your resume and cover letter, and now you have an interview for your advertising internship. Chances are, you’ll be interviewing with an HR person and another employee, probably an account executive.
If you’ve made it this far, the agency obviously want you. They have an entirely different perspective when they are selecting applicants to hire and not applicants to interview. When they’re selecting applicants to interview, they are looking for the smartest and most driven people. But when they are selecting applicants to hire, they want they want the coolest people.
Everyone they’ve selected for an interview has basically the same credentials and expertise in the industry. From this point on, the people who actually get the advertising internship are going to be people that you want to see in the office everyday. The HR person wants to be able to say to their co-workers, “Yeah, I hired that guy.”
Keep this in mind when you interview for your advertising internship. Make a great impression during your interview. Convey the right amount of status, but not too much. Be confident, but don’t be arrogant. Be eager, but don’t be overzealous. Convey to them that you WANT the job, but you don’t need it. It’s key to let them know you’d love the job, but you’re not desperate.
Think about this before you go into an interview for your advertising internship. Most of the internship advice I’ve come across (courtesy of my school’s career center) gives you examples of behavioral questions and tells you to research the company. None of it tells you how to pick up on cues or what body language to have. None of it tells you what kind of mindset to be in. None of it gives you exercises or lines to recite to go into the interview with a positive mindset.
If you want to succeed in an interview and let them know you’re a cool person who they’ll love to work with, you need to use a different approach then rehearsing answers to behavioral questions. That’s fine too, but you need to go in there with confidence.
Some people are natural at interviews. Congratulations to them. If you’re not, then there is plenty of material out there that will help you act confident instead of nervous. It really is up to you to take control and get your advertising internship. Best of luck to you in the internship hunt!
I like how you touched on body language. But I haven't seen much on really taking time to groom before an interview! Whiten your teeth, get a facial and manicure. For both men and women!
Posted by: Mart | 08/26/2009 at 05:16 PM