Everything a teenager needs to know to pass a job interview.
The biggest barrier a teenager faces during the recruitment process is a lack of interviewing experience.
Humans, especially teenagers, are confident when completing tasks they are familiar with.
This article will help teenagers to:
- Understand the job interview process, allowing a teenager to know what to expect
- Answer interview questions by knowing what questions an employers is likely to ask
- Increase interview confidence through a number of techniques and exercises
How should a teenager prepare for a job interview?
First, it is important to understand what a job interview is.
Before being invited to a job interview, a teenager would have applied for the advertised job role.
Generally speaking, teenagers apply for jobs in July and August, when they have finished school, college, or higher education.
Other teenagers, often college and university students, will apply for part-time work, while studying, in Sept and January.
This shows how there is an increase in teenager applications between July-January, but teenagers do apply for work all year round.
So, if a teenager has been offered a job interview, over the hundreds of other teenagers applying for the same role, the employer has liked what was written on the application or CV.
This is a great start, you are better than the other hundred plus applications.
Job Interview Preparation.
The three steps a teenager needs to think about when preparing for a job interview are:
- To know the job duties and the required skills and qualities needed for the role
- To plan interview answers that highlight the required skills and qualities
- To think about their communication skills – how they will deliver the interview answers
Job duties and required skills.
The more a teenager knows about the job role, the duties, and the required skills, the more likely they are to be able to predict the job interview question.
The employer will ask each teenager around 6-8 job interview questions.
Each question is based on the job role. A customer service interview question will be asked in a retail job interview, or an IT question could be asked in an administration job interview.
Here are 10 commonly asked job interview questions
The easiest way to predict the job interview questions is to:
- Read the job specification that will accompany the job advert. The job spec list the duties and required skills
- When there is no job specification, use online job profiles which give a generic overview of the job role, duties, and required qualifications. Each duty is a potential interview question
- Search ‘(job role) interview questions’, IE McDonals Interview questions.
Plan interview answers.
Once a teenager has a list of job interview questions, the next stage is to create their answers.
Interviewers will score each answer on a scale of 1-4, with 1 being poor and 4 being excellent. Answers that use examples to reference how the teenager has the skills and/or experience to complete the job duties generally score high.
For apprenticeship interviews, teenagers need to think about the apprenticeship interview questions they will be asked.
Each interview answer should be broken down into three stages (SAP):
- Situation
- Actions
- Positive Outcome
Situation
The situation is the event that was happening at the time. This could include being asked to complete a task, a problem they faced, or a goal they wanted to achieve.
Imagine being asked ‘explain a time when you achieved a goal?’ The interview answer could start with either:
“When working at X company I was asked to (add task)…”
“At school, a (problem) happened and I was asked to help overcome it…”
“Working with my dad, we decide to set a goal to (add goal)…”
Action
The action segment, explains to a hiring manager the steps the teenager took. Teenagers to focus the answer on their personal skills; work ethic, motivation, reliability or on the task, they competed.
Skills answer: “…To do this I used my work ethic. I started each day at 8:00 AM and worked hard to achieve the outcome, before fishing at 5:00 PM. In the evening I (add additional tasks)…”
Task only answer “…To do this I did A, B, and C (name actions taken)…”
Positive Outcome
Each interview answer should end with the results of the action taken. The outcome should be framed in the positive.
“…by the end, we had achieved (add outcome).”
“…this resulted in (add outcome).”
“…these actions resulted in us overcoming the barrier/problem.”
Example Interveiw Answer for a Teenager.
“When at school, I and my art and design classmates were asked to design the backdrops for the school play. As a natural leader I took charge and put the class into small groups, so each group could draw on scene. I also made a list of paints and materials we required and gave this to the teacher. Because we all worked hard, each day for a week, we were able to complete the design on time for the opening night.”
Ideas for examples during interview answers for teenagers.
- Part time work for questions relating to work ethic or motivation
- Voluntary work exampels to show experiences and skills
- Duke of Edinburugh award to explain leadership, communciation and teamwork
- Creating your own video game, having a high number of social media followers or starting a PT business to show creative and innovation
- Studying for an exam for time management
- School sickness record for relibaility
Interview Communication.
The way a teenager communicates influences how the interviewers view the teenager; suitable or unsuitable.
Communication starts when the interviewer first meets the teenager. A teenager can make a positive first impression by:
- Smiling, as this creates likability
- Offering a firm handshake, as this shows confidence
- Dressing smart to be viewed as being serious
- Communicating confidnelty to help an employer see your worth
- A strong, and warm, intorduction
During the interview, confident communication is when:
- A teenager talks at a slow pace, using clear language – don’t mumble or use filler words
- Answers are detailed using the SAP interview answer structure
- Listening skills are used to help understand the interview question
To increase confidence
- Take long deep breathes prior to the job interview
- Use exercie to release stress on the day of the interview
- Drink water to wet the mouth (nerous teenagers suffer from dry mouth symdrome)
- Visualise yourself doing well during the job interview
- Practice interview answers
- Complete vocal warm-ups, just as singers do, before setting off for the interview
What a teenager should take to an interview.
A teenager job interview is very similar to an adult job interview.
The employer will ask for certain items to be brought to the interview, depending on the job role. In most cases, the teenager won’t be asked to bring anything.
To help stand out, and the show preparation it is good to bring the following to a teenager interview:
- Qualifications/certifcates
- CV
- List of questions to ask the employer
Commonly asked teenager job interview questions.
- Tell me about yourself and how what you did at school/college?
- What do you know about the job role and the day to day duties?
- What skills do you have the are relevant to this postion?
- Give me an example of communicating with others?
- How would you fit in with the team?
- How would you balance working and studying at the same time?
- (for PT jobs) What hours can you work? (for FT jobs) Can you work overtime if needed?
- Give me an example of being reliable?
- What do you prefer, doing thing syour own way or following orders?
- Do you have any questions for us?
Job interview answers.
Tell me about yourself and how what you did at school/college?
- Talk about school projects, volunteering and work experience and descibe any stand out achivements – being a prefect, being the captain of a sports team, being on the debate team
What do you know about the job role and the day-to-day duties?
- Use a ‘job profile’ to research the required job duties and list these to the employer
What skills do you have the are relevant to this position?
- Give examples of how others have described you IE ‘my teacher always said I was reliable…’
Give me an example of communicating with others?
- Use the SAP structure here. Ensure you talk about listening as well as communication. Listening to a sports coach and communicating this to the team members, is a good example.
How would you fit in with the team?
- Start by saying how you are a good team member, and how you can (lead/motivate/support) others. follow this with a SAP example
How would you balance working and studying at the same time?
- This question is about time management. Discuss diary management, using reminders and planning your worklaod
(for PT jobs) What hours can you work? (for FT jobs) Can you work overtime if needed?
- Be positive and show flexibility when you can
Give me an example of being reliable?
- Another chance to use the SAP structure. Explain a situation when someone needed to rely on you. State how you went out of your way to be there for them.
What do you prefer, doing things your own way or following orders?
- As a teenager, the employer in most cases wants you to follow their orders. Say, that you can work on your own when needed, but as this is a new job you would follow the orders of more experience colleagues
Do you have any questions for us?
- See below
What should a teenager ask in a job interview.
At the interview end, it is good for a teenager to ask the employer questions about the company and job role:
- Do you offer apprentciehsip schemes?
- Do you have mentors for new starters?
- What will my first week look like?
- Will I being working in one department or getting experiences of different job roles.
- What is the company culture like?
Don’t ask about:
- Pay
- Holidays
- or Time off
