20 interview questions for juniors with little experience
As a hiring manager or business owner, you might need to tailor your standard interview questions when talking to juniors.
This is because your focus should be on potential, not experience. In standard hiring you want to hire the most qualified candidate, but juniors fresh out of university might not have many roles under their belts.
You also have to deal with the fear that your new hire could leave within the first few months. It’s essential that you ask the right questions to be sure that you’re making the right long-term hire for your business.
General interview questions
These questions are a standard feature of any interview. When asking these of juniors, it’s a good way to gauge their preparation and confidence.
With these questions you’re generally looking for answers that imply a long-term interest at your company.
These are also a great way to identify red flags right out of the gate. You don’t want to work with anyone too arrogant, ignorant or mousy!
Why do you want to work for us?
Why are you the right person for the job?
What are your goals?
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
What do you bring to a team?
Role-based interview questions
These questions are about finding out more about the candidate, how they work and what makes them tick.
These questions begin to look at your candidate’s experiences, too.
Here you’ll find out if they actually read your job description, website and if they really have the skills to thrive.
These questions are more focused on attitude, but can be swapped out for questions that more suit the needs of the role.
What can you bring to this role?
What attracted you to this role in particular?
What’s your experience with [software]?
How do you approach a big project?
What role do you play in a team?
Behavioural interview questions
Behavioural interview questions are a tried-and-tested way of putting your candidate on the spot. You’re able to find out about how they work and communicate under pressure – a skill thats’s valuable in every job.
Behavioural interview questions can be intimidating for juniors, but this challenge can bring out the best in them.
If your interviewee has absolutely no work experience, these questions might be a little harder for them to answer.
Tell me about a time you resolved a conflict
Tell me about a time you worked well under pressure
How do you build relationships with clients?
Tell me about a time you communicated well
How have you dealt with authority in the past?
Revealing interview questions
And the final section includes questions that are meant to reveal something about your candidate. Whether that’s how they handle criticism or the companies in your field that they admire.
These questions should hopefully be easy for your candidates to answer!
What company do you admire?
Can you name a product/campaign that stuck with you?
What kind of leader are you?
How have you handled criticism in the past?
What are you proud of?
If these questions aren’t quite what you’re looking for, we have another article about how to interview and hire high performing candidates with more questions!
And if you make your way through every candidate and aren’t impressed, no worries. At DigitalGrads we help you through the interview process by pre-screening your candidates. And if those don’t fit the bill, we always have more all-star backups in the wings.