Job interviews can be a daunting experience, especially if you haven’t got lots of experience. For young people and apprentices, an interview can cause a lot of nerves or worry, thinking about what you might be asked and how you should respond.

Preparation is key when it comes to apprenticeship interviews. Here is a list of typical interview questions you should be prepared to answer.

1. Can you tell me something about yourself?

This will usually be the first question, here you can start by telling the interviewer who you are, what you do and your goals. Try to make a strong first impression by keeping your goal relevant to the apprenticeship you’re applying for and talking about your experience in the sector.

2. Why do you want to work at our company?

Employers want apprentices who really want to work for the company and are motivated to work for them. Make sure you do your research on the organisation in advance and find reasons why you would want to work there.

3. Why should we hire you over other candidates?

Here is your chance to pitch to the employer why your perfect for the role, research the skills they would need for the role and your responsibilities and come up with a reasoning as to why you would be great to carry out them responsibilities. What skills do you have that makes you different to other apprentices.

4. How do you handle conflict in the workplace?

For this question try to give them examples of how you have dealt with conflict in the past, what you did, how you solved it and if the same thing happened in the future how you could go about that situation even better.

5. Where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time?

When responding to the question, think about how your goals align with the job description. You can do this by reflecting on your strengths and interests and how you can develop while adding value to your target role. Make sure that your goals are realistic and aligned with how the employer defines success for the position. Think about how you want to progress after the apprenticeship.

6. How was your lockdown experience?

Here the employer wants to find out how you can adapt to challenging situations, you can talk about your experience in lockdown and how you managed to carry on with your work despite the pandemic and how resilient you can be no matter what comes up.

7. What lessons did you learn during the pandemic?

Here the employer isn’t too interested about what you did during the pandemic but how you made the most out of the situation and the skills and knowledge that you got from that time, how you can bring them to the role. To nail this question, connect your learnings and outcomes to the job’s skills.

8. What impact did the pandemic have on your career plans?

When you respond to the question, make sure to consider the role you’re interviewing for and pitch how your skills and past successes would translate to the new role. It would also be great to mention how you want to advance professionally and the skills you’d like to focus on developing.  

9. What is your preferred working style?

To prepare for this question, you need to do your research to understand your prospective employer’s plans. Think about your goals and prioritise what’s important to you. When it comes to your preference, be as transparent as possible and be clear with your requests and think about what working style will get the best out of you in the apprenticeship.

10. Have you any questions?

Hear you can voice any questions you have about the role, it’s very important you ask at least two questions as it just looks better to the employer rather than asking nothing about the role. You can ask things such as the progression routes, training sessions or OTJ hours.

Other important things to bear in mind include practicing your answers in advance, know who you are meeting and embrace some positive self-talk. Good luck and don’t forget to close on a positive, enthusiastic note.

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