Sample Interview Questions for students who hold campus leadership roles:
Student leaders on campus hold highly marketable traits that are valuable to employers, and when going through the interview process, being prepared for questions about their student leadership roles and experience in a professional setting is crucial to your interview success. When answering questions in regards to your student leader experience, it is important to utilize the STAR tool.
S-Situation
T-Task
A-Action
R-Result
For additional assistance and resources for interviewing visit our interviewing guide [HERE].
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Tell Me About Yourself
Practice an elevator pitch that displays who you are, your major, the athletic teams and extracurriculars you are a part of, and how it translates into the role you are applying for. I am a rising sophomore at Roger Williams University, obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology. I currently serve as a Resident Assistant in Baypoint Residence Hall, this experience has given me transferrable skills in leadership, time management, and teamwork to thrive in a professional environment. I strongly believe my campus involvement and leadership roles at Roger Williams have prepared me for a professional role. -
How do you manage your campus involvement with academics?
Employers are looking to see how successful you are as a problem solver, and time manager, and how you handle multiple projects or deadlines at a time. Speak on your organization and management techniques, for example, utilizing a Calendar or checklists. To keep myself organized as a student leader; I utilize a Calendar heavily. For example, between my leadership role in Barbershop Club and Interclass Council, I make sure to take note of every meeting, event and integrate both into my academic schedule. In order for me to be fully present in my leadership roles, I make sure to add time specifically for my classwork to get done as well as time for myself during busy schedules to reset and relax. -
Tell me about a time you had to jump into a leadership role unexpectedly.
Are you adaptable? Do you take initiative when others won’t? Employers want to know how you show leadership and specific examples of you taking initiative and motivating your organization. As Secretary of the Foundation of the International Medical Relief of Children (FIMRC), Part of my duties are to assist with fundraising events to raise money for our service trip to Ecuador. At our biggest event, our Fundraising Chair unexpectedly got sick and could not attend the event. The advisor needed someone to take charge of the event, and as a leader within the Executive Board, I volunteered to run the event. With the support of my advisor and E-Board, I successfully ran the fundraising event, raising over 2,000 in funds to support our trip to Ecuador. This experience taught me the importance of flexibility and adaptability but also tested my ability as a leader and how to put my role aside to help the organization be successful. -
How would your supervisor or boss describe you?
Employers ask this question to see if you have the ability to build meaningful professional relationships and give you the opportunity to talk about yourself and the strengths you have brought to the club or organization. As someone who always seeks to help others and has a very collaborative approach to my leadership role, I would believe my supervisor would describe me as passionate, kind, and supportive. Our dynamic is built on mutual respect and collaboration, and I am recognized as someone who always is willing to go the extra mile and gives more than 100% in everything I do. -
Describe your leadership style.
Employers typically ask this question to understand what role you take on a team. Are you a leader? A strategist? Employers want to employees who are self-aware and take initiative, how do you articulate your opinion in a team environment? It is important to communicate positive traits that you believe you possess and include examples. My leadership style is based on collaboration, adaptability, and responsibility. I give space for my team to collaborate on big decisions while also holding people accountable. For example, as a Board Chair on Campus Entertainment Network (CEN), I was tasked with managing a team of 13 board members to create a variety of events on campus, collaborated with staff advisors to make sure our goals were being met and our strict timeline was being followed, but also serve as the main point of contact for all CEN inquiries. I found myself relying on collaborating with my team members heavily for input and feedback from events, brainstorming sessions, and support during events. I emphasized the importance of team comradery and group dynamics and provided events for team members to socialize, as a result, our team bonding opportunities lead to our success. -
In what ways have your leadership experiences prepared you for a career?
Your campus involvement has prepared you with transferrable skills that you can connect to a professional position and environment. Although the positions may differ, you can easily adapt how you use a skill for various situations and needs. My time serving on the Multicultural Student Union (MSU) Executive Board, has taught me the importance of communication. During my time at MSU, our primary communication channel was email. At first, the number of emails I had from staff advisors, organization members, potential vendors, or event companies was overwhelming. I learned very quickly proper email etiquette, how to respond to professional staff members, versus, vendors, versus co-workers, and learned essential written communication skills that can be utilized in a professional position. -
Tell me about a difficult leadership challenge you overcame
Student leaders have the inherent skills to manage conflict productively and efficiently. Be sure to include a specific example of how you approach mediating a conflict and your problem-solving process. Your response should focus on how you resolved it to reach a positive outcome. During my time on Interclass Council, we had a board member who violated our Code of Conduct, and as a result, we had to give them demerits. It was a challenging decision to give demerits to a team member who we highly value as a leader and someone who is also a close friend. We approached the situation with sincerity and displayed no bias, I communicated that the decision was not intended to be personal, but purely a violation of the code of conduct. During our conversation, we made sure to clearly explain the violation and outline the consequences of their actions. The experience was difficult to penalize a close friend, but I learned the importance of approaching a situation with limited bias and enforcing the organizational standard despite personal relations -
What is the most valuable takeaway you have had from college involvement?
In your response, be sure to focus on the soft skills you honed through your leadership. Interviewers want to hear about leadership traits like your ability to ensure integrity, reach consensus, build relationships, communicate delegate, inspire, and persuade. The most valuable takeaway from my student leadership experience was working as an Orientation Advisor during the summers. As an Orientation Advisor, I worked four two-day sessions throughout the month of June, leading groups of 10-20 students through Orientation activities, speakers, and class registration. I thrive off of collaboration and human connection, therefore the opportunity to share my experience and connect with first-year students was the most rewarding. I was able to not only speak on my incredible experience at Roger Williams but share the unlimited possibilities the campus offers to explore your passions on campus through clubs and organizations. As a result, I am still in touch with a majority of my orientees, and because of the welcoming and collaborative experience, I provided, many of them applied to the position themselves. -
How do you handle constructive criticism?
Employers look to see how you react to criticism and instruction, therefore, demonstrating you have a fundamental understanding that feedback is intended to help you improve. As a student leader, you are tasked with a multitude of responsibilities, and how you react to criticism on your performance and involvement directly translates to working in a professional environment. As someone who is inherently collaborative, I often look to team members or peers to provide feedback with the intent that their feedback is intended to help me improve. For example, as a radio host at WQRI, our campus Radio station, I was struggling to engage student listeners with my content. I went to my peer members and co-hosts and asks for opinions on how to improve my programming and we came up with a marketing plan and content organization which ended up being a success by the end of the semester. -
Tell me about a time when you had to follow instructions to accomplish a task or goal. How did that process go and what did you learn?
Employers want to know how you follow directions, what steps you take to prepare yourself, and what you took away from that experience. Upon serving as a Traditions Chair on Campus Entertainment Network, there is a comprehensive strategy and rules to booking one of the most highly anticipated campus events, the Spring Concert. We started preparing for the event a semester prior to ensure we had enough time to book an artist, vendors, and reserve spaces. In collaboration with my advisor and co-chair, we came up with a schedule and deadlines for each step of the process to make it more attainable. We followed the schedule closely and worked tirelessly to meet all deadlines. Throughout this experience, I learned the importance of planning, organization, and multi-step processes in event planning. I valued collaboration, flexibility, and patience within this multi-month process.
