Risk Management/Insurance Internships: Scheduling and Conducting Interviews

March 2010

So you've posted your job and you're ready to start the interviews! There really isn't much difference in interviewing a college student versus anyone else.

by Brenda Wells, Ph.D., CPCU, AAI

Following are some tips to hopefully make the process easier and more rewarding for both you and the student.

Where To Conduct Interviews

Conduct your initial round of interviews on the campus. You can limit the amount of time spent in each session, schedule them all for 1 or 2 days, and have a dedicated interview area to use. This preliminary interview is a great way to screen out those who aren't a good fit, without wasting their time or your office staff's time by inviting them in to visit your shop.

Call the university's career center for information about their interview facilities. If you have problems getting interview space, check with your professor contacts. I have always been willing to make my office available for interviews, and when that wasn't a good option, I could usually help them find complimentary space somewhere.

Make sure to keep the professors you know in the loop. They can give you advice on what day(s) of the week are best or worst for interviews. A date you may have selected may already conflict with another activity that students will be participating in.

How Much Time?

I recommend 30 minutes at the most for an interview. This could be a student's first "real" professional interview, and they may be quite nervous. You'll be able to tell enough about each candidate that you can definitely eliminate some and create a short list of people for second interviews.

Getting the Word Out

Once you know where and when you want to conduct the interviews, you'll need to determine the best way you can to get word to the students. Campus career centers usually have a mechanism for blast-e-mailing many students at once.

This is a great day, by the way, to visit with your professor contacts. See if they are available for lunch, and spend some time with them finding out more about the program and the students you are interviewing. If they can't join you, find out if a department chair or even a dean may have time for you. You won't know unless you ask, and it is important to let the administration know that the risk management and insurance profession is alive, well, and hiring.

What To Ask?

You of course are trying to find out if the students you talk to can and will do the job you have in mind. The basic questions about skills and background—Can you type? Do you have any office experience? What software packages do you know?—should all be written down beforehand so you can get the information you really need about each candidate. I would recommend making up a form and copying it so you have one for each candidate. List all the questions you want to make sure you ask, and leave space for note taking. If you do 6, 8, or 10 of these interviews in one day, it may be hard to remember who said what if you don't take good notes.

I do recommend saving those "stumper" questions for your older, more seasoned full-time candidates. Sure, you may interview someone who is prepared for them (I supply students with an extensive list of practice questions to prepare them). But you're selling your company during this process, and you are being evaluated not just by this student, but by everybody he or she talks to about the interview experience. Trust me: they do talk to each other (and to their professors).

Now, I'm sure my readers know better than to ask any illegal questions, but let me tell you about the time I was in college and the risk manager for a Fortune 500 company asked one of my classmates something I have not forgotten to this day. It went along the lines of, "You mean to tell me that as a woman, if I called you at 2:00 in the morning and told you to get on a plane to Europe at 6:00 a.m., you'd actually be ready, and you'd go?" Seriously, we all knew that was asked, and it forever colored our perceptions of that company.

The flipside of that is in spite of the obnoxious nature of the question, he probably did her a favor by offending her. She would have made a huge mistake going to work there and then finding out how little he thought of the "girls." But nonetheless, he eliminated a lot of very talented individuals from considering that company further by asking such an offensive question.

Some questions you might consider asking include:

1. Where are you from? (a great ice breaker)
2. What's your major? What made you choose that major? What has been your favorite class in college? How about your least favorite?
3. How many and which insurance courses have you taken? If you haven't taken any, do you plan on taking some?
4. What software packages do you know? Are you proficient in Microsoft Office? Which of those packages (Word, Excel, Access, etc.) do you prefer to use?
5. Which jobs or hobbies have you enjoyed the most? What did you do, and what did you like about it?
6. How much were you thinking would be reasonable pay per hour for an internship that lasts ____ weeks and requires ____ hours of work every week?

Remember … We Were All There Once!

If you see a candidate panicking or otherwise freezing up, do your best to reassure them that you understand they're nervous, and remind them that you're only trying to get to know them. And try to be a bit forgiving if things don't go so smoothly. Everyone has to start somewhere in terms of learning interview skills, and yours may be the first "real" interview the 20-year-old has ever been through.

Getting to the Pay Issue

One question I would always ask is, "How much do you expect to earn per hour, or what range of pay do you think is fair to make it worth your while to come and work for us for 8 weeks?" If the candidate comes in asking for a lot more than you planned on paying, don't assume she won't ultimately take the job. It may just be that her expectations need a slight adjustment towards reality. If you hear the same pay range from most of the candidates, start aiming for that target.

Don't be offended if the candidate asks for an outrageous amount of money. I once had a student who knew someone working in cell phone sales who was making $27 an hour when the rest of the students were typically making around $10 at various jobs. When that was mentioned in an interview, the interviewer was completely turned off by the student's suggestion of such a high compensation amount. Sometimes people need a dose of reality, and you are just the gentle soul who can give it to them!

To be completely candid, I cannot imagine any internship paying less than $10–$12 an hour and having many takers. In New York or Los Angeles, I suspect it's more like $16 to $20 an hour. I'm giving you this as a starting point to work from. Do your homework, and you'll get a feel very quickly for the right amount.

Create Your Short-List

After this first round of interviews, you can definitely narrow down your choices. Perhaps some of the candidates were just not acceptable, period, and you know it would waste your time and theirs to pursue things further. It's nice to let them know that you're seeking other candidates or options so they aren't waiting to hear from you.

I would make a phone call to the top two or three candidates and let them know you'd like them to come in for an interview soon. Just remember that classes can be very inflexible sometimes, and, scheduling interviews especially during the mid-semester or end-of-semester periods can be really challenging for the student. But it is important for them to see your operation and meet prospective coworkers, so this interview is very important.

Be candid with any other students you've interviewed. Odds are they will hear that their classmates got an interview, so there's no sense in trying to hide that fact. Just keep the explanation simple with a short letter that says you are still working on candidate screening and will be in touch with them soon to let them know their status.

Good luck with this process! In my next installment, I'll talk more about the final hiring and selection process. In the meantime, if you have points or issues you'd like to see addressed, or have some internship success/failure stories, I'd love to hear from you.

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