Interviewing for your Internship

There are 2 types of interviews that you will most likely have to complete in the process of applying for an internship with us at a company in Barcelona. 

The first interview is with one of our advisors and the second interview is with the company itself. Below are some tips for navigating both interviews and how to make a good impression.

As part of your application to the program, you will be asked to submit a resume and cover letter. Our internships team will use these documents to present your profile to prospective companies in Barcelona who may want to host you as an intern. Thus, before sending these documents you should take time to update them with all relevant information and customize them to fit the internship you are looking for. 

1. Update your resume and cover letter with relevant information.

It's important that the documents include your most relevant and up to date academic and professional accomplishments. While an employer may be interested in seeing what you were studying or working on in high school, most of them will be more interested in what you're doing NOW that is related to your studies or what you'd like to do career wise in the future. Employers in Spain are interested in your experience in your field and what you can contribute and learn while at their company. 

On a similar note, don't include anything that's really not relevant to your studies or the internship you're hoping to get. Things like your fraternity/sorority or random summer jobs you did in high school aren't of interest to your potential internship supervisor. Please note that this is not to say that fraternity/sorority or summer job experience is completely banned from your resume, but rather that you should ensure that anything included is genuinely related to your potential internship. For example, if you are in charge of your sorority chapter's social media account and you're applying for a marketing/social media internship, then absolutely list it! :) 

2. Customize your resume and cover letter to fit the internship.

You should edit both documents to align with the internship you're looking for and highlight any skills or experience you have in that area. 

If you don't have any working experience in your desired field that is totally fine, but it's important to show that you are driven and motivated to learn more about the field. For example, list and describe courses you took, projects you worked on, or research you've done in that field. Things like this are way more important to have on your resume than summer job experience or fraternity/sorority involvement.

3. Check out our page on resume and cover letter building for more inspiration! 

Design tools like Canva have free resume templates that are super easy to use and make your own.

One of our program advisors will host an informal interview to learn more about your interests, goals, and expectations for the internship. This is the time for you to describe what you are looking for in a placement, so come prepared with some ideas about what you are looking to gain, things that you would love to see in your internship, and things that you know you definitely wouldn't want in your internship. 

During this interview, the advisor will also informally evaluate your Spanish level. Come prepared to talk about how much Spanish you are looking to speak at your internship and what your level is. It is ok to be a total beginner, as many companies in Barcelona are excited to have English speaking interns.

Interview Outline

1. Your preferences

   • Be prepared to talk about WHAT you’d like to be doing within each field (i.e. Marketing: It is my major and I’m especially interested in social media as well as market analysis)

   • Be specific about what tasks you foresee yourself doing (yet be open to a variety of possibilities!)

2. Your experience

   • Make sure your resume paints a picture of you in the internship you’d like to be doing. If you’d like an internship in International Relations but you only have restaurant experience on your resume, what will that say to an internship placement? Even if you only have volunteer experience or have taken classes in the field of your choice, you should put it on your resume! Please check out your university’s career services office – they will have the best and most individualized resume help.

   • Be ready to talk about what skills you can bring to the placement. An internship is a two-way street. The internship placement is taking the time to train you and they expect that you’ll be able to help them with projects and contribute to their organization.

3. Your goals

   • Be able to clearly express your goals for the internship and the program as a whole.

4. Barcelona

   • What do you know about Barcelona? Please do your research on the city before the Skype interview. For example, did you know that Barcelona is a bilingual city? They speak Spanish AND Catalan.

5. General Information about the Program and Logistics

   • You’ll hear all about the program and have time to ask your own questions.

   • The interviewer will go over the program dates and logistics.

After the interview, the program advisor will inform you of the next steps and confirm whether or not you are accepted into the program. For interns, program acceptance is usually contingent upon if our team feels they can match you with a placement you will be happy with based on what you told us during the interview! 

After acceptance, our internships team will start reaching out to companies in Barcelona on your behalf, sending them your resume, cover letter, and internship profile. 

Sometimes when the internships team finds a good match, the supervisor will want to meet you in order to ask you a few questions and determine if you are the right fit for their company. If this is the case, our program advisor and internships team will connect you via email with the supervisor and propose some times to meet for a videocall. Please note that this interview is not necessary for all placements.

Some tips to nailing your interview with the company:

1. Do research on the company before the interview.

Before the interview, we will provide you with the company website and some tasks you would be expected to do in your internship, but you should perform further investigation to learn more about the company, see what they do, who their customers are, and what their mission is. This will help to impress your supervisor with all that you already know! The key is to show that you are interested and ready to learn from them.

2. Be prepared to talk about your experience and goals.

The supervisor will already have seen your resume and cover letter, but this is a great chance for you to highlight some of your most relevant experience and goals for your internship. Be prepared to tell them what you have in mind for after graduation and what career path you are seeking. It's important to communicate what you're hoping to get out of an internship in their company, given the specific company and tasks you'd be fulfilling. It's also a great idea to mention specifically which internship tasks you're most excited about! 

3. Prepare some questions to show interest!

When doing your research on the company, check out their website and think of a few questions you'd like to ask the supervisor. Don't worry about asking logistical questions (like dress code, office location, internship schedule, etc.), as we will handle all of those details if you are placed with the company! Some question ideas:

• What is the company's goals or core values? 

• What are the traits of a successful intern at the company? 

• What is the company culture like? 

• What was your path into the field or industry? (A question for the supervisor)

• Which of the company's projects are you most excited about right now? (A question for the supervisor)