Congratulations! You have been invited to an interview at one of the companies you applied to. This is a great success! Always bear in mind that other applicants have not been invited and that the company was impressed by your application. Now it is time to convince them personally that you are the right person for the internship. But almost as important is that you should take the opportunity to find out whether you like the company and the people there as well. Even if a company wants you as an intern it does not necessarily mean that you have to go there if you did not like the people you meet during the interview days. So use the opportunity to ask the questions you would like to have answers to.

An Expert's Opinion

Kathrin Mink Head of HR-Marketing Capgemini Consulting "You should have a fairly broad knowledge of the current economic situation. Also, it is always useful to get background information about your potential employer. Try to learn as much as you can about the way consultancies work. Each consultancy has its own style, consulting approach and its own way of dealing with employees."

There are great ways to prepare yourself for an interview. Most important is to read their website carefully. If the company has a career website, be sure to inform yourself about their corporate culture and how they see themselves. Sometimes they even have put up some information about the interviews or the general recruitment process. In addition: browse the Web! If you search for "interview preparation" - or the respective term in your language - and the company name you should find blog or forum entries from people who have already done interviews at the school.

Generally speaking, most interviewers at companies ask similar kinds of questions:

• E.g., marketing: What is a SWOT analysis? What differentiates services from tangible products and how do you need to adapt your marketing strategy?
• Sometimes, there can even be little case studies that test your analytical or logical skills. If you apply for an internship in consulting for instance, you might be asked to work on an adapted client project for an hour and then present your solution or strategy to a team of consultants.

More important than your actual answers is often how you present yourself and your solution. Of course, there is no sense in convincingly presenting a completely wrong answer but make sure that your sentences do end with a period and not a question mark.