Interview Questions and Answers
Formulate and rehearse answers to the questions every first interview asks.
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Draft, then cut. Most first answers to tell me about yourself run three minutes and cover the wrong material, and the useful work is deciding what to leave out. The situation-action-result frame on the conflict question is worth teaching explicitly, since it converts a rambling story into a structure. The do you have any questions item is the one students skip and interviewers notice. Twenty minutes covers three or four questions properly.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentPresent the item and wait 5 seconds of quiet before helping.Log as correct
- PromptAsk 'What's your first step?' or 'What would you say here?'Log as cued
- Two choicesOffer two responses and talk through which one fits the situation better.Log as cued
- ModelRole-play it yourself first, then the student tries it.Log as cued
Adjust it
Give the student a written script to read from during the role-play.
Drop the script, and play a less helpful partner who asks a follow-up question.
Matching IEP goal
Given a real-life scenario, Student will give a clear, appropriate response in 4 of 5 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than one prompt.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
Eight questions and what belongs in the answers: tell me about yourself — what belongs and what does not; why do you want to work here — draft a two-sentence answer; tell me about a time you handled a conflict — use situation, action, result; what's your availability — state it in days and hours; do you have any questions for us — name two good ones. Every one of these is predictable, which means every one can be prepared.
What to listen for
Listen for answers that are true but useless. I'm a hard worker is an answer with no evidence in it, and asking for the example that proves it is the whole coaching. Watch the weakness question, where students either deny having one or confess something disqualifying — the useful shape is a real weakness plus what they do about it.
Carrying it home
A family member can ask these eight questions in ten minutes. What helps most is asking a follow-up rather than accepting the first answer, since real interviewers do.
What's in this activity
- 'Tell me about yourself.' -- what belongs in the answer, and what doesn't?
- 'Why do you want to work here?' -- draft a two-sentence answer.
- 'What's a weakness of yours?' -- how do you answer honestly and still get hired?
- 'Tell me about a time you handled a conflict.' -- use situation, action, result.
- 'What's your availability?' -- state it in days and hours.
- 'Do you have any questions for us?' -- name two good ones.
- What do you say when you don't know the answer?
- What do you say at the very end of the interview?
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- Ninth through twelfth, under transition and vocational goals.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all eight questions play with no account.
- Why is this a language target?
- Because it is discourse under pressure — formulating an organised answer to an open question, in real time, to a stranger. That is a language demand before it is an employment one.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.