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Tips and trends for modern recruiting

Find the talent you’re looking for

While entry level candidates today are likely to do their research on employers before the interview stage, interviews might be the first human connection in their job search process. Good interview questions for students and new grads offer an engaging touchpoint and customize the candidate experience, while helping you assess for the most qualified candidates.

Here are 50 sample questions to ask in an interview with college students and recent grads. Consider adding some of these to your rubric and asking the same questions to each candidate for fair scoring.



General background & icebreakers

1. Tell me a little about yourself and what led you to this interview.

2. What are three words your professors or peers would use to describe you?

3. Why did you choose your major, and how has it shaped what you’re looking for in a career?

4. What excites you most about starting your career?

5. What’s a class project or extracurricular accomplishment you’re most proud of?

6. If you had a superpower, what would it be?



Work ethic & motivation

7. What motivates you to do your best work?

8. Can you share an experience where you had to push yourself outside your comfort zone?

9. Tell me about a time you had to meet a tight deadline. How did you handle it?

10. What does success look like to you in your first six months at a new job?

11. How do you stay organized when juggling multiple responsibilities?



Problem-solving & critical thinking

12. Tell me about a time you faced a challenge and how you approached solving it.

13. Describe a time when you encountered a problem on a group project. How did you help solve it?

14. How do you handle constructive criticism? Can you share an example?

15. If you were given an unfamiliar task with no instructions, how would you move forward?



Teamwork & collaboration

16. Describe a group project where you had to work with different personalities. How did you navigate it?

17. Have you ever had a disagreement with a teammate? How did you resolve it?

18. What role do you typically take in a team or group setting?

19. Tell me about a time you helped a teammate succeed.

20. How would you handle collaborating with people who have different work styles?



Communication skills

21. Give an example of a time you had to explain something complex to someone with no prior knowledge of the topic.

22. How do you handle miscommunication in a professional setting?

23. Have you ever had to present in front of a group? How did you prepare?

24. What strategies do you use to ensure your written communication is clear and professional?

25. How would you approach giving feedback to a peer or colleague?



Adaptability & learning mindset

26. How do you handle unexpected changes or challenges?

27. Tell me about a time you had to learn a new skill quickly.

28. What’s a mistake you’ve made, and what did you learn from it?

29. How do you stay up to date with industry trends or new knowledge related to your field?

30. Can you describe a situation where you had to be flexible and adjust your approach?



Internships, work experience & leadership

31. What did you learn from your internships or part-time jobs that will help in this role?

32. Describe a time you took on a leadership role, even if you weren’t the official leader.

33. Have you ever had to work on a project with minimal guidance? How did you handle it?

34. What’s one of the most important lessons you’ve learned from a past job or internship?

35. Tell me about a time you received feedback at work and how you applied it.



Technical & role-specific questions

36. What skills from your coursework or internships do you think will be most valuable in this role?

37. Describe a time you used [industry-specific skill] in a real-world setting.

38. If you were given a project in [specific field], what would your first steps be?

39. What tools, software, or technology have you worked with that are relevant to this role?

40. How do you approach learning a new technical skill or tool?



Company & role interest

41. Why do you want to work for our company?

42. What interests you most about this role?

43. How does our company mission align with your values and goals?

44. What do you know about our industry, and how do you see yourself contributing?

45. If you join our team, what’s one thing you’d be excited to learn or work on?



Future goals & career aspirations

46. Where do you see yourself in three to five years?

47. What’s one skill you hope to develop in your first job?

48. If you could create your ideal career path, what would it look like?

49. What qualities should a work environment have to help you succeed?

50. What does professional growth mean to you, and how do you plan to achieve it?



Meet entry level talent where these job interview questions

Personalizing interview questions for students and new grads helps create a positive candidate experience, while enabling you to assess skills, adaptability, and cultural fit. Gen Z views the recruitment and hiring process as a two-way exchange, so reframing your interview process can make or break your brand with top talent.







50 questions to ask in an interview with entry-level talent

Winning over early talent requires early and consistent investment throughout the campus to career journey. Learn tips and best practices from Handshake’s network of students, career centers, and employers. Key findings include:

A hybrid event strategy is still important in 2025

You can improve your fair and event ROI with follow-up

Strong early ID programs tailor experiences to nurture top talent

And more

2025 Campus to career report

A job description is often a candidate’s first impression of your organization—and one of your most impactful opportunities to stand out from the crowd. So how do you write a job description that attracts the entry level talent you're trying to reach?

Some of the things that students and recent grads look for in a job description include:

What type of position is this?

Will this role help me gain experience?

What is the salary?

What are the perks and benefits?

Do I meet the qualifications?

Where is the position located, or is it remote?

Does this job require work authorization?

What is this employer’s reputation?

What are the employer’s values?

What makes this employer and this job special?

From writing with inclusive language to highlighting the skills that can be learned on the job, use the following five tips to uplevel your job descriptions and attract entry level job seekers.

Best practices for writing job descriptions for early talent

1. Use a relevant job title for entry level talent

Consider how students might search for your role and treat potential job titles like keywords. Be literal—new job seekers want and need consistency. Ensure the title in the job description is the same everywhere you post and promote your role. For example, if you're hiring for a position your industry commonly refers to as a “Business Development Specialist,” but you title it “B2B Corporate Sales” on your job post, you could miss out on potential pipeline.

2. Focus on skills, not experience

For your job description to resonate with early talent, you may need to rethink what’s required to be successful in your entry level roles. Of course, most recent grads have 0-5 years of experience, so you don’t want to put in a job description that 5 years of experience is required.

Shift to skills-based hiring by sourcing for skills, coursework, and certifications so that the job description is relevant to someone just starting out in their career. Highlight skills that a student can learn on the job to excite them about the opportunity to grow professionally. In addition to technical or hard skills, help students and job seekers easily identify which soft skills you’re looking for, too.

3. Write with inclusive language

As the most diverse generation yet, it’s no surprise that Gen Z uses diversity as a criteria for their evaluation of a job. In fact, more than 60% of Gen Zers indicated that they either always or usually research company leadership diversity, according to a Handshake Network Trends report.

Gen Z job seekers factor values alignment into decisions about where to buy and where to work. Your job description should highlight your mission, your values, and your culture, and be written using inclusive language. Job descriptions are an important part of your overall DEI strategy, too; for example, the term "hacker" can be perceived as gendered, so use "engineer" or "developer" instead.

4. Remove or loosen requirements

One way to help your role stand out to Gen Z is to be upfront about the application process. Clearly outline the steps, estimated timelines, and any required materials so they can plan accordingly. Transparency not only helps candidates feel more prepared but also builds trust in your organization from the start. By addressing their potential concerns early, you demonstrate empathy and respect for their time, which can make your company stand out in a competitive hiring landscape.

Keep in mind that many students are open to a range of industries regardless of their major; for example, last year, computer science students submitted only around half their applications to tech companies, with the remainder going to industries like manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, and government.

5. State compensation and benefits

Gen Z values clear expectations for potential earnings alongside competitive benefits like flexible work schedules, tuition assistance, and learning stipends.  For example, if you’re not currently including in your job description that the role offers learning and development benefits, you could be missing out on talent: almost 9 in 10 undergrads say learning and development benefits are either important or essential when evaluating a job opportunity.

You can also showcase opportunities for building social connection and community, such as through ERGs or volunteering. As early career professionals explore where to live, how to start paying off student loans, and the type of culture they are drawn to, these are important details for marketing your open roles.

Many states now require pay transparency to comply with evolving legislation, making it critical for employers to stand out. By meeting these requirements and offering meaningful benefits, you can attract top talent and stay ahead in the competitive hiring landscape.

Reach the candidates you want with improved job descriptions

Writing engaging, inclusive, and clear job descriptions takes practice and patience—but the payoff is worth it. Once you update your job descriptions, you can better attract early career candidates excited to apply—and see a future with your employer.

Get detailed instructions on how to post a job on Handshake.

5 tips to improve your job description and attract early talent

Learn more about HBCU students

Explore how to use Handshake to partner with HBCU career services

Get best practices for tailoring your campus engagement

HBCU recruiting guide

Lean team, big impact: How Manassas City Public Schools achieved a 25x boost in applicants.

MoLo Solutions is a transportation and logistics company, and its hiring goals are a moving target, too. But even with ever-changing industry and market conditions, MoLo’s talent team understands the importance of maintaining their brand recognition and building a consistent candidate pipeline. When their needs change, they’ll be prepared.

Caitlin Roth, Manager, Talent at MoLo sat down with Handshake to discuss how her team’s early talent attraction strategy is both responsive to the market and proactive for the future.

Can you describe your early talent hiring program?

Our early talent hiring program is ever changing. Our goals can be as high as hiring over 300 people in one year, but they're always a moving target because our hiring goals are actually very dependent on the transportation market. We’re typically hiring for entry level sales and customer service, evergreen positions as well as summer internship programs.


The biggest challenge that our industry is facing has to do with the transportation market, because it’s very dependent on the economy. But even in times of uncertainty, my team understands the importance of maintaining our brand recognition among students, and building a consistent pipeline of candidates…so that when our needs do change, we are prepared.

Let’s dig into how your broad school network enables scalable outreach and high-touch candidate engagement. Last year MoLo received applications from 318 of your partner schools, a 119% increase from the previous year. Can you speak to how your school partner strategy has helped you achieve the quantity, quality, and diversity that you were looking for?

With such a lean team, it is not feasible for us to travel to all of the schools that we receive applications from. We typically travel regionally to colleges and universities located near our offices, but School Explorer has been a great tool within Handshake that my team has used to determine which schools we visit in person and virtually. There are so many great search functionalities within School Explorer that we’ve used to research which schools have supply chain and sales programs, diversity and inclusion focused organizations, specific locations students are interested in. Then we’re able to target our campaigns and messages, for example, to those students saying that we know they're interested in those areas.

How you think about the schools you’ll visit in-person vs. where you’ll do virtual events, and can you give us a sense of the types of events you host?

Since we typically only travel regionally, we really leverage Handshake to host a lot of virtual events at schools that are located all across the country. We've hosted informational branding sessions to talk about who MoLo is and what we do, since third party logistics isn’t as well-known as other industries. We've done intern and alumni meet and greets, and skill based events where we've taught students sales skills, networking skills, resume building skills so that they can walk away from the events with something beneficial to them and their professional development. We've also hosted a lot of underrepresented group focus panels through Handshake, like with our Women in Supply Chain ERG. So that's something I'm really proud of.

Tell us about your "Shadow Day" event, and how you’ve used Handshake to source students for this opportunity.

This is an experience where students get to come visit our Chicago office and see what a day in the life looks like working at MoLo. Not only do you get an understanding of the industry, you get to see the positions that you could potentially be working in, and experience our culture firsthand. We use Segments to source candidates who are located in Chicago or whose location preferences indicate Chicago, who also have an interest in the transportation industry. That made the invitations really segmented and ensured that we were inviting the right people to build those relationships with. 

We invite a range of students from first years to seniors, so we start that early talent pipeline and the relationships with those students, but then can capture the juniors and seniors that are eligible for our internship and full time opportunities as well.

Two smart actions that have resulted in successful proactive sourcing for MoLo have been sending campaigns and hosting events. This is incredible: you’ve seen a 94% increase in job views and a whopping 477% increase in event RSVPs! Can you share how your high-touch outreach strategies have helped you build your brand, fill your pipeline, and see ROI?

My team and I have gotten really creative with our messaging in terms of subject lines, formatting, and content. We even got the idea to do this by attending several Handshake webinars to better understand how to attract Gen Z candidates, and then use that information to tailor the messaging in our Campaigns to be very personalized and specific to what these candidates are looking for.


But it's about so much more than just sending the right messages. It's about sending them to the right people. So using tools like Segment filters and Top Matches within Handshake helps us manage our outreach to students to promote MoLo leading up to the events and fairs that we're attending or hosting to make sure that we're meeting the right people. Which ultimately maximizes our ROI.

In 2024, MoLo received a Handshake Early Talent Award—congrats! Can you tell us how you’re building a culture that attracts students and recent grads?

I’m incredibly proud of my team's work over the past year and so grateful for the recognition we've received for the experience we create both for our candidates and our employees that we're bringing into the organization every single year. We've done so much research, you know, through Handshake webinars and through our own surveys to understand what our current employees want and need to be successful, and what Gen Z new hires and interns are looking for. And we are always implementing that feedback and the information and data. 

I'm really proud to be a part of an organization like MoLo that is people first, and truly believes in hands on training, support, and mentorship so that we can set up all of our interns and new hires for the best successful careers that they could have ever imagined.

Learn more about MoLo’s award-winning program.




Staying prepared through market conditions: Q&A with MoLo Solutions on building a consistent candidate pipeline

As one of the world’s largest food companies with more than 30,000 employees, General Mills seeks top talent to support its purpose of making food the world loves. 

Recruiting at college campus events has been a successful way for General Mills to achieve its talent acquisition strategic goals, from exposure to hire. And when in-person opportunities aren’t available, hosting virtual events has been a great extension to their traditional recruitment. In fact, about one-third of their early talent hiring is a result of having a strong virtual events strategy.

General Mills’ Campus Talent Acquisition and Talent Brand Leader, Elizabeth Diley, sat down with Handshake to chat about best practices for campus recruiting events, and the impact of brand building with early talent during the most formative period of career discovery.

Advice for planning campus recruiting events that convert

What

General Mills has developed a dynamic events strategy to educate students about career opportunities within the company. This comes to life through sharing practical advice, storytelling, and authentic interaction with current employees throughout the business. For example, through General Mills events, students can practice their networking skills, hear about the company’s sustainability efforts and impact, or get interviewing tips.

Advice: Host events that are true to your brand. If students don’t RSVP or show up to your events, take a look at your messaging content, and even your culture. What attracts a student to an event is informed by more than just an email invite.

Who

General Mills partners with Handshake to reach students at schools across the US. General Mills is represented at events by employees across the business, including members of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), former interns, and C-level executives.

Advice: Highlight your people as much as your product. Part of bringing your story to life is about who is telling your company’s stories.

Where

While General Mills has a strong in-person presence at their set of core schools, they maximize resources and reach through virtual events—ensuring they tap into top talent nationwide. Virtual events make it easier to scale their search and identify qualified top talent at the most schools possible. For example, one of their recent virtual recruitment events attracted more than 1,500 registrants.

Advice: Are there regions, groups, or schools where you need to do some more education on opportunities that your company offers to early career talent?

When

Their events strategy is tied to their recruiting cycle, which includes an event in the spring when summer internships open up. This timing offers students early access to apply, which ensures events are converting into pipeline for the talent team. Even though events are hosted during peak campus recruiting season, General Mills adapts their virtual strategy throughout the year based on business needs and hiring requirements.

Advice: Events should result in inbound applications during peak recruiting seasons and should be utilized for awareness and exposure during off-peak seasons. Every year, your events can look different depending on where you want to hone in.

Why

General Mills’ strategy is driven by the desire to cultivate talent and foster a deeper connection with students who are both potential employees and consumers of their products. By presenting their company culture in an authentic and engaging manner, General Mills aims to attract top talent who resonate with their values.

Advice: Poll students for feedback after events and look to those results for where you can improve—or to show your leadership.

A virtual events strategy that translates to ROI

General Mills can attribute a lot of their candidate conversion to their events strategy. Of course, for a company whose brands are in a majority of people’s homes, their name recognition is admittedly a door opener. But that doesn’t mean students know what to expect from the application process, the employee experience, or know how a brand comes to life through its workforce.

General Mills has built a college recruiting event strategy that offers students ways to navigate their career paths with confidence and clarity. That translates to ROI for students, and ROI for General Mills.

Learn more about why General Mills is one of the best places to launch early careers.