Congratulations! You have cleared the first selection hurdle and secured an interview with an Agency/a Sponsor. Now you need to wow them with your presence as you handle interview questions and answers for working abroad. Answering interview questions is your chance to show that you have the right capabilities, attitude, and motivation to be a participant in Work and Travel Program.

Learn about the Work and Travel Program beforehand

Before the interview, learn all you can about the program, what the program is all about, why the program does even exist, what are the advantages of being a participant and etc. Go into your interview well-informed, and ask specific questions about the program. Your interviewer will notice that you’ve done your homework!

Be yourself, be unique and use facts/metrics

“Just be yourself.” It’s an extremely common piece of advice for many different types of situations, including interviews. The intention is to encourage you to relax and not try to be someone else simply because you think that’s what the interviewer is looking for.

Many students prepare for common questions with ‘common answers’. Most probably, your interviewer is familiar with ‘common answers’ and can detect if you us those. Thus, it’s important to be unique and have your own answers. It’s equally important to have specific goals. Let’s see the difference:

• I want to travel the U.S.
• I would like to travel to Niagara Falls in New York and take a boat tour and get wet; My major is finance, I have been fascinated by watching the Wolf of Wall Street movie and would like to visit Wall Street in Manhattan and a get a picture in front of NYSE, and visit inside NYSE if I can.   

Of course, the latter sounds better. Why? Because, there are specific goals in the sentence.

Common questions:

• Can you tell me about yourself?
• Where do you study? What is your major?
• Have you been abroad before?
• What are your hobbies?
• Why do you want to participate in the Work and Travel Program?

Now you know how to prepare for an international interview (and what questions to expect)! When crunch time rolls around, remember to relax, smile, and go easy on yourself if you don’t have the perfect answer for all of the questions thrown at you. As long as you make it clear that you have prepared, are confident, motivated, and goal-focused, you’re bound to make a great impression. All the work you put into preparing will be worth it when you get notified that you’re the one!