Questions to Ask a Teenager in an Interview: A Guide for Hiring Managers, Program Leads, and Counselors
Interviewing a teenager for a first job, a summer program, an internship, or a volunteer role calls for a different approach than interviewing an adult with years of work history to draw on. The questions to ask a teenager in an interview need to account for limited experience, first-time nerves, school schedules, and, in many places, specific rules about what you can legally ask a minor. Hiring managers, camp directors, program coordinators, and school counselors who reuse an adult interview script on a 15- or 17-year-old candidate usually get short, rehearsed answers that reveal almost nothing about the person in front of them. This guide covers which questions actually surface a teenager's judgment and potential, how to structure the conversation so a nervous first-time candidate can show their real thinking, and where the legal and ethical boundaries sit when the person you're interviewing is a minor.