Camp Counselor Interview Questions

Camp Counselor Interview QuestionsCamp Counselor Interview QuestionsCamp counselors provide guidance, oversee activities for campers, and perform many other valuable functions on the job. Summer camps look for applicants who love working with kids, enjoy outdoor activities, have stronginterpersonal skills,and excellentcommunication skills. Be aya to highlight your credentials in yourresume and cover letters, as well as during job interviews. While some summer camps offer part-time positions, employment opportunities exist for full-time counselors as well. There are also other positions to consider if youre interested inspending the summer working at a camp. During an interview for a camp counselor position you may be asked various types of interview questions, as your interviewer will want to make sure that youre a good fit for both the jobandcampculture. Learn how toprepare for an interviewand arm yourself for success by reviewing the following list of specificinterview questions. Preparing for Your Camp Counselor Interview To prepare for your interview, review the job posting and other information you can find thatlists thejobrequirements. Also review your resume and be prepared to discuss and highlight any experiences you have had thatdemonstrate your ability to meet those requirements. This especially helps with behavioral and situational interview questions. Because many people interviewing for camp counselor jobs are high school and college students with limited work experience, its perfectly acceptable to include relevant experiences from school or other activities in your interview answers. Before the interview, research the camp for which you are interviewing. Carefully review the camps website andotherinformation writtenelsewhereonline. Get a feel for the camps mission, the structure of the camp, the population of campers you would be working with, and the camp culture. Types of Interview Questions Camp counselor interviews may include a numbe r of types of questions. Youll find that many are common interview questions that apply to any positions, such as questions about your employment history, education, and your skills and qualifications for the job. You may also be askedquestions about yourself, including queries about your personality and work style. Expect some of your interview questions to be behavioral.Behavioral interview questionsask you to explain how you dealt with past experiences. For a camp counselor interview, manybehavioral interview questionswill be about how you have handled conflict or issues that have come up with similar groups of children, peers, or coworkers in the past. You will likely also be askedsituational interview questions. These are similar to behavioral interview questions, in that they ask you about different work experiences. However, situational interview questions concern how you would handle a futurescenariorelated to your job as a counselor. For example, an interviewer might ask ho w you would handle a difficult situation with a camper. The following specific questions, sorted by category, will go a long way toward getting you prepared for many of the interview questions the camp administrators have planned for you. Personal Interview Questions These questions are designed to determine whether you are a good fit for a summer job as a counselor. What qualifications do you have that make you suitable for this position?Are you a team player?Do you prefer to work alone or with others?How do you handle stressful situations?What do you do when you dont know the answer to a question?What made you want to be a camp counselor?Did you attend camp as a child? What did you like about it? What did you dislike? Questions About Working with Children Employers will also want to know about your experience working with children. If you dont have formal work experience, mention babysitting, volunteering, or anyotherrelevantexperiencewith children. With what age groups do you have experience working?What do you like about working with kids?What are the top three qualities everyone who works with children must have to succeed?What sorts of activities would you do with a group of children ages 5-6?Do you hope to have a career working with children? Behavioral Interview Questions Hiring managers ask behavioral interview questions as a way to discover how you would act in a particular situation. Explain a time when you had a conflict with a friend, coworker, or employer. Who welches involved? What was the conflict? What was the outcome?Tell me about a time that you helped resolve a particularly difficult issue with a child.Give an example of a time that you changed a childs emotions from frustration or sadness to happiness.Tell me about a time (at work or school) when you acted as a leader for a group of people. Name a type of activity you would do with children of this age group.Tell me about a time when you put the needs of another(or others)ahead of your own.Who was the person? What was the situation and how did it go? Situational Interview Questions The interviewerasks these types of questions to determine how you would handle situations thatmayarise in your job as a counselor, if you were to be hired. What would you do if one of your campers refused to do an activity with the rest of the group?What would you do if it was raining and you had a group of twenty campers to entertain?How would you handle a child who was misbehaving and not following instructions?What would you do if a parent was angry with you for the way you handled a situation with their child?Imagine one of your campers is homesick and wants to go home. What would you do? Questions About the Camp Take the time to learn as much as you can about the camp before you go to the interview, so youre comfortable responding to questions about why youre a match for the job. Why would you be a good fit for our camp?Whatmadeyou decide to interview for our camp rather than another? Work through the questions and focus on brief, yet informative answers. Work in anyapplicable personal storiesandrelevant accomplishmentsofwhich you are proud, and which can help you come across as a confident, capable, and experienced candidate for hire.