HNTB General Intern Interview Questions
& Process

The interviewers were really interested in my background and asked some great follow-up questions. They got straight to the point with their questions but also made space for conversation to get to know my personality. After the interview, they even walked me to the train station.

I applied online in October and then got contacted in late November/early December to see if I was still interested. An HR rep emailed and talked to me on the phone and set up the interview. I told her I could meet on a Wednesday morning or Friday afternoon because it was finals week and I had no flexibility, but she scheduled it for Tuesday. She wasn't happy when I told her that wouldn't work. She also said I would be reimbursed for travel expenses (5.5 hours there and 5.5 hours back), but I never got reimbursed and she didn't respond when I emailed her about it. I was supposed to interview with 3 people, but only 1 showed up. He was super rude and kept interrupting me before I could finish answering. He asked me stuff that wasn't just on my resume, but that I had literally just told him 5 minutes before, like 'Do you have internship experience?' and 'When will you graduate school?'. He also checked his phone multiple times during our meeting and clearly wasn't interested in me or anything I had to say, acting like I was wasting his time. It was really disrespectful, especially since I drove 11 hours to be there. The worst part was when he said projects need to be done on time no matter the quality, and that I was naive for thinking things should be done right the first time. I've interviewed for other internships and jobs before and always gotten an offer, but I've never had such a bad impression of a company after an interview.

It was a phone interview with the VP of rail and finance divisions. There was only one interview total, no recruiter screen or on-site. The call lasted about 30-45 minutes and there's no relocation for interns. They really care about work examples for the decision. The whole process from interview to offer letter takes about 4-6 weeks.