Mini-Interviews
Your story can change lives. Help us share it.
Thousands of students in our community are eager to learn from your work experiences, life perspectives, challenges, and triumphs. Participate in a Backrs mini-interview, and you empower them to do that.
How Mini-Interviews Work
Our mini-interviews feature questions students have pre-recorded about school, work, and life. Select one or more of these interviews to complete, and our system will guide you in submitting short audio, video, or text responses. Each takes 10-20 minutes and can be done anywhere, anytime.
See an example response:
Start Here
Click “Let’s go!” to answer the 4 questions that Graciela has about your current role.
Your Role
- Please describe your current role and how you spend your time
- What do you appreciate/enjoy about your job?
- What is one aspect of your job you don’t enjoy?
- What is one action you’ve taken that’s contributed to your career success?
Then, Pick a Few Other Mini-Interviews
The more you share about your path, the more intentional our students can be about paving theirs.
Life
Mentors and Networks
1. Can you describe someone outside your immediate family that inspired and/or supported you in high school or college?
2. What, if anything, have you done to foster mentorship or apprenticeship in your life?
3. How have networks of people helped you succeed in school or in your career?
4. How do you build professional relationships? Please be specific.
5. What are the biggest mistakes that you’ve made in developing professional relationships?Answer these questionsHinge Moments
1. Describe an important life decision. Please describe how it came about, what you did, and the implications.
2. Please describe a big transition you've experienced. Do you consider it to have been successful? Why or why not?
3. Describe a time when you seized an opportunity. What did you do and learn?Answer these questionsStruggles
1.Describe a time of emotional duress–sadness, loneliness, fear, and/or shame. How did you eventually emerge from it, if you have?
2. Please describe a period of time in which prolonged, unpleasant effort was required to achieve an objective. In retrospect, was this effort worth it?Answer these questionsMindsets and Values
1.Please describe a mindset or way of thinking you’ve embraced and how it’s helped you.
2. Please describe a mindset or way of thinking that you’ve abandoned over time. Why did you abandon it?
3. Please describe one or two values that you believe have been exceptionally beneficial in your life. Why have they had such a positive impact?Answer these questionsSelf-Awareness
1. What are your superpowers? How have you used them to succeed?
2. What are your weaknesses? How have you overcome them?
3. What have you come to realize about yourself you wish you knew when you were 16?Answer these questionsQuick Hits
1.What’s the best decision you’ve ever made?
2. What’s the decision you most regret?
3. What book or movie has had the biggest impact on you?
4. What is one piece of advice you would give a high school or college student that aspires to live a great life?Answer these questions
Career
Your First Professional Role
1. Please describe your first professional role after college.
2. How did you land the job? Please be as detailed as possible.
3. On reflection, would you take this role again or shoot for something different? Why?Answer these questionsCareer Setbacks and Successes
1. Please share a professional setback, how it unfolded, and what you learned.
2. Please share another professional setback if you have one.
3. What is true about succeeding in your career path that most people won't tell you?Answer these questionsCareer Paths
1.When you review the resume of a person early in their journey, what do you look for?
2. What are two characteristics you have zero tolerance for in an employee or collaborator?Answer these questions
Academics
Your High School Experience
1. How did you spend your time in high school? How hard did you work?
2. What aspects of your high school profile stood out the most?
3. Was your high school experience a blast, very challenging, or somewhere in the middle? Why?
4. Please share a little about a setback you experienced in high school. How did you overcome it?
5. Please share a little about a success you experienced in high school. What did you do to achieve it?Answer these questionsCollege Applications and Selection
1. What was your approach to applying to college? (Ex: How many schools did you apply to? Did you apply early decision/ early action anywhere?)
2. What were the strongest and weakest parts of your profile when applying to college? Did you do anything to compensate for the weaknesses?
3. Please share how many colleges you did or did not get into.
4. How did you learn about different colleges? What approach was most useful?
5. Why did you ultimately make the college selection you did? On reflection, do you think you made the right choice? Why or why not?Answer these questionsCollege Setbacks and Successes
1. Please share a college setback, how it unfolded, and what you learned.
2. Please share a college success and what you did to achieve it.Answer these questionsYour College Experience
1. Why did you choose your major? Do you think it was a good choice?
2. How did you spend your time in college? How hard did you work?
3. What aspects of your college profile or resume stood out?Answer these questions
Your past will brighten futures.
After you complete one or more mini-interviews, we’ll add your reflections to our digital resource library, where they’ll help students across the country make academic, professional, and life decisions with confidence. Your responses will:
Raise students’ aspirations by introducing them to new career paths and perspectives. Broaden their views of what’s possible.
Demystify the day-to-day behind personal and professional success. Give young people the advice you wish you had at their age.
Our Pledge
We’ll share your insights with current and future members of our community in multiple formats, especially when students need it most.
We’ll share when and how others benefit from your insights. We’ll also allow you to share these stories with others in your existing networks.
Per our terms, you control your data. If you’d ever like us to remove your insights, we will.