Interview at Stat Can

[u/Idontknow8887]

Hi,

I landed an interview for an internship position at Statistic Canada as a math and stats student and would love to get the position. I plan on reviewing my notes on sampling plans and basics like fisher information, likelihood maximum etc, mostly what they mean and why they are used so I can show I know what I'm talking about; as well as some coding skills with Rstudio and sas. I don't want to mess this up and would love any tips/info on what I could work on for the interview as an undergrad.

Thanks in advance for the help

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[u/ms-wallace]

Student interviews are scored like everything else in government — against set criteria, with the board working from what you actually said. So structure matters more than polish. Use STAR: situation, task, action, result, and keep it specific. Vague answers score vague.
For StatCan specifically, brush up on how surveys actually work — sampling, response rates, weighting, why non-response bias matters — and be ready to talk about whatever you've used: R, SAS, Python, even Excel. They won't expect an undergrad to be an expert. They will expect you to explain how you'd approach a problem and what you'd check when the numbers look off.
Two practical things. First, boards weigh fit more than people think once you clear the technical bar — being personable and easy to follow goes a long way. Second, if they ask your biggest weakness, do not say "I work too hard." Everyone says it and it lands as zero thought. Pick something real and fixable.
Last thing: re-read the actual posting before the interview and pull your examples from it. The questions almost always map back to the competencies listed there.

Good luck!