1. Tell me how do you deliver negative feedback?
If you would be working with the person interviewing you, this is another tough question that can give you some insight into how the team works. It pushes the hiring manager to think about how he or she would handle an uneasy situation, while at the same time showing your level of maturity in that that you (realistically) expect to receive tough feedback sometimes.
2. Tell me what is your approach to decision-making?
Are they a “gather all the info” before making a decision kind-of-person or do they prefer to act fast, “fail-forward,” and adjust on-the-fly?
3. Tell me what would you do to build a communications staff?
Paid and volunteer considerations would be good for them to mention here.
4. Tell me how is the feedback process structured?
Asking this question in an interview has been critical for me as a candidate. Feedback is how humans get better. Excellence and mastery have always been important to me, and I am aware that they are impossible without regular feedback. Does this company limit its feedback cycle to the annual reviews? Does the hiring manager make it a priority to deliver just-in-time acknowledgment and suggestions for improvement?
5. Tell me why did you decide to work at this company?
This question gives an interviewer a chance to do two self-serving things: talk about themselves and perform a no-holds-barred sales pitch on the company. For promising candidates, the sales opportunity is welcomed. And most people love any excuse to talk about themselves. ;)
6. Tell me how do you define leadership?
How would you develop leaders in your ministry and contribute to raising up leaders in the church?
7. Explain how did you get to your role?
Asking deeply personal or intrusive questions won't get you high marks on the interview. However, most professionals enjoy sharing their career journey. Ask what first attracted the hiring manager to this company and what the career progression has been like.
8. Explain me what are the expectations about managing workflow?
Virtually every company has enough work to keep everyone busy 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In practice, everyone gets to go home at the end of the day. How do you know when you are done for the day? What are the expectations around working on weekends and responding to emails outside the normal working hours?
9. Tell me how does this role contribute to larger company goals?
It's not terribly difficult to find a candidate that can execute on a role. It is terribly difficult to find a candidate that can not only execute on their role, but also understand how it fits into larger goals. This includes being able to self-manage, prioritize high-value activities, and grow their role in a direction that aligns with the company's growth.
10. Please explain what strategies would you use to generate leads?
This question moves from the more general and abstract into the meat of the matter. They should be able to outline 2 or 3 specific strategies that will feed leads into your sales funnel via social engagement.
11. Tell me what do the most successful new hires do in their first month here?
This question shows that you're the type of person who likes to hit the ground running, instead of spending a week filling out HR forms. It also shows that you recognize patterns of success and want to replicate only the most effective performers.
12. Suppose you've been at this company for while. What keeps you motivated?
If your interviewer has been at the company for several years, understanding why could give you some really interesting insight into the company, how it treats its employees, and a taste of what motivates the people who work there. Plus, it shows you've done your research on the interviewer, which is always an impressive sign.
13. Explain me what opportunities will I have to learn and grow?
Does the company offer formal or informal mentoring and coaching? Does it invest in continued education or professional training? Great companies want to hire people who are dedicated to personal and professional growth. Show your hiring manager that continued development is important to you.
14. Explain me what is the biggest challenge the team has faced in the past year?
While the interviewer might be trying to paint a pretty perfect picture of what working on the team might look like, asking this question will help you uncover some of the realities the team has been facing recently. If you end up joining, you'll inevitably hear about these challenges -- and you may have to help solve them, too.
15. Please explain what behaviors does the most successful member of the team exhibit?
Asking a question like this shows you're interested in getting a practical example of what success looks like to the manager of the team you'd be joining. Plus, when you phrase the question in this way, "you leave no room for a hypothetical answer,"
16. Please explain what types of marketing campaigns have you run in the past?
Be specific when answering questions about your accomplishments with other companies. By simply stating, “I ran several online marketing campaigns” does not adequately show what you can do for the company.
A more appropriate answer would be: “I started a social media campaign that used targeted advertising systems to market the company's services to youth in North America.” In order to elaborate - this will further project your knowledge of different campaigns - use numbers that support the project such as, “Within three financial quarters, sales increased by 427% and brand recognition vastly improved by 10% within the target demographic.”
17. Please explain about SEO and its relationship with social media?
There are several techniques of improving SEO with the help of social media. Make sure that they understand the latest Google algorithm, what is rewarded and punished. They should also be aware of the latest social algorithms and policies. Google Analytics should be part of this discussion.
18. Tell me do you feel that your opinions count?
Having an opportunity to contribute is one of the key indicators of job satisfaction and team performance. If your hiring manager feels heard, appreciated, and valued for his or her input, chances are the same will translate into your position.
19. Do you know what is the history of this position?
This is an important question to ask in an interview because if you are offered the job, you will have to work in the environment affected and shaped by your predecessor.
Perhaps this opening was recently created to support company growth. If that is the case, ask a follow-up question about who owned the responsibilities up to this point, and how the duties will be transitioned.
If you are interviewing for a position left vacant by someone's departure, get a sense for what happened. Why did the predecessor leave the job? Was he or she promoted or internally transferred? If the predecessor left the company, ask about the circumstances.
When answering this question make sure to show how cultural, social, personal and psychological factors all impact consumer behaviour. Provide an example of a marketing campaign or project you developed and how you used these four key factors to develop and optimise your project.
21. Tell us how do you deal with negative comments or a brand reputation crisis?
The way they define ‘crisis' can tell you a lot about how much experience they have. If they haven't had a real crisis in their own experience, they should at least be familiar with some famous brand reputation blunders. Dealing with negative comments or reviews properly is vital to this position, ask for examples.
22. Tell me if you had to do church communication on a $0.00 budget, what would your approach be?
Be careful when and how you ask this question as the interviewee might perceive how you value church communications if they think you are going to low-ball their budget.
An excellent candidate will see this question as a red flag. “Why are they asking me about working with no budget? Are they not going to give me a budget? Why would I want to work on a staff where they give so little value to communications that they don't budget for it?” See what I mean?
Nevertheless, this question can give you great insight about the creativity and passion of the person you are interviewing.
23. Basic Communications Director interview questions:
☛ When did you last update your Communications Director education?
☛ How do you let subordinates know what you expect of them?
☛ What is the most difficult thing about working with you?
☛ Have you gone above and beyond the call of duty?
☛ What do you think of your previous boss?
☛ What is your usual role in a team?
☛ What do you do when priorities change quickly?
24. First Communications Director interview questions:
☛ What were your annual goals at your most current employer?
☛ How do you usually solve problems?
☛ What have you gained from your Communications Director work experiences?
☛ How will your greatest strength help you perform?
☛ How long will it take for you to make a significant contribution?
☛ What support training would you require to be able to do this Communications Director job?
☛ Describe a difficult work situation and how you overcame it.
25. Operational and Situational Communication Director Interview Questions:
☛ If you were hired tomorrow, what would you focus on?
☛ Imagine you're having a disagreement with a PR manager on a campaign. How would you resolve this?
☛ If there was a conflict between a senior executive and an external party during an event, what could you do to diffuse the situation?
☛ What do you find challenging when responding to reporters' inquiries?
26. General Communications Director interview questions:
☛ Have you gone above and beyond the call of duty?
☛ If you were interviewing someone for Communications Director position, what traits would you look for?
☛ What negative thing would your last boss say about you?
☛ How do you think I rate as an interviewer?
☛ You have not done Communications Director job before. How will you succeed?
☛ How do you handle failures? Provide examples.
☛ Have you ever acted as a mentor to a co-worker?
27. Informational Communications Director interview questions:
☛ How do you make the decision to delegate work?
☛ Why do you believe you are qualified for this Communications Director position?
☛ What would be your ideal working environment?
☛ What have you learned from your mistakes?
☛ What are three positive things other Communications Director would say about you?
☛ Give an example of when you had to present complex information in a simplified manner.
☛ Did you ever make a risky decision? How did you handle it?
28. Role-specific Communication Director Interview Questions:
☛ How does your background make you a good fit for the role?
☛ What media outlets do you follow?
☛ What's your experience organizing events?
☛ What are elements of interactive public relations?
☛ Describe how you use social media for corporate communications
☛ Are you familiar with our PR efforts? What would you change?
☛ What do you know about our products/firm? Why do you want to work here?
☛ How is content important for communications?
☛ What are things you should consider when planning a press conference?
☛ What methods can you use for effective internal communications?
29. Face to Face Communications Director interview questions:
☛ A team experience you found disappointing.
☛ How many Communications Director projects do you work on at once?
☛ What percentage of your time is spent doing each function?
☛ What do people most often criticize about you?
☛ Why do you feel you're qualified for this Communications Director job?
☛ Describe a situation where you had to plan or organise something.
☛ Are you good at working in a team?
30. Phone Based Communications Director interview questions:
☛ What do you see yourself doing within the first days as Communications Director?
☛ Tell about a problem that you solved in a unique or unusual way.
☛ Give an example of how you set goals and achieve them.
☛ How did you get work assignments at your most recent employer?
☛ How would you feel about working for someone who knows less than you?
☛ Have you ever had to introduce a policy change to your work group?
☛ Describe how you have balanced your academic work with your extracurricular activities.
The response to this question usually reveals if the candidate has personal or professional goals. Keep you answer oriented toward the opportunities at the organization.
These are most common Communications Director interview questions.
31. Behavioral Communication Director Interview Questions:
☛ Recall a time you successfully used your crisis management skills
☛ Have you ever had to deal with a challenging PR problem? How did you do it?
☛ Describe a time you were successful in delivering the company message to a target audience. What was the key to its success?
☛ Tell me about a time a campaign didn't perform as well as you expected. What should you have done differently?
☛ Recall a time you had to deal with a difficult external stakeholder. How did you manage?
32. Sample Communications Directors Job Interview Questions:
☛ How would you use our company's employees as brand ambassadors?
☛ How do you achieve a more human tone in your communications?
☛ What has been your experience in crisis communications?
☛ Do you have experience creating or overseeing the creation of video content?
☛ Would you modify the channels you use when communicating with different generations in the workplace? How so?
☛ Have you ever developed a mobile communication strategy for employees? What do you see as the possible advantages to having one?
☛ What would you do if an employee posted something on his/her personal social media account that was negative in tone about this company?
☛ Describe your experience with overseeing outside vendors in creating targeted communications.
☛ Do you have experience with media training for staff?
☛ How do you ensure that your message is clearly communicated to both external and internal customers?
☛ How do you clean up a company's image that has been tarnished?
☛ Give me an example of a time when you dealt with the media and it went badly.
☛ How do you develop an effective media strategy?
☛ What is the first thing you would do if this company's computer system was hacked?
☛ How do you ensure you are producing quality content?
☛ How do you ensure that the right people receive the right message?
☛ Have you ever handled communications for a company that went public?
☛ What have/would you do if the CEO resigned amidst a scandal?
☛ If you were talking to an aspiring communications professional, what would you tell him/her is the best thing about working in the field? Conversely, would you say is the most difficult?
33. Basic Communication Director Job Interview Questions:
☛ How have you developed Marketing strategies in the past?
☛ Walk me through your experience that relates to this job?
☛ Describe how you have executed a fully integrated strategic and tactical Communication Plan in the past?
☛ How have you gained stakeholder buy in?
☛ Which product launches have you been involved in and how did you contribute to the integrated Communication Plan?
☛ What innovative ways have you come up with to support product launch and what were the outcomes?
☛ How have you managed budget and scope with Ad agencies?
☛ What do you think is the biggest challenge to managing agencies?
☛ Have you had a time when an agency was working to add costs to a program and been able to see that and eliminate it?
☛ Describe your experience with grade, specification and package development. How have you optimized market position and volume to lead to greater market share and profit?
☛ How would you go about determining marketing mix for a product?
☛ How would you determine the marketing point of view for a product?
☛ What goes into creating a communication campaign?
☛ How have you developed your people in the past?
☛ What do you find is the most effective approach?
☛ What do you think it takes to create an effective upper management proposal?
☛ How have you gone about developing stakeholder consensus?
☛ Tell me about a time when you had a challenge getting a stakeholder on board with a Communication Plan and how you handled it?
☛ How would you work with a stakeholder to gather their input for marketing strategy creation?
☛ How would you assess the market for a product?
☛ Describe how you have supported market increase for a product?
☛ What does market demographics play in developing marketing strategies?
☛ What trends do you see that will impact launch and market share maintenance in the future?
☛ What do you think is the most important thing to keep in mind when hiring new staff?
If their answer is to get as many likes and shares as possible, it's time to politely end the interview. The path from likes to conversions is more like A to K than A to B, so they should be able to explain what that path looks like for different platforms. Ultimately, conversions are always the goal. They should also be able to help you define success on a strategic and tactical level in order to support your larger marketing goals.
For example, what if you find out the Women's ministry is making their own flyers and hanging them in the women's restrooms behind your back?
