1. Tell me what is your experience with entrepreneurship and/or sales?
Regardless of the position I'm hiring for, I love hiring people who have past experience with running a business or sales. I keep the question general and vague because I want to see what the candidate will bring up on her own, but I especially love hearing stories about entrepreneurship and sales at a young age like lemonade stands, newspaper routes, lawn mowing, Girl Scout cookies (without parents doing it for them), etc.
2. Tell me what projects have you worked on outside of work?
If I'm going to hire someone for a marketing role, they need to live and breathe it. Not just treat it like 'another job'. So I need to ensure they have the thirst to learn, face challenges head on and figure stuff out for themselves. The truth is that a single question won't tell me everything I need to know about their mindset towards work, but this particular question makes it easy to de-select candidates from the hiring process.
3. Tell me what have been the main characteristics of your favorite employees?
When someone is talking about a favorite employee, watch for their body language, tone of voice and their word usage. These factors will help you determine if you have some of their same qualities and if not, it will give you more to think about after the interview.
You want to be able to take risks, but you also want to know your manager will support you in resolving it - not reprimand you. Asking this question will give you a sense of the level of risk-taking that would be acceptable.
5. Tell me would you take a practical test (related to whatever the job is)?
A good portfolio only represents that the candidate knows what good work looks like, not necessarily how to do that good work. A test or exercise illustrates what the candidate's true skills are when s/he doesn't have a reviewing manager or team members to work with.
6. Can you tell us what have you recently created?
Be it someone in tech, a designer, or anyone else, it's important to us that the person is also contributing to the wider industry they're in.
Participation in that industry means not only are they a professional, they are so into it that they cannot help but also help develop the overall industry. And if they are willing to do that with their free time (in a sense, as a hobby), you know they will put in the extra mile when it comes to productive work.
7. Tell us a time when you wanted something really badly but you didn't get it?
To determine how the person reacted to failure and to figure out their mindset. Do they have a "growth" mindset? How did they learn and react from their failure?
8. Can you tell us what online communities have you managed in the past?
Creating profiles and pages and then posting content to them isn't the job – most users can do that. The ability to build and engage with the community is the qualifying test of whether someone is a social media manager or a social media user.
9. Tell us what was the last thing you read? This can include an audiobook. When did you read it?
This is less of a question and more of an interviewing technique. This has been the best method I've used to find hustlers. Whenever I am interviewing someone, I like to bounce all over the map and try to find a personal topic they are really passionate about - whether it's ABC, skiing, or a particular author they love. When you find something (this can be anything), you'll be able to hear it in their voice and see it in their body language. That can serve as your control for when you start asking the job specific-questions, making it easier to tell if they are truly passionate about the role you're looking to hire them for.
You can tell someone is a true hustler if they're working on a passion project outside of work. You do of course run the risk that they'll eventually leave to pursue the project full time, but you'll know that they're driven, well organized, and fully able to build something from the ground up.
If one of your values is being able to speak up (diplomatically, of course) when you disagree with a certain decision or behavior of your manager or peers, then this is for you. This question will help you understand how receptive your manager and others would be to constructive feedback without fear of retribution.
12. Tell us what would be the three things that your peers would say you do extremely well?
This question is often asked about you - the interviewer is listening carefully to what you will say. In some cases, they might follow up with people you are referring to in your answer to verify what you said.
You could ask this question to the manager, potential peer or even HR to get a better idea of how the company operates. Since working in teams is much more prevalent in today's businesses, you'll want to know more about your colleagues
If their answer is to get as many likes and shares as possible, it may be 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. For most companies, conversions are always the goal.
The candidate should also be able to help you define success on a strategic and tactical level in order to support your larger marketing and business goals.
It's a trick question that will help you identify a candidate's mindset when thrown off-guard in a completely new territory. As a hustler one should be able to wear multiple hats and be comfortable with sudden changes.This question will help a recruiter understand how well the candidate can put their prowess to play.
Social media is an ever-changing landscape that requires constant and ongoing learning and adaptation. Even the most experienced social media managers need to refine their skills. They update their strategies, learn and practice new techniques and stay on top of the latest changes to new and existing platforms.
16. Tell me have you ever had a semi-serious side-business? And if so, what did your days look like?
The only real way to identify if someone is a hustler is by knowing if they've actually done any "hustling". People who have their own projects, whether it's a full blown business or even a side-business, are voluntarily using their free time to work. Passion and the hope for a better future is what fuels them. If a person has no problem putting in work for their side-passion, they may also have no problem doing that work for an employer so long as that employer can also ignite the fire within them.
17. Tell us in researching our company, did any marketing opportunities immediately jump out at you?
When I first talk with a client, I can immediately see opportunities for them. I'm looking for someone like minded that can assess a situation and make an impact. It also gives you an indication into how prepared for your interview they are. If they didn't even take 5 minutes to look up the company, they're ill-prepared.
18. Can you tell us are you active in your (insert your industry here) community? If so, how?
It tells me that the person wants to get out there and be involved. That shows passion.
It also tells me that they're willing to do things outside of business hours like go to networking events, host events or help others in the community. If you're genuine and passionate about your work, you're going to do what it takes to get the job done right.
19. Tell me what is your favorite blog? And then what was your favorite blog post from their blog?
I ask this to see what they enjoy reading about, if they are learning on their own (this is a requirement for new hires) and my second question lets me know how often they're reading.
I usually let the candidate talk as with their response I can tell if they are BSing or if they actually read and learn on their own.
20. Can you tell us which social media channels do you recommend for our business and why?
This answers two questions at once. Has the candidate done the research on your company ahead of time, and how well versed they are in various social platforms. Pay attention if they mention demographics, style or frequency of messaging, and overall strategy.
21. Tell me how have your actions impacted your community?
Hustlers must be aware of how their actions and goals affect the people around them.
22. Tell us an example of how you work collaboratively with other departments?
Your idea of how people collaborate can be completely different than others, so this question helps you assess if the environment is compatible with the way you work best.
23. Explain me about a time procrastination led to amazing results?
If the person has a manic focus on execution, they wouldn't be procrastinating in the first place. If they did get amazing results through planned procrastination, it delivers perspective on their long term hustle.
24. Tell us your biggest social media failure?
Everyone has failures, some larger than others. Of course, what you really want to know, is how they dealt with it. Gain insight into their coping skills and how they deal with negatives by listening to how the issue was resolved. Pay attention to what they did (or didn't do) to ensure that the failure wouldn't happen again.
25. Tell us 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 two or three specific strategies that will feed leads into your sales funnel via social engagement.
