Behavioral Academic Writers Interview Preparation Guide

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Although I am an all-rounder and could contribute to departmental life in many ways, I know that I have the international research profile that you are looking for.

A good content creator will be familiar with the basics of search engine optimization (SEO). Your ideal candidate will answer this question by describing how he or she (a) determines which keywords to focus on and (b) works those keywords into the content.

There's more to good proofreading than reading your content over and over again on the screen. A good writer will have a process (or several to choose from) for proofing each piece of content. Some of my tactics are reading the content out loud and reviewing a printed copy. Give bonus points if they mention my super-ninja trick for when it's gotta be perfect: reading it backwards.

As a successful writer possessing wide experience and ability to consistently write high quality write-ups that are relevant yet simple to grasp. Anything you might want to add here.

Why it's important to ask this: I certainly want a content marketer to have an opinion about what works and what doesn't work. However, it's also important that they can accept critiques about their work and make changes as necessary.
What to look out for: Understand what type of feedback they received, how it made them feel-and most importantly-what they did with that feedback.

True story: On two occasions at my last corporate job, we hired writers who showed up on their first day, took one look at their computers, and said, "Oh, you use PCs." Yep, they'd only ever used Macs. Each assured us it wouldn't be a problem, but … yeah, it was. So if you're hiring a content creator to work on-site with your team, make sure he or she is hip to the program-literally.

As a candidate for content writing job this small test is to be expected. But don't get nervous, remembering that you have written enough content previously (even if you have no formal work exp.) to write the small piece. Be cool and calm and take your time to write a good, simple, relevant article without any grammatical errors. Any error will definitely give a negative impression, so avoid it like plague.

While making selection for skilled writer, you would be willing to have someone in your team who takes feedback in a positive way. As most of the content work is a collaborative work, making the right changes to the content is based on way the writers incorporate the feedback into the articles. A writer who defends their work or not open to suggestions would be difficult to handle as it would cause lot of headaches. Especially when you are looking for content writers for marketing purpose you would need to be careful in hiring the right candidates. They need to be open to suggestions and positive in their approach, willing to make changes as per needs.

Many writers keep in mind their certain set of target audience to get to write their content. Having being exposed to variety of audiences will help one to know how to manage writing articles. Certain set of audience require little more explanation while certain set of audience who are professional will be conversing in professional level. Some may be targeting younger age groups, while some middle age groups. Some target college graduates, while some working professionals or those seeking career changes. Be it for marketing or for blog, each writers has their own style of writing which is unique to them. Hence, take care to select writers on the type of contents.

SMO is an upcoming and very exciting avenue for enhancing website popularity and traffic by harnessing the power of various social media like Twitter, Facebook, Digg, YouTube etc. Be prepared to suggest some ways to promote a product, service or website on Facebook and Twitter. So go sign into your Twitter and Facebook accounts and try out a few things to develop enough confidence in the field. Nowadays SMO is an expected skill for most content writers and SMO has blurred the distinction between SEO and content writing as both, Search Engine Optimizers and Content Writers dabble in the field. Check out my post on SMO tricks to get a better grasp of the subject.

Although this question is normally asked in a written submission but it's quite relevant as it can be used to convey a good impression when handled with tack. Obviously you will easily jot down your strong points like organic SEO writing, discipline, creativity, originality, consistency, team work and so on but what about the weak points. Aha..here lies the sticky point. Write the weak points in such a manner that they seem like your strong ones. For instance you may say/write that you are a stickler for deadlines, grammar, creativity and originality and so on. Just remember you should only convey such points which will either give a good or neutral impression and not any negative one.

Most of the writers do use the common social media tools to get help with writing. Each writer would have specific flair for topics of their interest. Those writers would have books or magazines related to the topic. There could be some who are tech savvy and depending on the type of articles they would know where to get access to reference subjects. This question will allow you to know whether he/she will be referring to the right site or will be able to bring out genuine or relevant contents. You could also make sure of their capability to handle topics assigned.

This question is obviously asking you to look forward to the future, so drawing up one year, five year and ten year research plans is helpful before going into an interview. (If you are completing a PhD and looking for your first job this might sound a little excessive, but believe me, it will make you stand out and be taken seriously). They will not just want to hear about the topics you wish to cover but will crucially be interested in two other areas: research funding and your output (i.e. publications). As well as telling them about your exciting projects, tell them how you're going to pay for them (which grants you will apply for) and what published benefits there will be in concrete terms. Aim high at this point; you don't want to sell yourself short. You can write that monograph or get an article into a world-renowned journal. The scope of your ambition will help to sell you as the ideal candidate here, so don't worry about sounding arrogant.

Why it's important to ask this: Your content marketer will need to express a unique voice and opinion in their work. However, they also need to adapt their own style as a function of your company's needs, the audience, format of the content, person they're writing for, and so on.
What to look out for: Look and ask for specific examples of how they modified their style, as well as asking them to identify why this is important.

If we are looking to get contents that are really eye catching and attractive then you would need to know the mind-set of the writer. Writers do like to allow their thoughts flow like river. But if there is a boulder on the way the water gets stagnated and moves slowly. So does the creative thoughts. Hence, by getting to know on how much time the writer needs to get contents that are relevant and catchy, you would be able to know whether he/she would be suited to your business. As the type of contents varies so do the type of writers. So you would need to decide on which topic for which type of writer and allocate accordingly. Some writers do need to spend some time while some are able to write depending on their skill. If the writer requires time to write quality contents its best to provide ample time. Writers do indicate their priorities and also how they meet the deadlines. Being a little flexible is best solution to get articles that will be of good quality.

Why it's important to ask this: Content marketing is about adding value to your readers, such as providing an infographic that educates about their industry, or creating an entertaining video that helps them with their job or career. Your team needs to create content that provides entertainment such as through story-telling or comedy in order to stand out from the crowd, and to capture and sustain their attention.
What to look out for: Look for examples of their content that told a story, used humor, and/or educated their audience about something other than a company's products. Bonus points if the candidate has delivered more unique formats of content, such as infographics, podcasts or interactive content. Ask for examples of where they've used visual content, including why they were or weren't successful.

Why it's important to ask this: What drives a person to invest their time and effort into creating content? Is it anecdotal insight such as a hallway conversation with a sales person-which may be a good place to begin investigating an idea, but not the final driver for its execution? Or is creation more data-driven, such as through Google Analytics or insight from a content marketing platform?
What to look out for: Be wary if your candidate indicates their past content development was primarily driven by what their boss told them to write about; or they have no understanding of what goes into content strategy. A follow-up question could be: "Describe your company's content strategy, including key steps in its development."

This is the most common interview question which will almost certainly be asked to any candidate. While it seems a pretty straightforward question many find it the toughest as it's quite open ended and people fumble when required to speak about themselves rather than about their work and/or skills. But fear not friends. The question is asked merely to know more about your personality than actually seeking your personal details. The best way to approach this question is to start with your high school, go up to graduation/post graduation and move towards your work experience. If the interviewer seeks family details only then you should provide it, otherwise it's not necessary.

A Content Writer is expected to be grammatically correct and international clients will expect nothing but the best written material which they won't require to proofread after having paid anything between $ 8-15 per article. So any reputed company is likely to test your grammar skills before going to the second round. Most of the grammar tests focus on punctuation, verb and conjunction usage and few other topics. So brush up, or more correctly, dust off the cobwebs by going through that family heirloom called Wren & Martin.

This question would help to get in contact with writers who are well versed in writing different styles. When we say style, it means the way the writer writes and the technique the writer uses mainly the word choice, the syntax, the tone. Sometimes, it is also considered as voice that readers listen when they read the content work. Get to know whether the writer uses descriptive style, narrative style, argumentative style or persuasive style. From that you would get to know how they put use of their words, structure their sentence, whether logics are used. Each writer creates their own niche.

☛ Mediocre Responses:
► My manager tells me what I should write about and gives me an outline.
► I look at what's trending and pick an interesting topic.

☛ Great Responses:
► I keep a backlog of keywords that people are searching for in Google related to my target topic, and create posts based on the backlog.
► I set up Google News alerts and a feed reader to look at which topics are trending in the news that relate to my topic area. I come up with spins on those topics to newsjack those stories.
► I regularly ask the sales team what questions their prospects are asking, and use the responses as fodder for my next post.

Why it's important to ask this: I certainly want a content marketer to have an opinion about what works and what doesn't work. however, it's also important that they are able to accept critique about their work and make changes as necessary.
What to look out for: Attention to to detail and an understanding of proper usage of the english language is key elements of quality content. (Did you catch the three mistakes?) Follow-up questions could include:
What are some of your greatest "pet peeves" when editing someone else's writing?
Which style guide(s) do you depend upon?

This question is a bit tricky to get to know about the way the writer writes their content. Also you would come to know whether the writer is aware of the importance of using keywords. It would also help to know about the knowledge level of the writer especially the usage of appropriate words that is mostly in use. You would need to get them to speak about their examples and how they utilize their language skills. From such aspects it will help to know whether they are updating themselves.

Yes, it sounds asinine. But I see this mistake All. The. Time. And I know at least some of those errors are the work of allegedly professional content creators. A good writer knows that a spellcheck program can only get you so far.

► Mediocre Responses:
► I write my blog post in Word and then post it when it's ready.
► Great Responses:
► I write my blog post in Word, add hyperlinks to at least three other pieces of content on our site that we've published, and add at least one hyperlink to a third party resource.
► I ensure there's an associated featured image for the post by going to a stock image site.
► I always make sure there's a clear call to action at the end of each post.
► For quality control, I make sure at least one other person has proofread it before publishing.
► I optimize the title for a target keyword by looking at what terms people are searching for in Google.