Communications Specialist Interview Preparation Guide

This question illustrates the candidate's ability to handle crisis situations.

I believe that organization is key, so first and foremost I make sure to keep each account separate and all paperwork in order. Second, each day I evaluate my workload and order it according to overall priority. I also understand the importance of utilizing my team, and I delegate work out to different members. However, I am also careful not to put my work off on others, but I make sure they are completely prepared to complete the work and help out whenever possible.

I am completely comfortable working with individuals with diverse backgrounds. Through my past positions I have worked with people of different cultures as well as different work experiences. Each individual is able to bring something unique to the table, which is a great help in creating new and dynamic campaigns. Also, people’s backgrounds help to develop their motives, and those motives help to drive the individual’s work performances. I have learned that when I understand and respect these factors, they can be used to advance the vision of the project.

The first time I was asked this question, it really threw me off. For a split second, I wasn’t sure what angle to take or if the interviewer was expecting me to belt out my whole life story. That’s the point. This open-ended question automatically puts the candidate in defensive mode.

You’ll learn firsthand how your candidate reacts under pressure and how well they can articulate on their feet. Everything else you gain from this question is a bonus, and can range from what someone wants out of their career to how they explain their transitions between past roles. Ask follow up questions accordingly.

This question has been known to come up in as a brain-teaser. There’s no right or wrong answer per se, but pay attention to the motivations behind their answer. There's nothing inherently wrong with buying $10,000 worth of chocolate Easter bunnies, but there better be a good reason for it!

This is a professional way of asking, ‘what happens when you don’t get what you want?’ and it’s exceptionally telling. Determine if this person is an emotional decision maker or a calculated one.See if they prefer to fix the mistake on their own or consult the team, and who they blame when things go wrong. This should be a go-to marketing interview question because things often don’t go to plan, and you want a strong group of people equipped to push through those challenges.

Without disclosing any confidential information, this question showcases the candidate’s expertise in pinpointing what data is valuable and how to come to those conclusions. Their role will be to predict how a product or service is going to perform in a marketplace, so it’s important that they understand what data to focus on and how to present those findings to less analytical counterparts.

This question illustrates the candidate’s ability to multitask and prioritize tasks. It also illustrates how the candidate works under pressure.

I have a few different skills that I utilize, but listening and communicating are the most critical. You not only need to be a good speaker, you also need to be able to listen to be able to fully understand an issue and to be able to properly articulate it to others. Problem solving is also an important skill I utilize in my efforts. I have found that when I am able to resolve smaller issues myself, it frees up the team to be able to focus on greater issues and ultimately helps to increase efficiency in completion of the project.

You’ve probably have asked and been asked this question as it is such a good way to understand a candidate. It zeros in on the S-T-A-R components: Situation, Task, Action and Result of what a person feels was their most productive achievement. Get a feeling of their performance level, what they consider to be significant and how active they were in actually achieving it.