Community Director Interview Preparation Guide

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Engaging, keeping, and attracting new users are goals for most (but not all) communities. Be prepared with two or three ideas to achieve these goals. Don’t worry about presenting original ideas here—you’re interviewing for a job, not providing free consulting advice. Just show the hiring manager that you have ideas. If you suggest ideas they’ve already tried, well, that shows you’re on the same page.

Your interviewer is asking this question to see if you can demonstrate your understanding of what a community is and what it means to belong to one. We’re all part of many communities throughout our lives. If you’re an active commenter on BuzzFeed and know the other commenters there, then you’re part of the BuzzFeed community. If not online, maybe you were a member of an after-school club or local charity. Be capable of talking about a time you contributed to a community in some shape or form.

Getting the candidate to draft up some email responses, forum posts or a blog post gives you some insight into their writing and communication skills, and how they approach solving problems by email. You can also find out whether they are finding it easy to pick up on the voice of your company, or have any thoughts about how to modify it when communicating with online customers.

Content works differently for each brand. Some fans appreciate videos more than photos, others like good ol’ fashion links. We all know that photos generally reign supreme on Facebook, but maybe your brand’s videos are engaging your users as well. Either way, the most important aspect of this is understanding which visual content your customers appreciate the most.

If all they suggest are hosted community platforms, you might have a shill. An open-minded and competent community manager will be able to build a thriving space using free tools if necessary, and will most likely respond by asking what the requirements are, as this will dictate the toolset, not the other way around.

The first part of this question will answer what makes them tick, and what matters to them when building and managing an online community. The second part allows you to ascertain whether they are knowledgeable about your product, passionate about being your digital mouthpiece and evangelising about your company. You could also ask them how they would identify whether an issue needs to be shared with another one of your departments, which also provides a good opportunity to move into describing your company structure and progress the interview to answering their questions.

An obvious question, but one that throws up almost everything you need to know about their skill set. An ex-Community Manager may turn out to be more competent than a Head of Community, depending on the scope of their role and their position in the organisation. As job titles are still very fluid, use this question to flesh out just how experienced they are and whether they were running teams or influencing any other departments.

“Community” as a term is something tossed around in conversation frequently, but few folks have thought to consider what it actually means. Good community talent will have their own opinions and theories and will be able to provide a succinct definition off hand. Red flag answers will include vague references to social media and content — and community management is not the same as social media.

Comments contribute to the conversation and can help users gain additional answers or perspective.

Answers are solutions or contributions that do not need further elaboration or clarification.

Many community manager roles involve elements of customer service. After all, you’re interacting with people daily and will often encounter someone who is reaching out to you with an issue that needs solving. Let your interviewer see that they can trust you to be the face of and voice for the community.

Right off the bat, this question can stump many candidates. I’ve heard a lot of vague answers about social media platforms that veer off on an incoherent tangent until they fall off a cliff. Keep it straightforward by giving a simple definition that explains what an online community is: a group of people who share a common goal, cause, or interest and gather together to collaborate and discuss via the internet.

will be responsible for managing the company’s blog. Being familiar with the blogging community, various blogging platforms, and general blog writing skills will all play an important role in their day-to-day activities.

This question allows the interviewee to tell you about what communities they participate in on a daily basis and why they see themselves being a good fit for your role. This question will also draw clear lines between community folks and interviewees who are simply good on the twitters, can manage a support box like a pro, or can throw a fun party. It’s not that these skills are not important or relevant to being a community manager, but what’s more important is that there are true community skills supporting these efforts.

This is our first question referencing social media. This is a great one for probing for use of buzz words, generic statements about social media and kool-aid, fishbowl, echo chamber reactionism. We’re looking for an in-depth answer outlining the differences of each audience and why each platform should have its own focus and approach (engagement, attrition, monitoring etc), and what that would be. It’s also a good way to check whether the candidate has looked at your community eco-system before walking through your office door.

I’d expect more than just a Twitter/Facebook answer here. A few niche examples suggest they are capable and aware enough to identify the right places to promote your own community and grow your audience. They are also more likely to have been exposed to different management styles which will help them craft something for your community, rather than blindly rehashing something they read in a book or blog (yes, including this one)

This will tell you whether your candidate truly understands the reality of managing online communities. Technically, unless you close your branded community at set hours, life goes on 24/7 online so candidates need to appreciate they may be on call when needed. If they say 9-5, say thank you and goodbye.

☛ What about this position and our chorus mission interests you?
☛ Describe your conducting philosophy - especially working within a community choir setting.
☛ What are 3-4 primary elements that you would identify as central in teaching and demonstrating healthy vocal technique?
☛ Describe how you would plan and structure a 2.5 hour rehearsal with a community chorus.
☛ How does your music education and experience in choral conducting fit with the requirements that The Chorus is seeking? Give us some specific examples.
☛ Give some examples of working with singers that have varied music-reading ability and musical background.
☛ Have you worked with adult choruses that memorize their repertoire? Do you have recommendations regarding whether a chorus memorizes music or not?
☛ What is your experience working with and conducting world or global music? Do you have knowledge or know how to find resources in teaching music and pronunciation from a variety of cultures and languages?
☛ Describe your experience in coaching small vocal ensembles? What are the differences in coaching ensembles versus a larger chorus?
☛ Repertoire/Programming
☛ How do you shape and create a coherent and vibrant concert program? Describe a concert you programmed that was particularly strong.
☛ Our Chorus is unique in that it utilizes a Music Advisory committee which assists the Artistic Director in finding and reviewing concert repertoire. The final repertoire list for a concert is selected by the AD. How would you envision working with a committee in reviewing music? What might be the advantages and disadvantages for you as AD in working with this type of committee?
☛ The Chorus performs some music from Judeo/Christian traditions, but the vast majority of our music is secular or comes from a variety of global/spiritual traditions. Describe the musical genres you have conducted and how those experiences shape what you could offer to The Chorus programming.
☛ Is there a particular musical genre that you enjoy or specialize in?
☛ How do you help a choir to "peak" with you when it is performance time? What is your approach if a concert date is approaching and the chorus is still struggling to learn a piece?

☛ Describe a time you developed a new policy. What did you do to make it work successfully?
☛ Tell me about a time when you implemented an HR initiative, policy or program that didn’t stick. What should you have done differently to avoid that?
☛ Tell me about a time you were successful in driving positive change.
☛ Describe a time when a manager came to you with a problem they couldn’t solve. What did you do?
☛ Tell me about a time you had foreseen a problem with employees/union/vendors. How did you prevent it from escalating?
☛ What actions did you take to shape organizational culture in your past role?
☛ What do you think was your most important contribution to the workplace in your previous job?
☛ Describe me a situation where you had serious challenges and road-blocks in doing your job efficiently. What did you do about them?
☛ Tell me about a situation where you had to disagree with your superiors. How did you approach this and what happened?

☛ How do you provide feedback to individual singers in a group context?
☛ When working with a chorus, what is the most difficult (irritating) thing for you and how do you deal with that?
☛ Give an example of a challenging situation you have faced in a rehearsal or with a choir and how you resolved it.
☛ How would you interact with a volunteer who has offered to take on a task but hasn't followed through? How do you determine how much responsibility to give them? How do you decide when it is appropriate to step in, take over and make sure the task gets done?
☛ Describe your experience working with a non-profit board and/or committees? What would be some of the challenges of being the only paid staff within an organization of volunteers?
☛ How do you manage stress in a work or personal setting? How do you manage conflict in relationships?
☛ How do you recognize and deal with burnout in yourself and chorus members? What is your level of comfort in delegating responsibility as a leader?
☛ Describe your ability to work on your own/ self-initiative. How do you balance offering strong leadership while working with a staff team?
☛ Describe your experience working with a board of directors in a non-profit setting.
☛ Describe your experience working with financial statements and budgets.
☛ Describe your experience working with diverse populations and flexibility in working with a diverse group of volunteers and personalities. Maybe prompt for GLBT connections if they don't go there: also cross-cultural situation, singers who are blind or with other disabilities…
☛ Experience working with diverse populations…
☛ The Chorus utilizes other arts mediums (dance, collaborations, etc) as a way of making our choral music accessible to a wide variety of audience members, and particularly audience members who may be less familiar with choral music. Are you comfortable working with a choreographer and/or with other community collaborations?
☛ What would you identify as the primary challenges of a position like this?
☛ What are your hopes in working with this organization? Where would you like to take it in a year? In five years?
☛ What do you need from a supervisor? What have previous supervisors said about your work?
☛ Describe your ability to work evenings and weekends, flexible schedules during performances.
☛ Are there any other skills we haven't touched on you'd like to share with us?
☛ What uniquely qualifies for this position? What do you want us to remember when we consider you as an applicant?

☛ What’s your experience with HR software?
☛ What do you know about EEO laws/FMLA/etc.?
☛ What KPI’s do you use to measure the effectiveness of the HR function?
☛ If you have to use three words to describe the role of an HR Director in a company, what would those be? Why?
☛ How do the company’s HR needs influence strategic planning?
☛ What do you do to ensure the HR department’s objectives are aligned with strategic goals?
☛ What is company culture to you? How would you maintain it as the company grows?
☛ What can HR do to influence the company culture?
☛ What steps would you take to ensure diversity in the organization?
☛ How do you stay current and ensure compliance with employment laws?
☛ What is your role in assisting other departments in improving their people practices and adhering to policies?
☛ Let’s assume you encounter a problem but there are no official guidelines for solving it. What is your course of action?
☛ If one of the managers under your supervision made a serious mistake, what would you do?
☛ Imagine one of the stakeholders is asking you to implement a policy while you think it will not benefit the company in the long run. How do you handle this?

☛ What was the biggest lesson you learned from your previous job?
☛ What quality or skill gives you a special edge?
☛ What’s the most effective project you’ve worked on? How did you know it was a success?
☛ When was the last time you quit a project or responsibility and why?
☛ What have you done recently to make someone else happy?
☛ What’s the best introduction between two people that you’ve ever made?
☛ What’s an opinion you hold that most people disagree with?
☛ What’s the best book or article you’ve read recently and what made it great?
☛ If we’re sitting here a year from now celebrating what a great year it’s been for you in this role, what did we achieve together?
☛ What would you change about our community to make it better?
☛ What do you think makes a strong community?
☛ Can you give me an example of a thriving community and tell me what they are doing so well?
☛ What are some of the most important metrics you consider when tracking results from community management?

A question like this not only tests their knowledge of popular (and not so popular) social networks but it will ask that they apply it to business. Since the responsibility of a Community Manager is to know how to apply social media to business this is an important discussion to have. Being a community manager goes beyond knowing how to post and onto what and why content should be shared with the community.

It’s a common misconception that a social media manager is the same as a community manager. However, being a community manager often involves creating content and interacting with users on social media accounts. Simply being a personal user of Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram is not enough to show that you can manage a brand or business social media presence, if that’s part of what the role you’re interviewing for asks for (many will ask for this, many will not– this is why you need to do the research).

A truthful answer will generally be “Not always.”. A reassuring answer would be “I made some mistakes, but here’s what I learnt:”. An enlightened answer is “Some things worked, some things didn’t, but overall I grew the community whilst increasing engagement because:”. A blank stare is worrying.

Back to the nitty-gritty of routine community management; how will your candidate take to implementing a solid policy and set of escalation procedures, or write them up from scratch? Asking them for examples of situations they have experienced is useful too. I used to ask candidates in passing how taking the Tube made them feel; you’d be surprised at how many were quick to anger at the mere thought, which didn’t bode well.