News Writer Interview Preparation Guide

Even if the target market of their last job is totally different than that of the one they’re interviewing for, this will show you their ability to find and keep up to date with relevant trade publications and blogs.

Neglecting to use LinkedIn to research clients is not a viable option in today’s sales environment. Ensure that candidates are searching for personal commonalities in addition to professional information so they can tailor their communication as much as possible. Looking into company trigger events would be the cherry on top.

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.

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.

Some people are brilliant writers when expressing their own opinions or narrative. However, if you ask them to write for a specialized manufacturing facility, for example, they may struggle to alter their personal styles to fit the more technical perspectives required by the company. Ask to see samples of work your candidate has written and examine the voice and tone of the pieces. If there are various clients or topics he or she has written for, do they all sound the same? Or was the writing style adapted to accomodate how various clients wanted to come across?

In order to determine whether or not your candidate will be able to create all the different types of content for your company (e.g., blogs, emails, landing pages, etc.), you should figure out what kind of content creation experience they’ve had in the past. If they’ve already written hundreds of blogs, you know you can trust them to write one for you. Ask for a portfolio to see examples of their previous work.

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.

This question is relevant only for candidates with previous content writing experience. If you have written on variety of topics then it will be definitely better than having written just one type of content as most companies want writers for all types of writing jobs and not just one or two. Still, hardcore technical writers will not be expected to have a wide writing range except for their own domain. For others it’s advantageous to present yourself as generic content writer and not specialized unless the job demands so; for instance, travel writing job. Apart from the writing part also mention other associated responsibilities like, finding keywords, URL suggestion, title tags, page layout decisions, content selection, handling a team, editing etc.

The Lincoln Park Zoo.

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