Director Communication Interview Preparation Guide

Download PDF

This is a slightly mean but actually very manageable question about search engine optimisation (SEO), designed to trip up charlatans. If knowledge of SEO is on the job description, don't be satisfied with waffle about keywords and page rank.

This question refers to two big changes to the workings of the Google search algorithm in the last year or so. These are the 'Panda' and 'Penguin' updates. So this question will tease out whether they keep up-to-date with search engine optimisation (SEO).

In short, Panda aimed to reward sites with quality content, and to punish sites with low quality and duplicate content. The Penguin update aimed to tackle sites that manipulate search engines to rank more highly than they deserve to be ranked. This includes tactics like stuffing pages with keywords, or obtaining links from disreputable websites in an attempt to pretend that a website is seen as useful.

We're looking for technical skills, strategic direction, problem solving, stakeholder management, expectation management, and a drive to learn from problems and improve processes. Don't hesitate to ask them to frame their answer differently if it's not making sense.

This question isn't coming from a particular angle, but should hopefully see how they combine problem solving, instincts, data, initiative and creativity, as well as their ability to deal with uncertainty.

Coming up with new and effective ways to market a product in such a tight economy is a tough challenge and these days customers have more power than ever. It is getting more difficult for marketing initiatives to effectively meet these new customer demands. Keep these and other factors in mind when tackling this question, relate your personal experience of the challenges you have encountered and discuss the creative ways in which you handled them.

In times of economic strain, this question is most relevant for a marketing professional. As marketing is one of the most important functions within a company, when finances are tight a marketing budget, which may once have been limitless can be squeezed down to close to nothing. This is yet another area which will require a creative answer that also highlights your planning and ambition in terms of working under pressure.

Also, the best way to answer questions about the future is to focus on accomplishments of the past. In other words, when asked about how you would deal with possible future scenarios, refer to your past accomplishments. Your answers should focus on successful campaigns with statement such as, "While I was with my previous company I initiated both low-cost lead generation strategies and several viral marketing campaigns using an almost inexistent budget to boost profits by 200%."

This question may be followed by an enquiry on how you went about launching these campaigns. This is an excellent opportunity to elaborate on additional skills and impress the interviewer with your knowledge of the industry.

Do they care about their field? Are they excited by it and its possibilities? Hopefully you'll sense some in their eyes as they answer this question.

This question also probes whether they have their ear to the ground. As a follow-up question you could ask: What makes for good content or a good digital campaign?

If you're doing digital communications, you'll probably be involved with content and content management systems. Hopefully your candidate will have used a few and have been paying sufficient attention to prefer some over others, and have intelligent reasons for doing so.

Do their points suggest an awareness of the strategic issues at play in choosing a CMS? Issues like security, updating, the availability of developers to work on a particular platform, data liberation, and open source will hopefully be raised.

Be specific when answering questions about your accomplishments with other companies. By simply stating, "I ran several online marketing campaigns" does not adequately show what you can do for the company.

A more appropriate answer would be: "I started a social media campaign that used targeted advertising systems to market the company's services to youth in North America." In order to elaborate - this will further project your knowledge of different campaigns - use numbers that support the project such as, "Within three financial quarters, sales increased by 427% and brand recognition vastly improved by 10% within the target demographic."

Provide an example of a marketing campaign (either your own or someone else's) that you consider to have been very successful.

As mentioned above, marketing demands a lot in terms of creativity. When answering questions such as this, it is important to make sure you include as much creative thinking in your response as there was in the actual project. When discussing a campaign that you felt was successful, make sure to include why you feel it was a success, what contributed to making it a success and point out key tactics that you can identify with, which made the campaign successful.

Hopefully you'll have some idea about what could be improved with your digital presence before the interview. If you don't have any expertise in house, I'd recommend jumping on to a platform like Sparked and asking the volunteers there for their opinion before the interview. The community there is very helpful with challenges like this, and will give you some good ammunition.

There are lots of things that could be wrong with your digital presence. Perhaps the website displays horribly on tablets, maybe the twitter presence is more marketing spam than useful, engaging material. Perhaps the branding is sloppy, the accessibility is imperfect, or the tone is all wrong. Maybe the digital communications are focusing on the wrong things.

Whilst the substance of the answer to this question is important, also evaluate how it is articulated. Is this someone who will be able to diplomatically deal with stakeholders across the organisation?
Does it feel like they'd focus on the core issues, or get lost in vanity projects or sideshows?

When answering this question make sure to show how cultural, social, personal and psychological factors all impact consumer behaviour. Provide an example of a marketing campaign or project you developed and how you used these four key factors to develop and optimise your project.

Things are changing fast, so if you can't say how you've bettered yourself in the last year you're pretty much moving backwards. Hopefully you've learned from your own experience, and from changes in the wider world of digital communications.

They may well use a mixture of twitter, in person meetups and RSS feeds. Ask them to name a couple of favourite sources of information - they can be people or organisations or websites.

An interviewer will ask his question in order to assess how you handle a failed plan, as this is quite inevitable. It is important that you are able to recognise the key reasons why a strategy went wrong and what you learnt from the experience.

Campaigns may fail for many different reasons, including: poor research and groundwork, poor planning and follow-through of objectives and goals or ineffective communication. Be open about why the campaign failed, take accountability and focus on what you learnt.

Earlier this year the ICO formally began enforcing an EU privacy directive from 2009 that covers cookies. This is why you now see so many popups on websites asking you to consent for cookies.

The ICO's guidance on consent, in the run up to the enforcement deadline, was a source of heated discussion. Shortly before enforcement began, the concept of 'implied consent' was introduced. Whether your candidate thinks this was sensible pragmatism from an organisation tasked with enforcing an impossible EU directive, or a frustrating last-minute change of tack that has abandoned consumers to continued electronic surveillance and marketing, the main thing is that they can give you an answer. You certainly don't want to see a glazed expression

Do they know who the main user group is? How do they know this? What sort of testing have they done to find out? What sort of data have they used? Have they made assumptions?

Hopefully their response will go beyond measuring statistics like 'time on site' and 'number of pages per visit' and talk about measuring the achievement of the organisation's aims using digital.

Ask them how they'd measure the achievement of the organisation's aims online, and what experience they have in doing this. Of course, once you're able to measure how well an organisation's digital presence is helping it achieve its objectives, you can try to improve thi, in an evidence-led way.

They might also hit on the thornier question of social media measurement. They'll hopefully talk about engagement. Perhaps they're even reading Beth Kanter's new book 'Measuring the Networked Nonprofit'. Ask them how they've increased this, how they've measured their successes, and what returned has come from this.

The best new hires rapidly seek to identify problems that must be quickly addressed in their new job. So, please walk us through the steps of the process that you will actually use during your first weeks to identify the most important current issues/problems, as well as any possible positive opportunities in your new job.

► Why are you interested in joining our organization?
► Why are you looking for a new position right now?
► Describe your [last/current] boss. How did you get along with her/him?
► What makes you angry or frustrated?
► What makes you feel happy or satisfied?
► Describe your perfect boss.
► Have you ever been fired? Tell me about it.
► If we called your [last/current] employer, what would they tell us about you?
► Does your present boss know you're looking? How did she become aware of that?
► For each of your previous jobs, please tell me the reason for leaving.
► How long do you think you would stay with us?
► Do you have any weaknesses on or off the job that I should know about?
► How would you describe your use of alcohol?
► How would your [last/current] boss describe you?
► How would your best friend describe you?
► Describe your personality for me.
► How many hours per week, on average, would you expect to put in on the job?
► Have you ever been affected by organization politics? Tell me about it.
► Describe your method of working.
► What kind of people do you like to work with?
► Why is it taking so long for you to find a new job?
► In your last organization, were you satisfied with your rate of advancement? To what do you attribute your rate of progress?
► There seem to be some gaps in your resume. Would you explain those for me?
► What do you know about our organization?
► What appeals to you about us?
► What concerns do you have about joining us?
► What salary were you receiving in your last position?
► What do you expect to be earning in 3 years?
► Who could we check with for references?

► What do you know about our target market?
► How do you generate your marketing plans?
► What do you use to find out if your marketing plan is working?
► What marketing strategies do you consider most successful for our product?
► How and when do you evaluate your marketing campaigns?
► What do you consider the 5 most important aspects of successful marketing?
► Describe a marketing strategy that failed.
► Describe a time when you had to make a difficult decision about a marketing strategy?
► How do you feel about PPC advertising?
► Do you subscribe to a particular marketing belief or methodology?
► How do you prefer to distribute and manage information?
► How important do you feel it is to communicate with the sales team?
► Describe your most successful marketing campaign?
► What do you believe are the biggest issues that might affect our business?
► How would you market our products if you were put on a severely limited budget?

► Tell us about the last time you had to negotiate with someone.
► What have you done to support diversity in your unit?
► What do you consider the most important qualities for this Corporate Communications Manager job?
► What is a typical career path in this job function?
► Give me an example of when you have done more than required in a course.
► Tell about a problem that you solved in a unique or unusual way.
► What were the responsibilities of your last position?

Your answers to these Corporate Communications Manager interview questions needs to convince the interviewers that your skills are exactly what they want.
You don't need to memorize an answer, but do think about what you're going to say.
During the Corporate Communications Manager interview, talk about how you approach your day.

► Tell me about the 2 or 3 biggest problems you have encountered in your work, and how you handled them.
► What would you say are your 3 major strengths? How will these strengths help you in this position?
► What would you say are your principal weaknesses or shortcomings? How might these interfere with your success in this position? How might you overcome them?
► What was the most creative or original contribution you made to your last organization?
► Could you describe a few situations in which your work was criticized? How did you handle that?
► What skills or abilities do you possess which have not yet been used in your career?
► How skillful are you at [insert a major function to be performed]? Describe a situation where you needed that skill.
► How skillful are you at [insert a major function to be performed]? Where have you used that skill in the past?
► How many people were in the largest group that you have supervised? What kinds of positions were involved?
► What has been the hardest thing you have ever had to do as a manager? How did you approach that?
► As a manager, what do you look for when you are selecting people for your team?
► Describe a situation where you had to deal with a poor performer. How did you handle that?
► Tell me about your approach to motivating employees.
► If you had a general morale problem among your subordinates, what would you do about it?
► How would you set about building an effective work team in your branch/department?
► If you had to choose between retaining a poor performer and operating with a short-staffing situation, which would you choose?
► What would you do if you discovered an employee taking illegal drugs or drinking on the job?
► What would you do if you suspected that two of your unmarried employees have an intimate relationship? How would your approach be different if you had proof of such a relationship?
► What would you do if you suspected that two of your married employees are having an extramarital affair? How would your approach be different if you had proof of the affair?
► How would you respond if a subordinate asked you directly about an organization change/downsizing that had not yet been announced?
► What would you do if you suspected, but could not prove, that a subordinate was selling the organization's property for personal gain? How would your approach be different if you had proof?
► What would you do if you suspected that an employee was conveying sensitive information to an outside party/the media/a competing organization?
► What would you do if you suspected that an employee was selling member contact information to someone compiling mailing lists?
► What would you do if you discovered that a group of employees was having discussions with a union organizer?
► What would you do if two of your subordinates refused to co-operate with each other?
► What would you do if an subordinate was charged with a criminal offence?
► What would you do if a subordinate accused another employee of sexual harassment?
► What would you do if another manager's subordinate came to you with a serious complaint about her manager?
► What would you do about an employee who is chronically late for work?
► What would you do about an employee who exhibits excessive absenteeism?
► What would you do about an employee who appears to be padding her out-of-pocket expenses?
► What would you do about an employee who spoke abusively to a customer?
► How would you convince employees to reduce unnecessary waste and costs?
► What do you think would affect productivity levels in an operation like this?
► If you had to choose between satisfying a [client/customer/member] and following policy, which would you choose?
► Tell me how you would expect to spend your time in a typical day in this position?

► What is your definition of success?
► Who has exercised the greatest influence on you? What did you learn from her/him?
► For what kind of organization can you do your best work?
► What are the qualities that make for a great organization, in your opinion?
► What do think might be your most important contribution to our organization?
► What would make an organization unattractive to you as a prospective employer.
► What would you expect would happen if you and a fellow employee could not cooperate?
► What would you expect would happen if you were often late for work or absent?
► What would you expect would happen if you were discovered drinking or using illegal drugs on the job?
► What would you expect would happen if a client/member/customer complained about your work, or the way you spoke to her/him?
► What would you expect would happen on your first day on the job?

► How would you use our company's employees as brand ambassadors?
► How do you achieve a more human tone in your communications?
► What has been your experience in crisis communications?
► Do you have experience creating or overseeing the creation of video content?
► Would you modify the channels you use when communicating with different generations in the workplace? How so?
► Have you ever developed a mobile communication strategy for employees? What do you see as the possible advantages to having one?
► What would you do if an employee posted something on his/her personal social media account that was negative in tone about this company?
► Describe your experience with overseeing outside vendors in creating targeted communications.
► Do you have experience with media training for staff?
► How do you ensure that your message is clearly communicated to both external and internal customers?
► How do you clean up a company's image that has been tarnished?
► Give me an example of a time when you dealt with the media and it went badly.
► How do you develop an effective media strategy?
► What is the first thing you would do if this company's computer system was hacked?
► How do you ensure you are producing quality content?
► How do you ensure that the right people receive the right message?
► Have you ever handled communications for a company that went public?
► What have/would you do if the CEO resigned amidst a scandal?
► If you were talking to an aspiring communications professional, what would you tell him/her is the best thing about working in the field? Conversely, would you say is the most difficult?

► Have you done this kind of work before?
► Tell me about the most effective presentation you have made.
► What has been your most successful Corporate Communications Manager experience in speech making?
► Do you prefer to work in a small, medium or large company?
► Example of a time you have placed yourself in a leadership position.
► What are common risks for Corporate Communications Manager? And how to face?
► What performance standards do you have for your unit?

How you respond to these Corporate Communications Manager interview questions may be a litmus test for how well you'll fit into the organization. The best way to tackle these Corporate Communications Manager interview questions is to answer as honestly as possible. This is a good time to illustrate how you can contribute to the company if you are successfully recruited.

► Why are you interested in joining our organization?
► Why are you looking for a new position right now?
► Describe your [last/current] boss. How did you get along with her/him?
► What makes you angry or frustrated?
► What makes you feel happy or satisfied?
► Describe the person you would like to report to.
► Have you ever been fired? Tell me about it.
► When you call an employee into your office, what do they expect is going to happen?
► On the Friday before a long holiday weekend, if you had to choose between working overtime yourself, or having a subordinate work overtime, which would you choose?
► If you had to choose between solving a problem for a key customer, or solving a problem for a key employee, which would you choose?
► If your planned annual vacation conflicted with a major problem arising at work, what would you do?
► How many hours per week, on average, do you put in on the job? Is that about right?
► Describe you management style.
► What kind of people do you like to work with?
► Why did you close down your business?
► If we called your [last/current] employer, what would they tell us about you?
► If we talked to your previous/current subordinates, what would they tell us about you?
► Does your present boss know you're looking? How did she become aware of that?
► For each of your previous jobs, please tell me the reason for leaving.
► How long do you think you would stay with us?
► Do you have any weaknesses on or off the job that I should know about?
► How would you describe your use of alcohol?
► How would your [last/current] boss describe you?
► How would your best friend describe you?
► Describe your personality for me.
► How many hours per week, on average, would you expect to put in on the job?
► Have you ever been affected by organization politics? Tell me about it.
► Describe your method of working.
► What kind of people do you like to work with?
► Why is it taking so long for you to find a new job?
► In your last organization, were you satisfied with your rate of advancement? To what do you attribute your rate of progress?
► There seem to be some gaps in your resume. Would you explain those for me?
►
► What do you know about our organization?
► What appeals to you about us?
► What concerns do you have about joining us?
► What salary were you receiving in your last position?
► What do you expect to be earning in 3 years?
► Who could we check with for references?

1. Tell me about yourself?
2. Why did you leave your last job?
3. Please tell me about your long-term career goals for Marketing communications director?
4. What have you learned from your past jobs that related to Marketing communications director?
5. In your life, what experiences have been most important to you that related to Marketing communications director?
6. Do you consider you're overqualified with this position?
7. How can you offer make amends for your lack of skill?
8. What characteristics would you search for inside a boss?
9. Let me know about a period when you assisted resolve a dispute between others.
10. What position would you prefer on the team focusing on a task?
11. What's been your greatest professional disappointment?
12. What are most common mistakes for Marketing communications director job and how to solve them?
13. What made you choose to apply to Marketing communications director?
14. What are top 3 skills for Marketing communications director?
15. What are techniques/methods list that you used in your work as Marketing communications director? Please explain how to you use them?
16. Let me know concerning the most enjoyable you've had at work?
17. Have you got any queries for me personally?
18. Do you know the hardest choices to create?
19. Do you'd rather work individually or on the team?
20. How do you apply ISO 9001 for your Marketing communications director job?
21. Do you have any questions?