Communications Coordinator Interview Questions

The Communications Coordinator in your organisation will be responsible for the external image of your brand and company. They will coordinate with media outlets and journalists, as well as working on the internal communications between teams and across the company in general.

Here are some of the more important skill sets for a Communications Coordinator to keep in mind:

An outstanding communicator across written and verbal platforms, online and offline.
An open, approachable and confident attitude and personality.
It would be helpful if they already had connections within the media industry.
Some events management experience would be beneficial as they’ll either work with the events team, or independently to set up product launches or press releases.
A great team player with great energy would help them succeed in this role.

Interviewing a Communications Coordinator

Your Communications Coordinator will have experience in media crisis management and avoidance, they will attend and set up press conferences, interviews and appearances. Usually, a Communications Coordinator will join a company during a fast period of growth and when work on a brand and vision has been set.

It’s critical to hire your Communications Coordinator at the right time and essential that you hire someone that will not only fit in with the current team, but will be aligned with your brand.

How to open the job interview

Even the most confident of Communications Coordinators may get nervous during a job interview. It’s important to make your candidates feel at ease so that you can accurately gauge their skills and get the right information from them.

To combat nerves, start the interview with a couple of relaxed questions that get the conversation naturally flowing. This will benefit both you and the candidate!

For the interview

A positive opener to start

What has your professional journey been like up to this point?

What do you like about being a Communications Coordinator?

Behavioral Questions

How do you make sure you collaborate effectively with other teams?
A simple question to quickly gauge how your candidate would work with coordinating with multiple teams.
What would you say is your main strength and main weakness when it comes to your job role?
This is a question that will give you a good impression of the candidate's basic skills and personality.
What is an important lesson you’ve learned while working as a Communications Coordinator?
A great question to ask during any job interview, a good candidate will be able to give one or two examples, plus what they’re currently doing or learning to improve.
What media outlets do you follow?
A good Communications Coordinator will have some favourite media outlets that inspire them. There’s no right or wrong answer but this will give you an idea of their communication styles.
Can you tell me about a time that you effectively used crisis management techniques in regards to the press?
A good candidate for the Communications Coordinator role will have knowledge on how to handle negative press coverage and be able to walk you through some damage control techniques.

Soft Skills

Which sort of management style do you work with best?
This will give you a better idea of how the candidate would fit into your team.
What would you improve about our organization's current communication strategy?
The candidate doesn’t need to have a lot of ideas or plans, but some research and some thought would be a plus.
What, in your opinion, makes a good leader?
This will also give you a better impression of how the candidate works best, as well as the whether you would have the option of them working towards a more senior role.
How much experience do you have with writing different types of content? Which is your favourite type of content to write?
A Communications Coordinator should be well versed in many different content types including press releases, white papers, social media and landing pages, as well as communicating with media outlets and journalists.
Would you say you’re an independent worker?
Another question to gauge what the candidate's working style is.
Have you given presentations to large audiences in the past?
Part of this role is to make audiences more aware of your brand. They should be confident and comfortable with public speaking.

Hard Skills

How much experience do you have with social media? Which platforms are you most familiar with?
In this digital age, there are more and more communications taking place online. A good candidate will have experience across multiple platforms.
Can you explain how you would use social media for corporate communications?
Writing for different audiences is important in this role. A good candidate will understand how to change their tone for different audiences and platforms.
Which mediums of marketing are you most comfortable with?
There isn’t a right or wrong answer here, a good candidate will talk about techniques both in person and online. They may mention mediums like social media, media outlets, and press releases.
In your opinion, what must a good press release include?
This question could be seen as both technical and creative. Ideally, the candidate will mention structure and how to decide on an angle.
Could you tell me a bit about your experience with supporting and planning small and medium sized events?
Event planning is also a part of the job, your Communications Coordinator will either plan them independently or work with the events team to support them. Some previous experience would be beneficial.
Could you tell me what the main steps of the marketing research process are?
With a few years of experience, the candidate will be able to outline the main steps of a marketing research plan.

Operational / Situational Questions

Could you describe a time that a campaign didn’t perform as well as expected? What do you think you could have done differently?
If something doesn’t go to plan it’s beneficial to stay calm and have some steps to quickly rectify the situation.
Have you had to deal with a difficult stakeholder before? How did you handle that, and what was the outcome?
This is where their great communication skills will really come into practice. They should also know how to deal with difficult people and situations.
Let’s say you have a disagreement with the PR Manager while working on a campaign, how would you resolve this?
As your Communications Coordinator will be working in a cross-functional team it’s important that they can negotiate and compromise.
What do you find challenging about responding to reporters and media inquiries?
This question will give you an idea of how willing they are to learn from mistakes and improve their skills for the future.