Best interview questions for product designers

Content Strategist/Specialist Interview Questions

The role of a content strategist is to develop content plans and increase customer engagement and improve customer retention.

A good candidate should know how to:

Build online audiences, have a creative mind to come up with engaging marketing campaigns.
Have analytical skills to work with data and KPIs.
An ideal candidate will display a passion for content and have enthusiasm about brand as well as having outstanding communication and presentation skills.

Interviewing a Content Specialist

Are you searching for an excellent Content Specialist? Then it will soon be time to get to know the candidates a little better in an interview. With our Content Specialist interview questions, your interview is prepared quickly and easily.

Please note: Our interview questions are suggestions for the earlier stages of the application process and for candidates with average work experience. They are therefore a little more general.

How to open the job interview

Interviews naturally breed nerves, so the first part of your interview should aim to make the candidate feel comfortable speaking with you, you’ll get much more information out of them and a better sense of the person they are if they feel like they can trust the environment they are in.

To do this you can ask some fun and interesting questions linked to the role, they should be open-ended and encourage conversation.

Job Description available

See our Content Specialist Job Description here

For the interview

A positive opener to start

Why did you choose to become a content strategist?

Can you give me some examples of some campaigns or brands that inspire you?

Behavioral Questions

What has been your journey so far? What do you enjoy most about your job?
Gives you a good idea of their personality and process through their career.
What do you enjoy most about content and strategisation?
Another personality question, also gives an indication of style.
How do you keep up to date with changes and new tools in the industry?
Shows the level of dedication and passion they have for their role and how proactive they are when it comes to improvements.
Can you give me some examples of some campaigns or brands that inspire you?
Shows awareness and a level of dedication.

Soft Skills

How do you motivate your team members to stay engaged when creating new content?
Shows level of leadership skills and communication techniques.
Are you comfortable explaining your content strategies in an easy to understand way to large groups or senior management?
Presentation skills are important for the role as they will have to convince management to give go-aheads and explain campaign results.
What do you think are the most important points to include in a content brief?
Outsourcing content can be difficult if a brief hasn’t been clearly defined. A content strategist should know the importance of this.

Hard Skills

How do you usually go about researching target audiences?
Demonstrates candidates industry knowledge, analytical and research skills
How do you consistently come up with new content ideas?
Having new ideas all the time can be difficult, this will give you a sense of their creativity and how they stay aware of new techniques in the industry.
What types of channels are most effective for storytelling?
Depending on your goals, the answer will be different, Twitter is good for engaging storytelling, and platforms like LinkedIn are good for gaining more subscribers to newsletters.
What content management systems and tools have you used in the past? Which ones do you prefer?
This is a basic question so you can confirm their overall experience.

Operational / Situational Questions

Could you outline the steps you would take to create a content strategy?
Should already have a preferred process and concrete knowledge of end to end steps.
How would you respond to a campaign that received negative feedback?
Candidates don’t have to have a full action plan, but some awareness of the impact it could have and some ideas on solutions would be a good answer.
How would you try to make a boring subject more engaging and interesting?
Good candidates will be able to come up with creative solutions in a short time frame as well as being able to communicate complex issues in an easy to understand fashion.
Can you tell me about a time that you managed a team of content creators for a project? Can you talk about a time that you disagreed with what they wanted to do? How did you deal with this?
Gives you a better idea of their seniority level and how willing they are to learn from conflicts in communications.