Best interview questions for product designers

Content Writer Interview Questions

Content writers can be responsible for all company content, both online and offline, written and visual concepts. This can include social media, articles, whitepapers, blogs, product descriptions, presentations, email marketing and SEO.

They should:

Aim to capture the attention of target audiences and know how to adapt their writing for different platforms.
Content writers usually have to collaborate often with different departments, so great communication skills and teamwork are essential.

Interviewing a Content Writer

Are you searching for an excellent Content Writer to join the team? Then it will soon be time to get to know the candidates a little better in an interview. With our Content Writer 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 Writer Job Description here

For the interview

A positive opener to start

What has been your journey so far?

What do you enjoy most about writing and creating content?

Behavioral Questions

Why did you choose to become a writer? What has been your journey so far?
Gives you a good idea of their personality and process through their career.
What do you enjoy most about writing and creating content?
Another personality question, also gives an indication of style.
Can you give me some examples of some writers/artists/brands that inspire you?
Shows awareness and a level of dedication.
What has taught you the most about content writing?
Candidate can speak about education, mentors, or practise makes perfect.

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.
How much experience do you have with working in cross functional teams to create diverse content?
Should be able to work with many different people, be organised, and be able to work on multiple projects at once.

Hard Skills

What do you know about SEO and keyword research?
Should have extensive knowledge about both of these subjects and be able to talk about projects, tools and
Which analysis tools do you have most experience using, and which do you prefer to use?
Should be able to give a list of helpful content tools along with their pros and cons. This should give you a better understanding of their experience level.
How do you approach proofreading your own and others' work?
Content writers need to have good attention to detail.

Operational / Situational Questions

How would you respond to a content piece that received negative feedback?
This will show good communication skills, and the ability to take criticism.
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 have had a problem or fall back in SEO or content creation? How did you handle that?
It can be hard to predict the success of a piece of content before it gets published, candidates should be good problem solvers and recognise when things need to be worked on in time.