Love ’em or hate ’em, community job interviews are something most of us face throughout our careers.
Let’s be honest here — an interview is an unnatural experience. You have to flex your skills at small talk. You have to openly explain your weaknesses to strangers. While you’re confident you can do the job in question, you’re not so confident you can talk about why you’re the one they should hire. That’s why we’ve written this comprehensive guide to arm you with what you need to succeed on a community job interview.
I’ve found myself on both sides of the interview table throughout the years. I began as a fresh-faced college graduate not even knowing what a community manager was. Fast forward a couple of years and I have been fortunate enough to be able to help others get their start in the wonderful world of community. And now, after taking a career break to travel, I’ve found myself back in the interviewee hot seat again.
This article will prepare you for a community job interview and help you to show a hiring manager why you’re the best candidate for the role. Hiring managers, this article will help you craft truly illuminating community manager job interviews after you’ve written the perfect community job description.
In this article:
Thorough preparation makes its own luck. If you want to ace a community manager job interview, here’s what you need to do before you speak to a hiring manager.
Research, research, research.
Read up on the company, its culture, and recent media coverage. You should be able to have an informed conversation with a hiring manager about the place you want to work. If possible, find out the names of the people you will be interviewing with and scope them out on Twitter and LinkedIn. You’ll be able to get a sense of what’s important to them and appeal to their interests during your conversation.
Join the community.
Being a community manager means putting yourself in the shoes of community members to understand their experience. If a candidate makes it to an in-person interview with me and has not yet signed up to the community in question, that’s an immediate red flag. Think about it from your hiring manager’s perspective: if a candidate does not care enough to take two minutes to sign up and poke around, you bet that candidate does not know what it takes to manage that community. Managing a community means being a community member yourself.
Memorize the numbers.
Knowing the size of the community you would be working with will give you a better understanding of the company’s processes, problems, goals, and opportunities. Much of the numbers will be publicly available or discernable through some research, such as Facebook fans, Pinterest followers, and number of forum members. Look at how many times the team is posting on these platforms, and how much engagement their content is getting. If you can recite these numbers, you will impress your interviewer with a more informed conversation about the community.
Related: How to Write a Great Resume and Cover Letter for Community Managers
Brush up your online presence.
A hiring manager will Google you when considering you for a position. Make sure your social media accounts are consistent with you as a person and that they look alive and fresh. Make sure a prospective employer can find something, and that what they find is positive and flattering.
Practice basic interview etiquette.
Confirm the date and time of your interview a day or two before you’re scheduled to meet. Arrive ten minutes early, and no earlier than that. Don’t be late. Bring a copy of your resume and writing samples if needed. These are the fundamentals of attending an interview that, if forgotten, can start your interview off on a bad note.
The difference between a college final and a community job interview: You know the questions in advance. Leave a strong impression with a hiring manager by having answers ready to the below questions.
A word of caution: you don’t want your answers to sound too rehearsed. Be prepared with your answers, but be able to speak in a natural and conversational way and adapt your answers to go with the flow of conversation.
Tell me about yourself!
Okay, so this is not a question, but it is likely your interview will start this way. If there is any topic on which you’re an expert, it’s yourself — and your interviewer will likely start off simple to help you banish any initial nerves. “Tell me about yourself” is your opening to highlight all the relevant information on your résumé and tell the hiring manager the most important things about yourself that you want them to know.
How do you define an online community?
Right off the bat, this question can stump many candidates. I’ve heard a lot of vague answers about social media platforms that veer off on an incoherent tangent until they fall off a cliff. Keep it straightforward by giving a simple definition that explains what an online community is: a group of people who share a common goal, cause, or interest and gather together to collaborate and discuss via the internet.
What communities are you a member of?
Your interviewer is asking this question to see if you can demonstrate your understanding of what a community is and what it means to belong to one. We’re all part of many communities throughout our lives. If you’re an active commenter on BuzzFeed and know the other commenters there, then you’re part of the BuzzFeed community. If not online, maybe you were a member of an after-school club or local charity. Be capable of talking about a time you contributed to a community in some shape or form.
Who is a typical member of our community, and what do you think is important to them?
Here’s your chance to show off that you’ve done your research on the company and its community. You will be interacting with members on a daily basis, so show the hiring manager that you can get inside the mind of a member and understand why they are part of the community. Even better, back this up with theories from psychology and case studies.
Can you tell me about a time you handled a member/customer who was difficult, impatient, or upset?
Many community manager roles involve elements of customer service. After all, you’re interacting with people daily and will often encounter someone who is reaching out to you with an issue that needs solving. Let your interviewer see that they can trust you to be the face of and voice for the community.
How does your approach change when managing different social media platforms?
It’s a common misconception that a social media manager is the same as a community manager. However, being a community manager often involves creating content and interacting with users on social media accounts. Simply being a personal user of Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram is not enough to show that you can manage a brand or business social media presence, if that’s part of what the role you’re interviewing for asks for (many will ask for this, many will not — this is why you need to do the research).
What initiatives would you take to increase engagement/retention/growth in our community?
Engaging, keeping, and attracting new users are goals for most (but not all) communities. Be prepared with two or three ideas to achieve these goals. Don’t worry about presenting original ideas here — you’re interviewing for a job, not providing free consulting advice. Just show the hiring manager that you have ideas. If you suggest ideas they’ve already tried, well, that shows you’re on the same page.
There’s no such thing as being over-prepared, so consider these questions that you could also be asked in a community job interview:
Thanks to Danya Cheskis-Gold (Arq), Audrey Lo (Gogobot), Adam Hendle (Famebit) and members of the CMX Facebook group for their contributions to this list!
Hiring for a community manager position is tricky territory. It’s a relatively new discipline, so it’s rare to find someone with pure community experience. Candidates are coming in from other fields — some related (such as communications or marketing), some unrelated (the arts and technology), and others with no experience at all. And that’s okay — you can find ways to link what you’ve done in the past to the role for which you’re applying.
Community managers are some of the most unique and fun people in any company. Fact! Show that you have an interesting personality and that community members would get along well with you. If there’s any field not suited to being a bland corporate drone, it’s community management.
By all means, put angles on your experience to show relevancy to the job in question, but don’t lie or twist things around because you think that’s what the interviewer wants to hear. Be honest from the beginning, because you don’t want to end up in a role you’re unhappy with or one in which you can’t perform well.
These are the most sought-after skills your interviewer will be looking for in their perfect candidate. Demonstrate as many of these as you can throughout your interview.
Read more: 3 Essential Traits of an Exceptional Community Builder
An important point to remember about demonstrating your skills: Anyone can list off all the skills they supposedly possess, but your words are meaningless unless you can back them up with real world examples. Instead of saying you’re a self-starter, tell your interviewer about a time you began working on something before being asked. Telling stories that show you have these skills will set you apart from other candidates.
A community job interview is a two-way street. Not only will your interviewer grill you with the questions above, but you have the opportunity to find out more about whether the role is the right fit for you. Pick two or three questions to ask (but no more than that):
When your interviewer turns the tables on you by saying “Do you have you any questions for me?” you do not want to say, “No, I think we covered it all.” Make sure you have backup questions in case the interviewer already answered your questions during the conversation. This is a key part of the interview to show that you’re inquisitive and want to know everything there possibly is to know about the role.
You’ve made it to the end of the interview and feel confident in your performance. Time to sit back and wait for the job offer to come through, right? Wrong.
Later that day, after you and the hiring manager have had time to mull over your conversation, send a quick follow-up email. Thank your interviewer for their time (because finding the right candidate is a time-consuming and often frustrating process), let them know that you’re very interested in the position and that you hope to hear back soon. You can also connect with them on LinkedIn to build your professional network.
The interview doesn’t end at the handshake—you’re expected to follow up and you could ruin your chances if you don’t.
If you don’t get the job, don’t let it get to you. There are many possible reasons why you were not hired, many of which could be out of your control. Do ask for honest feedback from your interviewer so that you can learn for next time.
If you do get the job, do a happy dance! Make sure you negotiate the best pay for your role. And once you’ve started your new job, ask your new manager for feedback about the interview process. What did you do well and not so well? What made them choose you? Their feedback will help you understand what they saw in you, and what they expect from you going forward.
Many companies require a reference check of your previous employers, so make sure you’re ready for that. How? By maintaining contact with past colleagues and giving them a heads-up that they could be hearing from a recruiter. I’ve had old colleagues come out of the shadows after years of not keeping in touch, asking for a reference. I decline, because I have no idea what that person is now like in their career. Make sure you maintain contact with your professional network, especially past colleagues who can speak to how well you work.
Best of luck
There is no one path to becoming a community professional. Whatever your experience, you will likely be able to shape your role and bring your own unique experiences to the company. Throughout the hiring process, apply the advice in this article and show your passion and enthusiasm for the job — this will help you rise to the top above all else.
Good luck!