There are several different types of interviews; some are live and in-person and some are virtual and recorded. Below are some questions, based on major, that can help prepare you for all types of interviews.

Interview type resources:

Cinema and Television Arts

  • Who is your favorite director and why?
  • What is your directing/producing/editing style?
  • Walk me through your reel …
  • If you could produce any project (film, TV show, documentary, radio show, etc.), what would it be and why?
  • What inspired you to choose this career?
  • What is your proudest career accomplishment?
  • Describe a project that required you to take a creative risk.
  • What is going to the biggest challenge about bringing this script to life?
  • Imagine you are presenting your work to a client and they are unhappy with the results, how do you handle the situation?
  • What was the last movie you saw in theaters? Why did you go?

Communication Design

  • What kind of design software are you familiar with?
  • What is your design process?
  • What have you learned from your mistakes as a designer?
  • What have you done to improve your design knowledge?
  • What sets your work apart from your peers?
  • *When you show the employer your e-portfolio talk about how you created each piece, how long it took, what your design goals were, etc.
  • What qualities do you consider necessary for a good designer?
  • How you handle hitting a creative block?
  • Describe a challenge you have faced with this?
  • Describe your experience with presenting your work to clients.
  • How do you sustain long-term interest in designing for one brand?

Journalism

  • Tell us about a time when you found your own story. How did you turn the idea into a story?
  • What do you think of our website/newspaper-what do you think we could improve upon?
  • What would you do if someone called the newsroom and said there was an explosion in a nearby town?
  • Who would be your key contacts in the area?
  • How much do you use social media and which sites do you use the most?
  • Describe yourself in two minutes.
  • What personal qualities do you have that you feel would make you a good journalist?
  • Who is your favorite journalist, and why?
  • How would you get a local story? How do you work with community members?
  • What books, magazines and newspapers do you read?

Media Analytics

  • How do you use social media as a tool for customer service?
  • How do you measure social return on investment (ROI)?
  • Talk about your SEO knowledge and experience.
  • Which social media platforms are you best at using and why?
  • What is a limitation you have experienced on a social media platform? How did you overcome this?
  • What analytics software packages have you used?
  • Tell me about a time when you made a recommendation based off data?
  • Tell me about a time when you had to learn a new process or technology quickly. Walk me through the steps you took to learn it.
  • Describe your public speaking experience. Have you ever presented a technical topic to a large audience?
  • Is our website search-friendly? What would you do to improve optimization?

Sport Management

  • Tell me about your favorite sporting event that you have ever attended. What makes it your favorite?
  • In your opinion, how can we better engage our audience during games?
  • Describe your coaching philosophy.
  • What are three things that your experience working in athletics has taught you?
  • **When interviewing with any team you should know their history inside & out (award winners, playoff appearances, championship titles, rookies, prospects, most successful coaches & managers
  • What is your vision for our athletic program?
  • Tell me about your experience in ticket sales.
  • Give us an example of a time when you had to handle a difficult situation regarding a student-athlete. How did you handle it?
  • Please explain one strength and one weakness of our current marketing endeavors for our team.
  • If you could change anything about the professional sports industry, what would it be and why?

Strategic Communications

Advertising

  • Describe your thoughts on the future of advertising?
  • Describe a time that you used an advertising strategy that failed.
  • What types of testing do you use to gauge the effectiveness of your advertising project?
  • What made you decide to go into advertising?
  • What do you consider the most effective current form of advertising?
  • What do you consider an effective advertisement and how do you evaluate it?
  • What is your favorite campaign of ours?
  • What are the most important trends in advertising today?
  • What is your proudest career accomplishment?
  • Describe a project that required you to take a creative risk.

Public Relations

  • Why do you want to work in PR? Or Why do you want to work in tech/healthcare/lifestyle/etc. PR?
  • What writing experience do you have?
  • How would you put together a pitch?
  • What media outlets do you follow on a regular basis? Why do you follow those?
  • What skills do you have that would help communicate a client’s message?
  • How would you go about finding relevant contacts and sources?
  • How would you contact and communicate with a reporter?
  • Have you ever had to deal with a PR crisis? If so, how did you handle it?
  • Describe your approach to developing relationships with members of the media.
  • Describe an experience of working with a difficult client.

Download PDF version