20 Questions to Ask Your Next Communication Candidate—Before You Hire
Go Beyond "Tell Me About Yourself" When Interviewing for Your Next Comms Chief
Hiring for a communication leadership role means going past the standard questions — strengths, weaknesses, five-year plans. Those tell you how a candidate presents, but not necessarily how they think. For that, add questions like these to your usual list:
What's the best communication plan you've seen implemented — and what made it work?
What are the biggest challenges communication teams face right now, and how would you address them?
Which metrics matter most to you as a communication leader, and why?
What parts of this job are hardest for you — and least interesting?
What's the biggest obstacle to leading a team through a communication crisis? Give an example.
How would you prioritize resources across your primary channels, and what would shift that allocation?
Where is AI already changing how communication teams operate — and where should it stay out of the process?
What do internal audiences actually want to hear from leadership? What are they hearing too much of, or not enough?
What's worked for you in cutting through the noise and getting your message heard?
Describe the audience your work serves, what their pain points are, and how they are typically persuaded.
What frustrates you most about this field?
Where's the biggest opportunity in communication right now?
Name a company that recently handled a hard communication moment well. What did they get right?
How do you measure success — for your team, for yourself, for the organization?
How do you raise the level of writing across a team?
What does a good review cycle look like to you — revision count, stakeholders involved — and how do you get a team and a client to agree on it?
What traits do you look for in different roles on a communication team?
What makes a story work?
Walk me through the best story you've produced.
Where do you go to stay current on the field?
Ask candidates to self-rate, 1 to 10, on traits that matter for the role:
Productivity
Creativity
Organization
Accuracy
Strategic thinking
Ability to stay calm in a crisis
Adaptability
Data-driven decision-making
Integrity
Vision
Execution
Resilience
Decisiveness
Accountability
Courage
Delegation
Leading distributed or hybrid teams
Have them bring work samples — theirs and someone else's they admire. What they choose to show you, and why they chose it, tells you a lot about their standard of excellence.
A strong resume’ answers what they’ve done, but the right questions can help you determine how they’ll actually lead in the future.