My most popular posts cover the basics of job description, job posting & salary for the community manager role. So I thought I would round out the job search information with some tips on the interview process. The challenges of the economy are starting to be felt & people are looking for resources. I hope that you find these helpful.
For almost a decade I reviewed applications, interviewed & recommended to hire candidates. Then I followed up with orientation & training of the successful candidate. Because my Director was 80 miles away I had a lot of independence but that also meant a lot of responsibility to make sure that the hiring decision was the best possible for my team.
Here are some tips that apply to any position:
- Make sure that your resume is well done. Have friends review it & give feedback. It’s the only thing that represents you & your achievements.
- The web offers lots of opportunities to be creative, but be careful about silly videos & things that are too unconventional.
- Use positive action verbs – the BEST book is What Color is My Parachute for resume tips & interview suggestions.
- Make sure that your cover letter & resume provide the requested information
For the interview:
- Dress appropriately & take it seriously
- Be careful about making generalizations & ask questions if you truly don’t know
- The interview should be in both directions (more coming on that)
- Believe in yourself & have confidence
Jim Durbin, Social Media Headhunter, had a post listing interview questions. I think that they’re great & so I’m reprinting them here. He also has some excellent questions about communities.
1. What communities have you run in the past? How much control did you have?
2. What was the purpose of those communities, and did you succeed in the original purpose?
3. What help did you have?
4. Where do you hang out online now?
5. What would a search of your name and community turn up on different search engines and/or forum search engines?
6. Is there a single software that monitors blogs, social networks, forums, and the general web (that answer is no)
7. What is the difference between those types of sites, and how do you monitor each?
8. What tools did you use for online monitoring, and what was their cost?
9. What was your reporting structure like? How did you communicate with management what was happening, and how did you create relevant metrics?
10. Flame wars: How do you/should you stop them?
11. How do you deal with security risks (youth sites)
12. How do you deal with crazy people?
13. Write some responses (forum/e-mail/blogposts) to deal with hostile commenters/users.
14. Who matters online? How do you know when something needs attention beyond your department?
15. What hours does a community manager work?
What tips do you have for resumes & interviews? Does the community manager position require unique preparation for the interview?
Interesting post. My question is does a community manager really need an interview?
If I wanted to hire one, I’d find a few online communities I really liked and recruit whoever built and managed that community. It’s like recruiting an SEO expert, you type in SEO Expert and pick one of them.
The problem I have with the questions, and they are good question, is that they’re only useful if the interviewer knows what the answer should be.
Hi Richard,
That is a very good question!
Would you agree that every employee needs to go thru the interview/hiring process? If so, then that was the purpose of this post.
But yes, you’re right, those questions would assume that the interviewer was almost an expert on the community manager role. So I agree with your concern.
Great can of worms that you’ve opened! I will address them. :) It’s an excellent conversation.
I’d add: Google yourself so there are no surprises because you’re going to get Googled. Consider running yourself through a social media monitoring tool (like ours) and using those results to show what you’ve accomplished out there in the community.
Have a resume site with a full range of links to sites you’ve developed, networks you are a member or admin for, Linkedin info, etc.
Richard definitely raises an interesting point. I would certainly recommend looking for a community manager inside an existing community as this allows you to see them actively demonstrating their abilities.
I think it is important to take their previous experience and achievements into account but you should still take the time to interview them or at least engage in a conversation to see if they are a right ‘fit’ – after all, would you still recruit the perfect community manager if you couldn’t stand speaking to them?
You also need to consider the fact that the community manager you want may not be willing to jump ship – meaning you need to take a more ‘open’ approach to recruitment.
– Martin
Thanks for your ideas Martin. Yes it’s important for staff to fit into the organization’s culture. I planned to address that in the next post. (Your choice of words ‘if you couldn’t stand speaking to them’ made me chuckle! Because Comm Mgr’s talk/type a lot! It’s our nature!)
And I agree – let’s not go poaching other people’s community managers, ok?! Which brings up more questions.
This is a great discussion!
[…] the last post on the Interview Process I offered tips for both the Interviewer & the candidate. That started some interesting […]
Martin’s point about searching for your own name is important. Even though they’re called vanity searches – they’re important for personal brand building.
And most definitely one’s resume is their digital footprint. We’re living in a world where transparency is a reality!