Columnist

While there are some fundamentals that all journalists need, such as basic knowledge of journalistic standards and practices, your interviewer will be more interested in your own individual take on what characteristics are ideal for a journalist. While it is important that you make your interviewer aware that you understand what the position entails, they want to know about how you approach the position and the qualities you possess which you feel will help you the most in the position. Looking back on the job posting and paying attention to their position requirements can give you an idea of what the employer is looking for in a candidate. Specifically highlighting these aspects of yourself should be beneficial to you during the Journalist interview questions and answers.

☛ Why do you want to become a columnist?

☛ What do you hope to gain in this job?

☛ What will your work add to our publication?

☛ How do you stay up to date with the latest world news?

☛ How do you combat negative feedback from viewers?

☛ How do you work with an editing team?

☛ What is your experience with social media?

☛ Do you prefer working in an office or at home?

☛ What do you believe is your role in the community as a columnist?

☛ How do you work under stress?

☛ Are you looking for a part time or full time job?

☛ If you could start your career over, what would you do and why?

☛ What is your ultimate career goal?

☛ Where do you see yourself five years from now?

☛ Why is this job right for you at this time?

☛ What do you like to write about?

☛ What makes your writing unique?

☛ Why do you believe you are a good fit for the job?

☛ How do you describe your writing style?

☛ Why do you want to write for this newspaper?

☛ Why do you want to live in this city/state/community?

☛ How do you plan on getting readers to read your column each week?

☛ What do you consider your specialty topic to write about?

☛ What credentials do you have to make people trust you?

☛ What are your salary expectations?

☛ What are your benefits expectations?

☛ What is your experience with pagination?

☛ What do you like to read on your own time?

☛ Describe a time you found and pitched your own story.

☛ Share some examples of your best work.

☛ What was your role in putting together [this work sample]?

☛ How do you cope with the stress of tight deadlines?

☛ How do you ensure accuracy in your work?

☛ What publishing software have you used before?

☛ How often do you use social media? Which sites do you use the most?

☛ How would you rate your ability to use technology for storytelling? What are your strengths and weaknesses in this area?

☛ Describe a time you worked with a multidisciplinary team to tell a story.

☛ What do you know about our publication? What could we do better?

☛ Who would you consider to be our competitors?

☛ How familiar are you with our staff writers? Whose work do you follow and why?

☛ What current stories that are relevant to our publication?

☛ At times your work load may feel unmanageable. Describe a time when you recognized that you were unable to meet multiple deadlines. What did you do about it?

☛ Tell us about an idea you started that involved collaboration with your colleagues that improved the business.

☛ When you had extra time available at your last job, describe ways you found to make your job more efficient.

☛ At times you may be asked to do many things at once. Tell me how you would decide what is most important and why.

☛ Tell me a time when you identified a problem with a process and what steps did you take to improve the problem?

☛ What processes or techniques have you learned to make a job easier, or to be more effective? What was your discovery process and how did you implement your idea?

☛ Give me an example of a new idea you suggested to your manager within the last six months. Describe steps you have taken to implement your idea.

☛ Tell me about a time when you went beyond your manager's expectations in order to get the job done.

☛ Tell me about a time when you identified a new, unusual or different approach for addressing a problem or task.

☛ Describe a project or idea (not necessarily your own) that was implemented, or carried out successfully primarily because of your efforts.

☛ How do you react when faced with many hurdles while trying to achieve a goal? How do you overcome the hurdles?

☛ Everyone has good days and bad days at work. Take your time and think back to a really good day you had and tell me why it was a good day.

☛ How do you maintain self-motivation when you experience a setback on the way to achieve your goal? How do you do it?

☛ If you find yourself working with a team that is not motivated, how do you keep yourself motivated and motivate others?

☛ Describe the work environment or culture in which you are most productive and happy.

☛ Tell me about the job position that satisfied you the most. How about the least? What made each one more or less satisfying to you?

☛ What goals, including career goals, have you set for your life?

☛ Describe for me a situation where you had a positive effect on someone. What did you do? How did the other person react? Why do you think what happened, happened?

☛ What is your preferred work style? Do you prefer working alone or as part of a team? What percentage of your time would you allocate to each, given the choice?

☛ Describe the actions and behaviors of your current/former manager or supervisor that you respond to most effectively?