Campaign Manager

Key marketing manager competencies that this question explores include accurate research and analytical skills, the ability to develop realistic and workable objectives and the ability to initiate and monitor strategies and activities that support these objectives.

Efficient utilization of resources reflects sound judgment, planning and organizational skills. Use this question as an opportunity to highlight your strengths as a marketing manager.

Your first staffer will spend at least half the time with a phone to his or her ear setting up donor meetings, speaking engagements, recruiting local officials and even making low-dollar donor asks. With that in mind, candidates should look for a resume with finance or volunteer recruitment experience-jobs where the potential hire became used to making dozens of asks over the phone every day.

Ask the potential hire about a time something went wrong in a past campaign and how they responded. It's a common interview question, but helps reveal how the staffer would handle the challenges facing an upstart organization. Every campaign is going to make mistakes; what matters is how you respond.

Let's say you're working a congressional race and you mail out thousands of invitations to a town hall event with the incorrect address. Are you willing to drive to the address you put on the mailer and wait there all day until they agree to rent you the building for that night? That's the kind of pivot required early on in a campaign.

Your first staffer will make call sheets, keep track of volunteer schedules, the campaign's schedule, fundraising records, voter contact data and more. Ask the staffer specifically how he or she would organize it all. For instance, does she use project management software? Separate notebooks for communications, field and finance? There's no wrong way to stay organized, but disorganization spells disaster.