Think about an interview that you have participated in, either as the interviewer or the interviewee. Note that you only need to respond from one perspective, not both. How was the interview organized? What kinds of questions were asked? (Refer to the book to discuss types of questions, not just the specific wording you may remember.) If you were the interviewer, did you develop the questions yourself or were they given to you? What kind of information were you looking for? Did the interviewee(s) provide the information you needed to make a decision or gather data? What did you learn from the process that could help you perform better in the future, both as an interviewer.

Here's an example answer:

The office where I work is small, and we have only two people in the department I oversee. The position we were hiring for works closely with me to coordinate communications and engagement efforts through both organizations we work for. When a position had to be filled, we advertised the position, reviewed applications, and invited eight people to interview for the job. I developed a list of questions and worked with human resources staff to compare lists and pare them down to questions we thought were most important to ask.

Our main concerns in the interview were to gather information to help us answerthe following questions:

Willtheapplicantbe a good fit? After all, it's just the two of us so we must all get along.

Will the applicant be comfortable and capable of working with other team members throughout the organization?

Does the applicant take appropriate initiative?

What does this person know about government communications and engagement? We provide communications support for all service areas throughout the organization in addition to a local school district.

How comfortable is the person with meeting deadlines, being transparent, and work as a team member?

How open to constructive criticism is the applicant? Editing and revising is a big part of the job and feedback cant be taken in a positive way, the candidate will not succeed.

Structuredinterviews were held in a conference room. Each was scheduled for 60 minutes. The interviews began with warm up questions and used the funnel technique to guide the applicant gradually into more complex questions that would help us make a decision about whether or not to take them to the second interview.