Marketing
NINE TOP QUESTIONS TO EXPECT IN A MARKETING INTERVIEW

As you leave full time education and start to dip your toes into the real world of work and employment, you’re going to be put through a number of tests to assess your suitability for the roles you are applying for. The more you can prepare in advance and practice, the better you will perform during the actual interview. To this end we have researched and highlighted the top ten questions you can expect to be asked at an interview for a job as you leave university as a marketing graduate.
What is it that drew you to a career in marketing?
As a recently graduated student of marketing this should be a simple question for you to answer, but it is worth taking some time and refining your answer in light of your new qualifications.
How would you define marketing?
Marketing is a concept. Professional bodies such as the Chartered Institute of Marketing will have their own standard definition of marketing and how it contributes to an organisation. However many interviewers will be looking for your own interpretation and how you believe that could relate to them as a business.
How do you research potential audiences for a specific product or service?
Your interviewer will want to see some evidence of skills and knowledge, and preferably some examples of work you will have carried out within the context of your studies.
How familiar are you with our particular target market?
The interviewer will be keen to see if you have done your homework and researched them as a company, what their products are, and what the main target audience is. Sometimes it is not always obvious, and that’s fine – the key here is to ask intelligent, pertinent questions. Art of being a good marketer is to know what questions to ask to get to know a company.
Describe how you would manage a new product launch?
There are a number of different elements that need to be brought together to ensure that a product launch is undertaken with maximum impact in mind. Talk your interviewer through your process from start to finish, and don’t forget to clarify what you believe the key KPIs will be.
What do you believe are the most important marketing KPIs?
And talking of KPIs, the success of marketing is all about goals and targets. Make sure that you know what your favourite (and least favourite) KPIs are, and what they represent.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Yes, we know, this is a standard question that tend to get asked in every interview, but it is an important one. The interviewer is looking for evidence of a desire to grow and evolve, but preferably within an achievable framework. Don’t be over ambitious. Even if you do want to be managing director in the next five years, there will be plenty of others in the queue ahead of you. Save that energy for when you’ve got the job!
What do you love/hate about marketing?
This is a real chance for you to be honest about those aspects of your job that you really don’t like. By don’t be negative – this is an opportunity to show how you can balance out the good with the bad for a much more rounded approach.
This is your opportunity to demonstrate good, practical knowledge about the tools of your trade, and talk in more depth about the what, why and how element of putting together a good social media campaign. Don’t forget though that your interviewer will be listening from their point of view. So if they are a B2B company and you hate LinkedIn, that could be a problem.
