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Sunday, 15 November 2009
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Web Designer Interview Questions
This week’s post asks us to put ourselves in the shoes of a web design studios recruitment team and come up with suitable questions to ask when conducting interviews. As someone who has experience of recruiting staff, there were several generic questions that sprung to mind including:
1. Why have you applied for this position?
This question helps separate the wheat from the chaff as companies are looking for you to demonstrate your desire to work for them not just because you need money.
2. What interests you about our company?
Whilst a company will not be looking for you to be able to recite the entire company history from memory, they will be expecting you to answer this question using facts and examples. This demonstrates your desire to work for the company and to be a success whilst in their employment.
3. What would make you an asset to our company?
This is perhaps the single most important question in an interview. This is the chance for you to really sell yourself as well as explain how your skills and experience would benefit the company going forward. Whilst confidence in yourself is important, it is vital that you do not appear arrogant which will put potential employers off.
4. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Whilst there is no right or wrong answer, this is an important question which is asked to help employers gain an insight into the candidate’s personality. This then helps with deciding on the successful candidate.
5. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
This question again gives a valuable insight into your personality and helps a company identify whether or not you will fit into the existing team.
The following questions are related specifically to the web design industry:
1. Do you read any industry publications or follow any industry related websites/blogs?
As the design industry is a fast moving place with new trends and technologies appearing all the time, it’s important that companies stay ahead of competitors and are also able to meet the demands of their clients. It is therefore essential to demonstrate that you keep up to date with the industry and are continually learning new skills.
2. If a client is in the [______] industry and wanted to do [________] with their website, what advice would you give them?
This question enables you demonstrate your working knowledge as well as your creativity and problem solving skills to a potential employer.
3. How do you handle pressure and multiple deadlines?
More often than not you will find yourself working on several projects at any one time. Employers will be looking for candidates to give examples that demonstrate their organisational and prioritising skills as missed deadlines can prove costly and result in the loss of clients.
4. What do you do when you're faced with something you've never done before or if you're stuck on a problem?
As a design agency has a broad range of clients with differing requirements for their websites it is important to hire people who are adaptive as well as creative.
5. What's your favourite portfolio piece?
You should be able to confidently justify why a piece is your favourite in an interview as you will be expected to justify your design solutions to clients.
Whilst this is by no means a definitive set of interview questions, they are all questions that I would expect to be asked during a job interview.
1. Why have you applied for this position?
This question helps separate the wheat from the chaff as companies are looking for you to demonstrate your desire to work for them not just because you need money.
2. What interests you about our company?
Whilst a company will not be looking for you to be able to recite the entire company history from memory, they will be expecting you to answer this question using facts and examples. This demonstrates your desire to work for the company and to be a success whilst in their employment.
3. What would make you an asset to our company?
This is perhaps the single most important question in an interview. This is the chance for you to really sell yourself as well as explain how your skills and experience would benefit the company going forward. Whilst confidence in yourself is important, it is vital that you do not appear arrogant which will put potential employers off.
4. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Whilst there is no right or wrong answer, this is an important question which is asked to help employers gain an insight into the candidate’s personality. This then helps with deciding on the successful candidate.
5. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
This question again gives a valuable insight into your personality and helps a company identify whether or not you will fit into the existing team.
The following questions are related specifically to the web design industry:
1. Do you read any industry publications or follow any industry related websites/blogs?
As the design industry is a fast moving place with new trends and technologies appearing all the time, it’s important that companies stay ahead of competitors and are also able to meet the demands of their clients. It is therefore essential to demonstrate that you keep up to date with the industry and are continually learning new skills.
2. If a client is in the [______] industry and wanted to do [________] with their website, what advice would you give them?
This question enables you demonstrate your working knowledge as well as your creativity and problem solving skills to a potential employer.
3. How do you handle pressure and multiple deadlines?
More often than not you will find yourself working on several projects at any one time. Employers will be looking for candidates to give examples that demonstrate their organisational and prioritising skills as missed deadlines can prove costly and result in the loss of clients.
4. What do you do when you're faced with something you've never done before or if you're stuck on a problem?
As a design agency has a broad range of clients with differing requirements for their websites it is important to hire people who are adaptive as well as creative.
5. What's your favourite portfolio piece?
You should be able to confidently justify why a piece is your favourite in an interview as you will be expected to justify your design solutions to clients.
Whilst this is by no means a definitive set of interview questions, they are all questions that I would expect to be asked during a job interview.
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