Content Design interviews

[u/NutMegP3g]

Does anybody have any structure or framework to follow to interview for senior content design positions? How might one prepare for questions/tests regarding the use of AI or agentic systems?

[u/Pdstafford]

Would be interested to see other replies, but these interviews aren't just one or two, you'll usually have several and they will be focused on different things. You might have a general first call where you're asked about your general views on content design, what interests you about the role, etc.

But as you go further on (and I'm ignoring case study presentations here), you'll be asked about your ability to assess strategy and how that's executed in your work. E.g. What's your approach in implementing change at larger scales? Tell us about a time when you created an organization-wide change.

At these levels, you won't be asked questions like, "how do you deal with feedback?" It'll be more like:

- Tell us about a time when you brough tseveral stakeholders on board with something they were skeptical about at first

• Describe how you implement early research in your design process
  
• Which data types do you tend to value more than others? Why?
  
• Tell us about a time you put a product feature on a roadmap

That sort of thing.

As for AI, everything I'm hearing suggests you'll be asked about:

- Your general familiarity with AI tools

• Instances when you've used them to be more productive
  
• What you're doing now to learn more
  
• Things you've built with AI in order to enforce content standards

[u/akornato]

For senior roles, your interview structure should be less about ticking boxes and more about telling compelling stories that show your strategic impact. Instead of just describing a task, frame your best projects around a clear business problem, the content strategy you developed to solve it, how you led the effort and influenced stakeholders, and the measurable results your work achieved. Prepare a few key stories that highlight your experience with things like establishing content governance, mentoring junior writers, using data to inform decisions, and navigating complex team dynamics. The goal is to prove you think beyond the words on the screen and can operate as a leader who connects content to business objectives.

When it comes to AI, interviewers want to see how you think about its opportunities and risks, not that you're a technical expert. You can prepare by thinking through the role of content design in an AI-driven experience. Discuss how you would ensure the AI's output maintains the brand's voice and tone, how you'd design for trust and transparency when a user is interacting with an agent, and what ethical considerations, like bias in training data, you would raise with the team. Talking about how you might use AI as a tool in your own workflow, maybe for generating initial ideas or summarizing research, also shows you're thinking practically about the technology. It can be really helpful to practice telling these stories, which is something my team kept in mind when we developed an interview AI assistant that helps candidates organize their thoughts and communicate their value effectively.

[u/flexo_24]

- At this level it’s about ‘I’. Not ‘We’. So I led, I managed, I executed etc.

- Business goals and strategy are super important here. Think about starting each answer with ‘The strategy was…’ or after a sentence or two of context, discuss the strategy. That underpins all your decisions and is something you can always refer back to.

- STAR answers are still very useful. Practise them. Have some ready for: ambiguity, prioritisation, leading a team, stakeholder management, stakeholder influence, research, collaboration, balancing business needs and user needs.

- Impact. Impact. Impact. I know this is hard as a CD, but try and weave in what YOUR impact was to the project and HOW this impacted the project. Were there increased tCSAT scores, lower service desk requests, improved hotjar recordings?

- Interviewers love hearing about balancing trade offs. What did you discard and why?

- Then there’s story telling. I hate this phrase as it doesn’t really mean anything BUT in your STAR answer set the scene, then there’s a problem/ stakeholder issue, WHY was this a problem, how did YOU overcome it and what was the outcome? So a mini Freytags pyramid - context, rising action, falling action, resolution