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Potential Interview Questions

Use action verbs to begin each description of a duty or accomplishment.

Sample Questions
Strange Questions or Attitudes

Sample questions

Why are you interested in this position?

What do you know about our company, and why would you want to work for us?

In your view, what is the role of an editor?

How would you define success as an editor?

What kinds of editing (or what part of editing) do you most (and least) enjoy? Why?

When someone gives you something to edit, what do you do?

How has your education helped you prepare for this position?

How has your work experience helped you prepare for this position? [At this point, the interviewer might want to discuss your past and present editing work.]

What are your strengths (and weaknesses) as an editor? [In answering this question, be honest about at least one weakness, but keep the ratio of positive to negative high. And when you mention a weakness, be sure to discuss what you have done and what you are planning to do to improve in that area.]

Do you consider yourself stronger at the detail part of editing (such as proofreading and copy editing) or at the substantive part of editing (such as revising for purpose, audience, organization, clarity, or accuracy of ideas)? What are your strengths (and weaknesses) in working with writers (also designers, other editors, etc.)? Think about a difficult person you’ve had to work with. What made that person difficult to work with? How did you deal with the difficulty?

Tell us about an example of a conflict you’ve experienced in an editing situation and how you’ve resolved it.

Tell us about an editing project that has brought you a lot of satisfaction.

What would the ideal editing job be for you?

What are your long-term goals or plans?

How do you maintain interest in the routine or even mundane parts of editing, such as source checking, proofreading, and indexing?

What publications of ours are you most familiar with? What suggestions do you have for improving the content and editing of those publications?

If you were editing a publication that will go to a broad audience, what would you do to help it be understandable to less-educated readers without being boring or condescending to more educated readers?

Tell us about a project you’ve worked on that had a difficult deadline and what you did to meet the deadline.

At one extreme, editors can fight for every comma; at the other extreme, they can cave in at the least resistance from a writer. Which way do you tend? How do you determine when to stand up for an editorial change that someone challenges?

What is your working style—more independent or collaborative? What are the risks of either extreme?

As editors we’re also project managers. How would you deal with other team members who weren’t doing their part or weren’t keeping the project on schedule?

Have you ever had a performance appraisal before? What good things did the evaluation say? What goals were set for improvement?

What are the qualities of a good manager?

We have several candidates with similar qualifications. Tell us some reasons why we should hire you?

Strange Questions or Attitudes

If your interviewer begins to criticize or complain about the editing you did on an exercise in what seems a belligerent or unprofessional manner, he or she may be trying to see how you would deal with a difficult author. Remain calm and professional, and use your best diplomatic skills.

If your interviewer gets chatty and informal (perhaps at lunch), remain on your best behavior; you are still being interviewed and examined. He or she might begin to gossip about a boss or co-worker, encouraging you to tell stories about your present or former boss or co-workers—don’t do it!

You may be presented with off-color jokes or racist or sexist remarks or innuendo, to see how you would react to such behavior from a colleague or important client. If you can deftly change the topic of conversation without giving or taking offense, that may be the best path. If the behavior is truly offensive to your values, you may have to confront it, but remain tactful and don’t lose your temper.

Be yourself, but be your best self. Choose how you believe you should act, rather than reacting emotionally to behavior or questions that may seem unprofessional.