The Most Important Question to Ask When Interviewing for Internal Communication Roles
Interviewing for internal communication (IC) roles is a journey. Well, interviewing in general is a journey. What makes hunting for IC roles even more complex is the rampant confusion about what the function is. Are we strategic partners, copy-paste-send factories, helpful assistants? Many organizations struggle with this (more about that in my “Solving the Internal Communication Identity Crisis” post). That’s where my must-ask interview question comes in:
“What problems are you trying to solve with this IC role?”
I've posed this question to numerous organizations throughout my career. Quite often, the response is something like, “We’re looking to elevate employee engagement,” or “Internal communication effectiveness always ranks the lowest on our employee voices survey.”
At worst, the response is some frantic blinking, shrugged shoulders, followed by, “We’re not sure. That’s what we want this person to discover.” If you get this response, run—don’t walk—away from the interview. If you’re doing this virtually, hit the “leave” button as fast as you can. Two things will happen:
The organization will realize they don’t know what they’re doing with this role and never fill it.
The organization will say a "Hail Mary and drop someone in the role, only to be confused months (or years) later when the person fails to succeed.
Here’s a hint: having no idea what success looks like or what expectations are won’t drive success.
Yes, you can try to talk to the interview panel through a consultative approach. Ultimately, though, when they’re not doing the legwork before a candidate warms the chair in front of them, no one will succeed. It’s a recipe for mediocrity.
If you’re keen on the role and the organization (hey, some of us like swimming pools where we can’t see the bottom), then put your consulting hat on. Treat the interviewers as clients. Ask them strategic questions about current approaches, objectives, team structures, and previous IC audit results. Don’t be afraid to say, “If you’re not clear on what problems you’re trying to solve with this role, how will you be judging its success?” Again, if you get a wishy-washy answer, the organization doesn’t know—and may never know. How they get budget for roles in these cases, I’ll never understand.
