Sample interview questions for Communication Officers (Mid level) at International Organizations

Are you also curious what questions you can expect when being interviewed for a job at the United Nations or at any other International Organizations. Impactpool is your only knowledge source. Our recruiters have many extensive experience of building interview question sets at International Organizations. These are real interview questions, used in real interviews. The questions are equally valuable if your are new to the sector or if you as internal candidate prepare for your next interview.

Competency Based Interview assessment is the single most common assessment method at International Organizations. The interview is often complemented with a technical test (either a written test or an oral test included in the interview). Most commonly 5-6 questions are choosen, one per competency. Below are several question included under each competency, but most commonly only one is asked under each section.

Rapport buidling question

• Please tell us how your experience relates to this position, and specifically, tell us what skills you have, that would enable you to succeed in this position?
• Please tell us about your experience as it relates to this position, and particularly any gaps in experience you can identify, that will provide a development/learning curve for you. 

Communication and Inter-Personal skills

• What experience have you had speaking formally in front of others? Give an example of a presentation you have given recently.  (panel probe on how the discussion was tailored to suit the audience, reaction of audience, feedback, how to improve)
• Give us a specific example of when you had to explain something difficult to someone who did not have your background/knowledge. (panel follow-up and probe ).
• Please tell us about your written business communication style? Give a specific example.  What feedback have you received?

Client Orientation 

• Tell us about a complex work-related decision you had to make over the past year that had significant impact on your clients/partners. What factors you considered when making decisions. What was the “cost” – either economic or otherwise, of taking this decision over an alternative? What did you do to remain a strong relationship with the clients?
• Describe a situation in which you have multiple projects competing for time and resources. How did you handle the situation? What was the outcome? How do you ensure the quality of your outputs in such situations? How did this impact your clients?
• Describe a situation in which you have had to present a material for your Director in her/his decision taking. While compiling the material you got a gut feeling that the material you gathered was not unbiased. How did you ensure that the information you made available for your Director was sound and unbiased? What was the outcome?

Knowledge management

• Tell us how you used the information or knowledge you have acquired, in consulting with clients? Give specific examples.
• Give us an example of the type of information sources you typically use when trying to get to the bottom of issues. Tell us about your use of available information sources compared to the approaches used by your colleaguesProfessionalism and work under tight schedule 
  • Tell us about a time when you have gone above and beyond the normal work requirements in a difficult situation, when you were under extreme pressure. What was the situation?  What did you do?
  • Tell us about a situation within the workplace that you have found yourself involved in that was extremely unprofessional? What was the situation?  What did you do?  What was the outcome?
   
  
  Sound judgment and personal maturity:  
  • Please tell us about a situation you have found yourself in when other staff member(s) were behaving in an improper or inappropriate manner (behaviour that was lacking in integrity). What did you do?
  • Please tell me of an occasion when you took an action or a course of action, either professionally or personally, that you now regret. Reflecting back on that situation how would you behave differently today?
    
    
  Teamwork
  
  • Tell us how you have managed a situation when team members have not been in agreement about the approach to take to achieve results, and this was negatively impacting the team dynamic, and the desired outcome. What did you do? What was the end result?
  • Tell us about a specific time when you were able to support a team member(s) having difficulties (in any area of their life), while the team was operating under stressful/demanding conditions. What was the situation and your role?  What did you do?  What was the impact on the team? 
  
  
  Values
  • Tell us about a situation you have found yourself in when other staff member(s) were behaving in a manner inappropriate for a UN staff member, for example, behaviour that was lacking in integrity. What did you do?  
  • Give an example when you have had to modify your behaviour to accommodate someone else’s values, or cultural differences. What was the situation?  What did you do?  (panel probe impact on relationship, further interaction…)
  • Please give a specific example of when you have had to defend an organization’s decision to others who did not agree with the viewpoint.
  • What areas in your work are the most challenging for you? Tell us about feedback you have received regarding your specialist knowledge.
  
  
  Analytical skills
  • Describe a situation in which you have multiple projects competing for time and resources. How did you handle the situation? What was the outcome? How do you ensure the quality of your outputs in such situations?
  • Tell us about when you have undertaken analysis information/trends/situations that would be of interest for this position.