Communications Manager interview questions and practice.
Leads internal and external communication, managing messaging, media, stakeholder updates and the team that produces them.
No card for the taster. Full interviews are paid one at a time. Nothing renews.
Last reviewed
This page is still being written: no authored question bank for this competency family. The role is fully supported in the interview itself; only the published question bank is outstanding.
What interviewers for Communications Manager actually ask
The question bank for this role is still being written. These are the first three competencies in the model the interview is scored against.
Builds relationships with journalists and editors, finds and pitches angles that are actually newsworthy, secures quality coverage and handles inbound media enquiries under time pressure.
Anticipates and manages reputational risk: issues monitoring, scenario planning, holding statements, spokesperson preparation and real-time response across media and social channels.
Writes press releases, statements, speeches, Q&As, internal announcements and executive content that are clear, accurate and on message, adapting tone to audience and channel.
What they are really assessing
Interviewers rarely score whether you seemed nice. They score against a model like this one, usually without telling you it exists. Each competency has a weak, adequate and strong shape, and the difference is almost always the level of specific detail you volunteer without being asked.
Media relations & storytelling
Builds relationships with journalists and editors, finds and pitches angles that are actually newsworthy, secures quality coverage and handles inbound media enquiries under time pressure.
- Weak
- Describes sending press releases to a list; cannot name journalists they work with, a pitch that landed or why a story was newsworthy.
- Adequate
- Describes tailoring pitches to specific journalists, coverage secured for a campaign with outlets named, and handling a media enquiry.
- Strong
- Describes a pitch with the angle, why that journalist, the follow-up, the coverage and its reach or impact; describes turning a weak story into a newsworthy one and an enquiry handled under deadline with a good outcome.
Crisis & issues management
Anticipates and manages reputational risk: issues monitoring, scenario planning, holding statements, spokesperson preparation and real-time response across media and social channels.
- Weak
- Cannot describe a crisis plan or a live issue handled; response to a scenario is to 'issue a statement' without process, approvals or channel strategy.
- Adequate
- Describes a crisis plan with holding statements, approval routes and monitoring, and one live issue handled with the sequence of actions.
- Strong
- Describes a specific crisis: the first hour, the facts established, the statement and its evolution, spokesperson handling, social monitoring, legal and executive tension, and the outcome and lessons.
Writing & message development
Writes press releases, statements, speeches, Q&As, internal announcements and executive content that are clear, accurate and on message, adapting tone to audience and channel.
- Weak
- Writing is described generically; cannot explain a key message framework or a piece where tone was adapted for audience.
- Adequate
- Describes developing key messages and proof points for a campaign and writing across formats with one example of adapting for different audiences.
- Strong
- Describes a message house built for a difficult topic, how it was tested, how it held across media, internal and social channels, and a piece of writing that materially changed perception or behaviour.
Stakeholder & internal communication
Plans and delivers communication to employees, communities, government and partners: change communication, leadership visibility, two-way channels and measurement of understanding and sentiment.
- Weak
- Internal comms is described as newsletters; cannot describe a change programme communicated or how understanding was measured.
- Adequate
- Describes a change communication plan with audiences, channels and timing, and some feedback or survey measurement.
- Strong
- Describes a difficult change (restructure, retrenchment, merger) communicated: the sequencing, leader preparation, how employee questions were handled, sentiment measured and what they adjusted mid-programme.
Executive counsel & judgement
Advises leaders on what to say, when and whether to say anything: reads the room, weighs legal and reputational risk, tells executives what they do not want to hear and prepares them for exposure.
- Weak
- Executes what leaders ask; cannot describe advising against a course of action or preparing a spokesperson for a hostile interview.
- Adequate
- Describes preparing an executive for an interview or announcement and one example of advising a different approach.
- Strong
- Describes advising a leader against a public response or statement, the reasoning, the resistance, the outcome, and a spokesperson preparation that visibly improved performance under hostile questioning.
Communication planning & measurement
Plans integrated communication campaigns with objectives, audiences, messages, channels and timelines, and measures outcomes (reach, share of voice, sentiment, behaviour) rather than outputs.
- Weak
- Reports coverage counts or AVE; cannot describe campaign objectives or what changed as a result.
- Adequate
- Describes a campaign with objectives, audience and channels, and reports reach, sentiment or share of voice with basic tools.
- Strong
- Describes a campaign with outcome objectives, the measurement framework, results against them, what did not work and how the next campaign changed; can discuss the limits of PR measurement.
Ethics, accuracy & transparency
Communicates truthfully: checks facts, refuses to mislead media or stakeholders, discloses appropriately and manages the tension between advocacy and honesty.
- Weak
- Cannot describe a situation where they refused to spin or corrected an inaccurate claim; treats the organisation's line as the truth.
- Adequate
- Describes fact-checking practices and one example of correcting or softening a claim before release.
- Strong
- Describes a specific case of refusing to issue a misleading statement or correcting the record publicly, the pressure faced, and the reputational consequence of doing it right.
Reading the questions is the easy half. Try answering three of them out loud, to someone who follows up.
Try 5 minutes freeWhat your 30 minutes covers
The same shape as a real first-round interview, pitched at mid-level Communications Manager and scored throughout.
Warm-up, then Motivation & fit
Build rapport, settle nerves, and get a short walk-through of your background. Why this role, why this employer, and what you are actually looking for.
Your experience
Two or three real situations from your CV in depth: context, what you did, what happened, what you would change.
Pitched at leadership scope: head of communications or agency group head: owns reputation strategy, crisis governance, internal and external communication and the function's budget and team.
Role-specific questions
The core competencies and domain knowledge for the role, with follow-ups on anything vague.
Drawn from this role's domain: finding the news angle and pitching a specific journalist, writing a press release and a holding statement and crisis plan: roles, approvals, monitoring and first-hour actions, and the rest of the competency model.
Your questions, then Wrap-up
Your questions for the interviewer, and yes, they are assessed. Next steps and a clean finish.
What changes with seniority
The questions barely change between levels. What changes is the answer they will accept.
| Junior | Mid | Senior | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scope of ownership | PR or communications executive: drafts releases and content, pitches to media, manages monitoring and reporting, supports events. | Senior executive or account manager: owns campaigns or client accounts, media relationships, message development and first-line issues management. | Communications manager or account director: owns the communication strategy for a business or portfolio, crisis readiness, executive counsel and team delivery. |
| Tolerance for ambiguity | Handles routine media requests; escalates sensitive enquiries and anything crisis-related. | Handles live issues with judgement within approvals; shapes strategy for campaigns from thin briefs. | Advises in crises with incomplete facts; balances legal, commercial and reputational interests. |
| People leadership | No direct reports; coordinates suppliers and interns on tasks. | Supervises executives and interns; manages agency or freelance resources. | Leads a team; develops writers and account handlers, manages performance. |
| Who they deal with | Journalists, clients or internal spokespeople, agency or in-house manager. | Senior journalists, client executives or internal leaders, legal, marketing. | Executive team or client C-suite, editors, regulators, community leaders, legal counsel. |
What your report would say
Every competency above scored from your own answers, the sentence that cost you quoted back, and your weakest answers rewritten the way a strong Communications Manager would have said them.
- Describes a message house built for a difficult topic, how it was tested, how it held across media, internal and social channels, and a piece of writing that materially changed perception or behaviour.
The format, not a result. Scores on your report come from what you actually said.
Is the AI interviewer realistic? See a full sample report