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Communication Skills Interview Questions

Interview questions to test a candidates communication skills.
Profile of Garth Coulson - Editor at Betterteam
By Garth Coulson, Jun 24, 2024
Garth is an Editor and Copywriter specializing in SEO and technical writing. He has a background in film with experience in the travel, tech, and fitness industries.
Woman interviewing another woman

For most jobs, communication skills are important. It's hard to work as a team if people aren't communicating well. At some jobs, like customer service or sales, communication skills are an absolute essential.

These questions are meant to help gauge a candidate's ability to communicate in all situations. Also, be sure to pay attention to their basic language comprehension.

If the position is an English-speaking role, and the candidate does not know how to speak English well enough, it will be difficult for them to communicate with their colleagues and clients.

Common Communication Skills Interview Questions:

  1. How do you prefer to build rapport with others?
  2. How would you go about simplifying a complex issue in order to explain it to a client or colleague?
  3. How would you go about persuading someone to see things your way at work?
  4. How would you go about explaining a complex idea/problem to a client who was already frustrated?
  5. What would you do if there was a breakdown in communication at work?
  6. Talk about a successful presentation you gave and why you think it did well.
  7. How would you explain a complicated technical problem to a colleague with less technical understanding?
  8. Do you prefer written or verbal communication?
  9. Describe a time when you had to be careful talking about sensitive information. How did you do it?
  10. What would you do if you misunderstood an important communication on the job?
  11. Talk about a time when you made a point that you knew your colleagues would be resistant to.
  12. Is it more important to be a good listener or a good communicator?
  13. Tell me about a time you had to relay bad news to a client or colleague.
  14. Rate your communication skills on a scale of 1 to 10. Give examples of experiences that demonstrate the rating is accurate.
  15. How have you handled working under someone you felt was not good at communicating?
  16. Describe your communication skills.

FAQs:

What are the three types of communication skills?

  1. Verbal communication, or the ability to express ideas and concepts using words.
  2. Nonverbal cues, or the ability to pick up on and react/respond to nonverbal cues like symbols, body language, etc.
  3. Visual communication, or the ability to depict ideas, concepts, thoughts, and facts using visual tools like art, infographics, images, graphs, and so on.

How do you test communication skills in an interview?

You can test a job applicant's communication skills by requiring them to communicate a concept or respond to a scenario in writing. You can also ask them for open-ended responses to prompts, such as, "describe your communication skills."

What are soft skills interview questions?

Soft skills include things like communication, work ethic, time management skills, etc. Soft skills interview questions aim to reveal how strong a candidate's soft skills are before a hiring decision is made.

Any sample of communications questions that you recommend?

  • How do you prefer to build rapport with others?
  • What would you do if there was a breakdown in communication at work?
  • Talk about a successful presentation you gave and why you think it did well.
  • How would you explain a complicated technical problem to a colleague with less technical understanding?
  • Do you prefer written or verbal communication?

Can you suggest any written communications skills interview questions as reference?

  • Can you provide a sample of something you wrote for an employer in the past?
  • Describe a time when you responded to a customer's complaint.
  • Are you comfortable writing down instructions for other people to follow? Have you done this before?
  • Do you re-read the emails you send them to check for errors?
  • How would you rate your written communication skills?

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