Speaking honestly, Recruiting Coordinator is a fancy job title for another administrative role in HR & recruitment. You will neither design interview templates and lead the interviews, nor make strategic decision. Your main role will be to facilitate the movement of job candidates as they progress through the recruitment process, and help the recruiters in the actual interviews.

I do not want to say this is a bad job. On the contrary–you can learn a lot, you will get a glimpse of the entire recruitment cycle, and it is one of the best positions to have before you can progress to a role of an HR Specialist, or a position of a Recruiter.

What’s more, in many corporations it is considered an entry level role, and you can get it with a minimum of experience (or no experience). Let’s have a look at the questions you may face in the interview for this job.

 

Why do you want to work as a Recruiting Coordinator?

You can refer to the future–some role you’d like to have in two or five years from now. Saying that recruitment coordinator is a great preparation for your dream job, and that you can learn a great deal while having it, you can easily explain your job choice.

However, we should never sacrifice our present for the future, or consider a position just a means to an end. If that was the case, you’d find your job unbearable sooner or later. Ensure the hiring managers that you have passion for recruitment and administrative work.

You understand that people represent the greatest asset (and often also the biggest problem) of each and every organization. Seeing the meaningful purpose and the impact you can have on the success of a company while working as a recruitment coordinator (or other role in HR and recruitment), you see it as a perfect choice. At least at this stage of your professional career.

Of course it’s not the end of your journey, because you eventually prefer leading interviews to coordinating them. Before you are ready to do so, however, you need to gain experience and understand the recruitment cycle inside out.

* May also interest you: 7 sample answers to “Why do you want to work in Human Resources?”

 

How do you imagine a typical day in work as a recruitment coordinator?

The key is to show low expectations, and to talk mostly about administrative work. Say that you imagine that communication with job applicants, and screening their applications, will form the majority of your work.

You may post job ads, search resume databases, contact candidates, collect applications and do basic evaluations, you may shortlist candidates for the first interview (only for this stage), and of course coordinate the affairs on interview days–so everyone know when they should arrive (including the interviewers), and what will happen, and that everything progresses smoothly.

Sometimes you may have a seat in the interviewing panel, but that’s not guaranteed. Once the interviews ended and decision makers decided who progressed to the next round, you will repeat the entire process (emails, phone calls, coordinating the next stage of recruitment), until the managers finally choose the winners and they start working for the company.

Do not forget to speak with excitement (mild one, you do not have to shout :)). They should get an impression that you are honestly looking forward to do this job.

In your opinion, what makes a great job ad?

I’d say that most companies still did not get this right. They use the same templates like everyone else while advertising the job, and often advertise the job in a misleading way, or one that is way too complicated to read & comprehend for an average job seeker.

And that’s exactly what I suggest you to focus on in your answer. Understanding the competition on the employment market, you consider a great job ad one that stands out. It can be an innovative design, a fun way in which you describe the company or the position, or anything else that makes it stand out from hundreds of other ads advertising the same of similar job in other companies.

Second thing is clarity. Good recruiting coordinator can get over their ego, and avoid using twenty technical terms on a job ad for a secretary. You want job applicants to enjoy reading the ad. So, unless you post a vacancy for a technical position, you will try to use simple language, and in a clear and attractive way explain what you expect from the candidate, and what they can gain from the employment in the company…

Special Tip: To know how to answer a question, and to come up with an excellent answer once you face a panel of interviewers, are two different things. If you experience anxiety, or cannot find the right words in the interviews, have a look at our Interview Success Package. Up to 10 premium answers to all tricky interview questions will help you to stand out, outclass your competitors, and get the job. Thank you for checking it out!

 

Imagine that you posted a job ad for an entry level marketing position. You got 300 applications, but should shortlist only 30 people for the first interview. What will you do?

If you experienced this situation before, you know how difficult it is. Because it’s an entry level job, you cannot (or shouldn’t) screen out candidates who lack experience, and you may have in front of you 300 similar resumes…

Anyway, ensure the interviewers that you won’t start panicking. Before anything else, you’d screen out people who didn’t send a complete application (for example forgot to send a cover letter–though you asked for it, which is the case in more than 30% of applications in average).

Than you will look for uniqueness–that will be your first screening method. When you see people who just copy-pasted their information from one application to another, it is a clear indication that they do not care, and you will screen them out.

Oppositely, people who adjusted their application or wrote something specific for your company, will immediately get your attention. At this point you may limit the number of resumes to 100. Next step is looking for creativeness–because it’s a marketing job, and creativeness matters in all marketing roles.

Eventually you may get down to 50-60 resumes. If you cannot pick 30 out of them, you’ll do short phone interviews with all 60 people. You may ask them about the application, and two or three questions to get a good grasp of their communication skills and motivation. Then you’ll finally have your winners, then thirty best applicants…

* This was just an example, and you can proceed differently. The most important thing is to not give up and eventually choose the number of candidates they asked you to choose. 

 

Your task is to coordinate interviews with eight applicants on one day, in front of a panel of three interviewers, managers from the company. Tell us how you will proceed.

Asking about tasks that you may realistically deal with in work is a great way of assessing your readiness for the job. Ensure the interviewers that you have some system in your work.

Before anything else, you will talk to the members of the interviewing panel. You may contact each one separately, asking about possible dates for interviews, and then pick one which suits everyone. If there’s not any such date, organizing a small meeting with the three managers (where they eventually agree about some compromise when it comes to the schedule) is a good idea.

Second step is planning the interview day–when will the first interview start, how long it may last, the lunch break for the interviewers, etc. You may again coordinate this with one of the hiring managers.

Third step is assigning blocks for the eight interviews, and then contacting the candidates. Id’ suggest starting with the most promising candidates, and perhaps giving them a choice–for example whether they prefer to come in the morning or in the afternoon. Eventually you will contact everyone and have the final schedule ready for the big day.

Then you will send the information to the interviewers, secretaries, or anyone else who will play some role during the interviews, ensuring that everything is clear and ready to go.

* May also interest you: Talent Sourcing Specialist interview questions

You will work with a large volume of data in this job. How do you plan to stay organized and not miss any important deadline?

System is the answer once again. This time, however, it can be an information system, or even some talent acquisition software solution. Ensure the interviewers that you do not plan to rely on memory.

On the contrary, you plan to have a database (or file, or master sheet) for each hiring project, with all important data about the deadlines, and of course about each candidate involved in the process.

Working systematically and paying attention to detail, and always having something you can refer to when you aren’t sure, you will stay organized and should not miss a deadline in your work…

 

Other questions you may face in your recruiting coordinator job interview

  • Your task is to hire three new salesmen for the company. How will you proceed?
  • What role does reporting and monitoring play in your work? How would you evaluate the success of your recruitment methods?
  • On a scale from one to ten, how will you rate your computer skills (or skills with some computer software, such as MS Office)?
  • What type of assessment tools are you familiar with?
  • Tell us about a time when you showed initiative at work.
  • What’s the best project you’ve ever worked on?
  • Tell us about a conflict you had with one of your colleagues in your former job.
  • Tell us one thing about yourself you wouldn’t want me to know.
  • Describe a time when you struggled with motivation. How did you overcome the crisis?
  • When you had to work on multiple projects, how did you prioritize?

 

Conclusion, premium answers to all questions

Jobs in HR and recruitment are extremely popular, and you will almost always compete with dozens of other people for the job of a Recruiting Coordinator. This alone makes this job interview difficult.

Try to learn as much as you can about the prospective employer–check their job offers, read the entire careers section on their website. Understanding as much as you can about their hiring efforts will help you connect with the interviewers, and also come up with right interview answers, at least to some questions.

And try to prepare for all questions you may face. If you are not sure how to do so, or experience interview anxiety and finally want to get rid of interview headaches, check out our Interview Success Package. Up to 10 premium answers to 31 tricky scenario-based questions (+ more) will help you stand out, outclass your competition, and get the job. Thank you for checking it out, and I wish you good luck in your interview. You will need it 🙂

Matthew

* Alternatively you can download the list of questions in a one page long PDF, and practice your interview answers anytime later:

list of interview questions for recruiting coordinator job applicants, PDF

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Matthew Chulaw
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