From the perspective of a client interviewing prospective candidates
When you’re interviewing candidates, it’s easy to focus on what they’ve done. The brands they’ve worked on. The campaigns that look good in a deck. The awards slide.
But the best interviews aren’t really about outputs. They’re about how someone thinks.
The right questions don’t just show off experience, they reveal judgement.
One of the simplest and most effective places to start is asking a candidate to talk you through one of their strongest campaigns. Not the shiny version, but the real one. How they approached it. What they did first. What they prioritised. Where things got uncomfortable.
Listen closely to how clearly they explain the brief. Strong candidates don’t just repeat what was written, they can tell you what the brief was actually asking, where the tension sat, and what they chose to challenge. They can explain the trade offs they made and why. You’re not looking for perfect decisions, you’re listening for thoughtful ones.
A question I like to follow with is how they decide whether an idea is good enough to share. This is where taste shows up. You’re hiring judgement, not volume. Great candidates talk about self editing, audience first thinking, and knowing when something isn’t ready, or isn’t right. If someone shares everything they make, that’s usually a warning sign.
Commercial pressure is another useful stress test. Asking how they balance creativity with commercial realities quickly separates people who can make beautiful work from those who can make effective work. Strong answers acknowledge the tension between brand and performance, recognise the role of stakeholders, and show an ability to compromise without diluting the core idea.
Metrics matter too. When you ask which metrics they actually pay attention to and why, you’re not testing spreadsheet skills. You’re listening for relevance over vanity, an understanding of impact, and a basic comfort with numbers. The best candidates care about what changed, not just what was measured.
Ownership is something you should always probe. When a candidate presents work, ask them what their responsibility actually was. Less we did this and more what exactly did you do. Vague answers or overly collective language can hide a lack of accountability. Strong candidates are clear about what they owned, where they collaborated, and where others made the final call.
One of the most revealing questions you can ask is about failure. A project that didn’t work, but they wish it had. This is gold dust. The best answers show accountability, learning, and emotional maturity. Defensiveness, blame, or excessive justification usually tells you more than the failure itself.
Because no creative environment works without collaboration, it’s worth asking how someone handles creative disagreement. Healthy teams need conflict without chaos. Listen for respect, curiosity, and an ability to separate feedback from ego. Closely related is asking what kind of feedback helps them do their best work. The answer often reveals seniority, self-awareness, and how easy they’ll be to manage.
Late changes are inevitable, so asking about a time a brief shifted at the last minute is another practical test. Good answers show pragmatism, calm under pressure, and an ability to prioritise what actually matters when time is tight.
Towards the end of an interview, I like to zoom out. Asking how they think the role could evolve tells you a lot about ambition. Strong candidates show they understand your business, have realistic growth expectations, and see progression as something earned, not assumed.
For more experienced hires, asking what they want to be known for can be particularly powerful. The best responses go beyond tasks or titles and focus on value, impact, and contribution.
Finally, there’s a question many interviewers avoid, but really shouldn’t. Is there anything in this role they think they’d struggle with? The strongest candidates don’t panic here. They acknowledge gaps, explain how they’d mitigate them, and show confidence without arrogance.
What I wouldn’t rely on?
Portfolios alone. Big brand logos. Award names without context. Or vague notions of “cultural fit” that aren’t grounded in specific behaviours.
Great interviews aren’t about catching people out. They’re about creating space for judgement to reveal itself, and then, of course, knowing how to listen for it.
