As an event professional there are so many approaches to interviewing, the one thing that seems to be consistent is event organizers must think on their feet. Here are some tips and tricks to getting hired in the event organizer space.
As a manager, a doer of things and think on their feet type of person, it’s easy to get lost in the details and forget to look at the big picture of what is really important from experience in the space of organizing events. In addition to thinking on your feet, here are some helpful questions to ask your potential employer to find out what the workspace is really like.
Are you stepping into a group of workaholics?
1) A great question for this is asking if lunchtime meetings or end of day meetings are consistent or common. If work boundaries are set, most organizations will frown upon setting up lunch or close of business meetings.
2) Does your boss take paid time off? Usually the person you report to sets the tone for your team, if your potential boss is a workaholic, they won’t observe paid time off and often will boast about working through paid time off.
Does your team share roles and responsibilities, or does everyone lean on one person to meet deadlines?
1) How are deadlines for the team facilitated? Usually if one person is carrying the team, they’ll turn to that person to answer the question. You can determine how your work style fits into the team.
2) Does the team wear multiple hats and how does that break down for the whole team? This can give you a great read on how the team works together.
Are you stepping into a role that is set-up for failure or that you are supposed to save?
1) Is this a new role, or is there someone that I’m replacing? This question will always open up all the juicy details on why they haven’t had this role, why they now needed to introduce it, or why the last person is moving on.
2) What is the proposed start date? Many times if this is a role that should have been added, they start date will be ASAP.
Make sure to go into interviews with intention, decided what your path is and how you want your work life to flow. Make sure that you full commit to what you sign-up for and most importantly as long as you have a good attitude, anything can be taught!