Event Planner

Event Planner Interview Questions:

There is no one-size-fits-all educational path to becoming an amazing event planner. As a result, when conducting an interview with prospective candidates, It’s preferable to start with a picture of the hard event planning skills and experience you’re searching for in candidates. For instance, some of the skills you may be looking for include; knowledge of logistics, vendor management, and budgeting. You could also ask about their knowledge and insight of the events industry to evaluate their understanding of specific terms or standards.

You would also need to assess your prospective candidates’ soft skills by asking them questions that look into their organizational and coordination skills. The best fit for your position will be able to blend creativity and practicality in a unique way, as well as have a lot of patience and excellent communication skills.

There are different types of events and in order to determine the most eligible candidate for your vacant job position, it is important to ask situational questions. These questions will help you understand their different expertise in managing large or small scale events and the type of events that they worked for (corporate, social, etc). You could understand their event management skills when they describe and explain the previous events that they planned, their successes and problems they faced. You could also check the different systems that they utilized to complete their tasks, how they use technology to assist them in their daily work life and the way they prioritize tasks.

Therefore, you could also present different scenarios and situations to prospective candidates and see how they would react and respond. Their answers will help you understand how they think, the way they rush to do things or if they are calculating and analytical. As you know, event planning is a high-stress job position and therefore, you need to closely check and understand their stress management approaches.

Operational and Situational questions:

• What are the pieces of information that you need to get from a potential client? And why?
• What are the different perspectives that you would take into consideration to select a location/venue for an event? What are the priorities that you would follow after choosing the location/venue?
• What are the steps you follow to choose future partners (e.g. caterers) for an event? What criteria do you use to determine their eligibility and quality?
• Tell us about a time when you worked on the planning of two events simultaneously? How did it go? And what was the outcome?
• What are your techniques of utilizing social media platforms for events in order to attract customers?
• Provide an example of a time when you crossed the specified budget for an event. What was wrong and what did you do to fix the situation?
• What are the ways you follow to manage stress when the date of your event approaches?
• If a technical problem occurred during an event, how would you react? And in your opinion, what are the most frequent problems that you run into and how did you solve them?
• Describe an instance when you came up with a novel way to solve a problem. What was the outcome?
• Describe the most successful event planning experience you’ve had thus far. What did you do to make it such a hit?
• Describe a time when you were in charge of an event and didn’t get the results you expected. What happened, and what did you learn as a result of it?

Role-specific questions:

• Tell us of the different steps you follow to keep yourself updated in the event industry?
• Do you know where the most popular hangouts are in X city? What makes them so popular?
• Do you have any experience with DMS (Delegate Management System)? What is DDR, for example?
• What type of technology or software do you use or prefer? How well-versed are you in the field of event technology?
• What is the approximate number of events you plan in a year?
• What kinds of events do you typically organize? Do you have a particular area of expertise? What made you decide on it?
• What factors should you take into consideration before you start organizing an event?
• What criteria do you use to evaluate the success of each of your events?
• What aspect of your work position do you enjoy the most? What keeps you motivated when things go wrong?
• How would you convince a client of the value of your services?