So, you’re ready to hire a community manager. You’ve already answered these three questions. Yes, that’s a community manager you want to take care of your relationships with your users, speak up for them, help them connect with each other, get them more involved, and keep them around.
That person is the community manager you need, and they are also the kind of person who would truly represent your community. You’ve even posted the job and have a dozen interviews lined up. But how do you distinguish top talent from the rest?.
It’s really tough to hire people for community work, especially since the best person to represent your community might not have any formal experience running a community. They could be brand new from college or have worked in a completely different field for ten years. The ideal candidate could have three years of experience in community work. The good thing is that many of the tactical skills of community can be taught. The softer skills, however, are that much harder.
These are the questions that I have found are best at identifying true community management talent during interviews:
Getting hired at WeWork, the rapidly growing global provider of shared workspaces, is no easy feat. With its innovative co-working model disrupting the traditional office rental market, WeWork has become one of the most coveted places to work. However, the interview process is rigorous, designed to assess not just skills but cultural fit.
This article covers the top WeWork interview questions – from commonly asked ones to more role-specific queries, Prepare for your interview at this trailblazing company by learning strategies to ace the most critical questions,
Commonly Asked WeWork Interview Questions
Here are some of the most frequently asked questions across various roles at WeWork
What are the values of WeWork you believe closely align with own your values?
WeWork places immense importance on its core values of community, inclusivity, transparency, boldness, and passion. Interviewers want to gauge if you genuinely connect with these values that underpin the company’s culture.
In your response, highlight 1-2 values that resonate most with you Share why they matter to you personally and how you’ve demonstrated these values in past roles. Providing specific examples will make your answer more credible and compelling
What are some of the products WeWork offers?
With this question, the interviewer assesses your knowledge of WeWork’s diverse product offerings. These include:
- Shared flexible workspaces
- Private office spaces
- Custom build-outs for companies
- Event spaces
- Business services like HR, payroll etc.
Highlight products most relevant to the role. For customer-facing jobs, emphasize WeWork’s collaborative workspaces. For corporate positions, focus on custom HQs and business services. Demonstrating domain knowledge is key.
Why do you want to work with WeWork?
This common question gauges your genuine interest in the company. WeWork looks for people truly passionate about their transformative mission of creating collaborative workspaces and uplifting communities.
In your response, convey your excitement about WeWork’s innovative co-working model. Share specific reasons why you’re drawn to their culture, values, and the opportunity to be part of their dynamic high-growth journey.
How do you ensure a positive member experience?
WeWork’s success hinges on keeping members happy and engaged. For customer-facing roles, expect questions about how you deliver exceptional experiences.
Discuss your commitment to understanding each member’s needs. Share tactics you’ve used like regular check-ins, personalized communication, and prompt issue resolution. Emphasize that member satisfaction is integral to your work.
Why do you want to leave your current company?
This often tricky question aims to uncover your motivation for change and assess red flags like frequent job-hopping or grievances with past employers.
Focus your answer on growth opportunities, passion for WeWork’s mission, or alignment with their culture. Avoid badmouthing your current employer. Keep it positive by expressing gratitude for your experiences but highlight your eagerness to take on new challenges.
How do you ensure great customer service?
In WeWork’s service-oriented environment, providing exceptional experiences is critical. With this behavioral question, interviewers evaluate your approach to customer service.
Share tactics like active listening, empathy, prompt issue resolution, and regular communication. Provide examples of how you built rapport with clients and delivered personalized experiences. Emphasize that member satisfaction is your top priority.
WeWork Interview Questions for Different Roles
While some questions are asked across the board, others are more specific to the role you are applying for:
Community Management & Sales
How would you handle a conflict between two members within the community?
Community management involves maintaining harmony amongst members from diverse backgrounds. Discuss your impartial conflict resolution approach focused on open communication and mutual understanding. Share how you preserve community values like inclusion amidst disagreements.
Describe your approach to meeting sales targets and generating revenue growth within a competitive market.
Showcase your consultative sales approach focused on understanding clients and providing customized workspace solutions tailored to their needs. Highlight sales strategies like leveraging analytics, building relationships, and implementing creative campaigns that have driven results for you.
Marketing
Give an example of a creative, results-driven marketing campaign you designed and executed in your previous role.
Share an example that brought together various elements like insightful audience targeting, compelling messaging across channels, and metrics-driven optimization. Discuss the objectives, implementation, and measurable impact of your campaign. This will highlight your creativity and strategic thinking.
How do you use data to inform marketing decisions and strategies?
Discuss your experience using tools like Google Analytics and CRM systems to uncover audience insights. Provide examples of how leveraging hard data led to better segmenting, positioning, and engagement strategies. Emphasize how you balance data with creative thinking when marketing.
Product Management & Design
Describe a challenging project where you had to develop a new feature or improve existing functionality for a web or mobile application.
Share an example that demonstrates your technical expertise, problem-solving ability, and commitment to enhancing user experiences. Discuss your process for innovating solutions that solve real user needs.
How do you ensure your design decisions align with business objectives and user needs?
Detail your human-centric design process that balances user research, feedback collection, and collaboration with stakeholders. Share instances where you created intuitive, aesthetically-pleasing design focused on driving key business metrics like engagement and conversions.
Operations & Facilities
What strategies have you used to foster a sense of community among diverse groups of people?
Discuss initiatives like cultural events, team building, open dialogue, and mutual respect that brought people together. Highlight your commitment to inclusion and making diverse members feel valued. This is critical for WeWork’s community-driven culture.
How have you optimized operational processes to enhance productivity in a fast-paced work environment?
Share examples of streamlining processes through approaches like Lean methodology, automation, performance tracking, etc. Discuss the measurable improvements you drove, demonstrating ability to boost efficiency at scale in a dynamic setting like WeWork.
Engineering
Explain your experience implementing agile methodologies within a team, and how it improved the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the team.
Highlight your expertise in agile practices like iterative development, cross-functional collaboration, retrospectives etc. Share examples of how these improved team velocity, product quality, and ability to rapidly adapt to changing priorities.
Tell me about a complex technical challenge you faced and how you successfully solved it.
Discuss a challenging coding, debugging, or optimization issue. Demonstrate your structured problem-solving approach focused on root cause analysis and systematic testing of solutions. Share the final innovative solution and your key technical and analytical skills used.
General Tips to Ace Your WeWork Interview
While preparing for your WeWork interview, keep these additional tips in mind:
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Research the company – Learn about WeWork’s history, mission, products, culture, and competitors. This shows genuine interest.
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Align with their values – Identify 1-2 WeWork values you connect with and provide real examples of demonstrating these values.
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Prepare 2-3 strong stories – Have engaging stories ready highlighting achievements, challenges overcome, and impact delivered in past roles. Tie these to the role you are interviewing for.
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Ask insightful questions – Questions demonstrate your curiosity. Ask about challenges faced, new initiatives on the horizon, or team culture.
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Exhibit your cultural add – Share what makes you a great culture fit, whether it’s your collaborative nature, creativity, or passion for their mission.
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Be authentic – Have honest, thoughtful conversations. WeWork evaluates not just skills but personality and mindset fit.
Preparing responses for the most frequently asked WeWork interview questions is the key to a successful interview. By learning tips and strategies to address their critical queries, you will demonstrate your fit for this game-changing company. Do your research, practice your stories, align with their values, and put your best foot forward. You’ll be one step closer to landing your dream job with WeWork!
“In what way are you a community person?”
This question gives the person you’re interviewing a chance to talk about the groups they belong to and why they think they would be a good fit for your job. Also, this question will make it clear who is part of the community and who is just good on Twitter, can run a support box like a pro, or can throw a fun party. There’s no doubt that these skills are important for community managers, but what’s more important is that they are backed up by real community skills.
“How do you define a community?”
People often use the word “community,” but few have thought about what it really means. Good community members will have their own ideas and opinions and be able to give a short definition right away. Answers that raise red flags will make vague references to content and social media, but social media and community management are not the same thing.
Adam Neumann in His First Public Interview Since Leaving WeWork | DealBook Online Summit
FAQ
Why do you want to work for WeWork?
What is the interview process like at WeWork?
I interviewed at WeWork in Mar 2022 Thé interview process was straight forward. 1 interview with their talent team, and an interview with hiring manager and team lead. My criticism is WeWorks absolute failure to manage expectations on communicating. I spent a lot time waiting, to be told the decision had not yet been made yet.
What’s it like to work at WeWork?
WeWork’s coworking spaces aren’t just open floorplans that encourage collaboration. They also feature networking opportunities like weekly bagel-and-mimosa events and happy hours where members can network as they discuss ideas and offer advice. “All the resources are here,” Neumann told the New York Daily News in 2015.
What is WeWork and how does it work?
WeWork leases buildings and divides them into office spaces to sublet to members, which include small businesses, start-ups and freelancers who want to avoid laying out funds for permanent office space. The company’s operating expenses were exorbitant and it became reliant on repeated cash infusions from private investors.
How are the working hours at WeWork?
Weekly work hours are 40 hours full time in the office, no working from home, not 37.50 hours, meaning that you do not get overtime paid until after you finished 40 hours. They advertise themselves having “hybrid flexible work environment”.