Communication Interview Questions and Answers

Last updated on Jan 04, 2023
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Communication Interview Questions

Communication is the key or an asset for any type of job role. Once you have landed an interview you can be sure that there must be some questions related to communication skills. A little bit of preparation of Communication Interview Questions and Answers helps you to impress your hiring manager and makes them realize that you are effective in that particular role. These types of questions are asked to test an employee's ability to communicate in various situations and allow the interviewer to decide if someone has basic language knowledge and he/she can communicate both verbally such as in meetings and non-verbally such as via emails. In jobs like sales, customer service communication is absolutely essential. It’s very hard to work with a team where people are not communicating well. Let’s look at some of these questions and answers to help you prepare for good and unique responses.

Communication Skills Interview Questions

Here in this article, we will be listing frequently asked Communication Interview Questions and Answers with the belief that they will be helpful for you to gain higher marks. Also, to let you know that this article has been written under the guidance of industry professionals and covered all the current competencies.

Q1. How do you say you have good communication skills?
Answer

There are many different ways to say you have good communication skills like-

  • I am confident and have professional speaking abilities.
  • I can speak in public, to groups, or via electronic media.
  • I have excellent presentation and speaking skills.
  • I am a persuasive speaker and an empathic listener.

By your answer, you have to convince your interviewer that from your past experience you have gained strong communication skills like “Through my past work experience and education, I have gained and developed strong communication skills and can clearly convey my points to different types of people. In any conversation, it is very important to listen to other perspectives too which aids in my ability to understand a situation.”

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Q2. Which is better- verbal communication or written communication?
Answer

Both communications are a way of exchanging ideas, feelings, messages, thoughts, information, and opinions and have their own pluses and minuses. It totally depends upon the situation that one should opt which medium of communication.

Let’s look at some of the important differences between these two

Verbal Communication Written Communication
It's also known as oral communication where the idea or opinions are transmitted through verbal or spoken words. Written communication is a type of communication where users use printed or written format to send a message.
Transmission of the message is fast in this type of communication Transmission of the message is slow
One of the disadvantages of this type of communication is there is no proof or record. As this is in written form, proof or record is always there.
There are high chances of misunderstanding in verbal communication In written communication, there is low or no chance of misunderstandings.
If you are talking verbally one can get immediate feedback. In written communication feedback takes time sometimes.
Medium of communication could be face-to-face talk, seminar, group discussion, interviews, conference, etc. Letter, mails, messages, reports, journals, notes could be mediums of this type of communication.
Q3. Why is it important to be a good listener in communication?
Answer

You know why we have two ears and one tongue so that we can listen more and speak less. If you are not a good listener you will never be able to get another person's point of view.

Below are reasons why being a good listener would be good for you

  • Listening raises trust level- When someone tries to show the effort to listen, they accept your interest. This makes them more comfortable towards you in sharing things and being open.
  • It reduces misunderstandings- There are many factors for misunderstandings but one of the most common factors is poor communication. When you are listening to others there are fewer chances to mishear something.
  • Listening improves business relationships- If you have a career that involves interaction with people, listening to them, builds better business relationships with team members and clients.
  • Improves leadership skills- Being a good leader requires a better listener. Active listening helps you hear different perspectives and ideas of your team and prevent misunderstanding.
Q4. What would you do if there was a breakdown in communication at work?
Answer

A communication breakdown happens every day in business but what’s important is it should be resolved at the earliest.

Here are some ways to deal with communication breakdown

  • Accept your mistakes- Blame shifting makes things worse. If you were wrong and communicated poorly, own it and let everyone know as it does wonders in resolving communication breakdowns.
  • Focus on Unity- Whatever you do make sure people are coming together and there is no gap between them as communication breakdowns divide and destroy. If everyone in the room gets involved, results will come out better.
  • Win people, not arguments- People who are blamed for communication breakdown let me tell you beating them should not be your goal instead winning them is. If you are trying to win the argument to prove a person is wrong you just lose him.
  • Keep patience- Communication breakdowns are very frustrating and winning over them is hard. Without patience, it will only get worse and create a huge mess.
Q5. How would you explain a complicated technical problem to a colleague with less technical understanding?
Answer

In your career, there will definitely come a time when you have to deal with people who have less technical understanding and not the same understanding level as yours.

How you will address the issues to them, let's have a look

  • Don’t assume anything- Don’t lighten your efforts by assuming that your audience has some tech knowledge.
  • Use humor and humility to explain it- You have to make them comfortable and say to them in a kidding way that you are a computer nerd type of person and apologize if you get too technical.
  • Don’t try to cover it all in one go- Take care of how you are moving forward. For you, it could be incremental progress but for that person who is unfamiliar with the issue, it may feel like an earthquake.
  • Use visual content-. Research shows that picture effects can increase your memory of anything by 65% versus 10% when you are hearing it.
  • Avoid technical idioms when possible- Maybe you are habitual of using acronyms like DBMS, GCP but try to avoid using them.
Q6. What to do if you misunderstood an important communication on the job?
Answer

Start this answer by saying that it would unlikely happen, as you are a good listener and always listen carefully to your boss and team members. If I feel there is any confusion I will double-check with them and ensure we all are on the same page. But as we are humans, we can make mistakes. If it happens, I will accept making a mistake and will definitely learn from it.

Q7. Rate your communication skills on a scale of 1 to 10. Give examples of experiences that demonstrate the rating is accurate.
Answer

You have to discuss how skilled and good you are in communication on a scale of 1-10. Try not to give yourself a 10 as nobody is perfect and we all are in a learning phase. A rating of 10 will let your interviewer know that you are overconfident and there is no space for any improvement or feedback. Alternately also avoid giving you too little and try to be in a range of 7.5-9 followed by an example to prove it.

E.g. I was engaged in a remote team of developers and wanted to report a bug. I have sent an email and described the bug thoroughly but developers were not able to reproduce that. Instead of wasting time I have recorded my screen, narrated the video, and shown them stepwise what I have observed and they have accepted that bug.

Q8. How have you handled working under someone you felt was not good at communicating?
Answer

These types of questions are best answered by the STAR method i.e. Situation, Task, Action, and Result. Keep your answer short and simple and avoid overdramatizing the event and responses that include-

  • Speaking against or negatively of others.
  • Avoid taking names in your examples
  • Telling the interviewer that you are perfect and can get along with everyone.

Some quick ways to handle these types of situations-

  • Have some patience and try to go with a language they better understand.
  • It’s time to show your listening skills. Yes Listen first and react second.
  • When dealing with a bad communicator, it’s important how you are using your words and body language.
  • Sometimes people are bad at communicating and listening too. In those situations be clear in your words. It won’t show you are rude, rather you give priority to your work.

These are some of the communication skills examples for interview which you may be asked during your interview. When preparing make sure you focus on both general and industry-specific topics. In case you are too much concerned about this interview, let me remind you that the world doesn’t end here and your career doesn’t depend on the outcome of this interview.

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