Interviews are not conducted to test our book knowledge only. Interviewers study applicants quite thoroughly during the interview process. This means that from what you wear to how you let your body language do the talking for you, everything is being scrutinized.
Do yourself a favor and make sure that you are properly prepared for the interview. Practice questions that you may be asked at least 3 days in advance. And the following set of interview questions and answers for a meeting coordinator position will help.
Meeting Coordinator Interview Questions and Answers
What skills does one need to work as a meeting coordinator?
The ability to stay organized and multitask are probably top of the list of skills that a meeting coordinator needs to work well. Other skills include attention to detail, capability of reviewing venues and vendor services to determine the best solutions, and customer service focus.
What types of corporate events other than meetings have you coordinated in the past?
Apart from scheduled meetings, I have been responsible for setting up and coordinating the logistics of conferences, training and induction programs, seminars and corporate dinners.
Which event do you think is the most difficult to coordinate? Why?
I believe that training and induction programs are probably the hardest to coordinate as there are so many aspects that need to be looked into. Creating training packs and giveaways, and ensuring that all technology needs of the event are coordinated takes its toll, because all need to be done concurrently.
Tell us of an incident where you failed to meet the expectations of your client / department head.
I was given the task of coordinating a training session for an executive board. It was a 10 day session and required a lot of intricate details to be handled. I erred. Since I was handling so many thing all alone, I forgot that the training packs needed to be picked up from the printer! The meeting had to be delayed by two hours because of this oversight.
What measures did you take to make sure that this does not happen again?
My mistake was the fact that I did not make a list of things to do. I now proactively work with lists as by doing so, I can tick each task that I have done and not forget anything.
As a meeting coordinator, what has been your biggest achievement?
In January this year, I was given a very challenging task – I had to coordinate the logistic of an event remotely. The meeting was taking place in our office in Ghana and I had to make sure that all logistics, including catering, equipment, invitations, travel arrangements and accommodation were coordinated by sitting in my office in New York. Thankfully everything was done on time and the event took place without any problems.