1. Tell us about the responsibilities in your current/most recent job that relate to working with volunteers. What special skills or knowledge did you need to perform these duties? What have you done to improve your knowledge/skills?
2. Tell us about your experiences using a database to manage personnel records.
3. What achievements are you most proud of with regard to volunteer coordination?
4. How do you feel about public speaking and doing presentations? Tell us about any training/presenting experience you have had.
5. Tell us about a problem you experienced with regard to volunteer coordination, something you found difficult to handle, and how you handled it.
6. How important was communication and interaction with others in your previous job? What other individuals and departments did you work with on a regular basis? Did you encounter any challenges in working with other departments?
7. What was more important on your job, written or oral communication?
8. What personal qualities do you think are necessary to make a success of this job?
9. Have you worked as a member of a team before? What was it like? Did you work alone much in your previous job?
10. Do you see any advantages and/or disadvantages to working on a team? Please explain.
11. In working with new people, how do you go about getting an understanding of them? Can you give us some examples of how you have done this in the past?
12. What kinds of people did you have contact with on your previous jobs (personality types, age differences, cultural differences, etc.)?
What things did you do differently with each of these different types of people in order to get your job done?
13. How many projects can you handle at a time? How many projects do you like to handle at one time?
14. Describe a project that required a high amount of energy over an extended period of time. What did you do to keep your enthusiasm up? When you’ve had a great deal of work to do that requires extra effort and time, where does your energy come from?
15. Tell us about a time when you came up with a new method or idea. How did you get it approved and implemented? Can you think of a time when another idea or project was rejected? Why was it rejected and what did you do about it?
16. Is volunteer coordination the type of career you want for yourself?
17. Tell me about your previous experiences recruiting volunteers (for example, how you did it, how many volunteers you had to recruit annually, whether you ever had to recruit volunteers for a sudden need, etc.).
18. Describe your experience creating position descriptions for volunteers.
19. How would you recognize/reward volunteers for their contributions?
20. Who were your volunteers (seniors? women? youth?)?
21. Do you have experience actively recruiting volunteers from a particular demographic?
22. What was your turnover rate like among volunteers? Did most return to volunteer again?
23. What reasons did volunteers give when they stopped volunteering for your organization?
24. What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced in working with volunteers, and how have you dealt with them?
25. Describe your interpersonal and communication style. What do you see as your greatest interpersonal strengths? If we were to talk with people you have worked with, what do you think they would say about your ability to communicate?
26. If you had a volunteer who did not seem to be a good match for a particular position, how would you address it?
27. How do you keep track of the details of a project? What kind of system would you put in place to ensure that we have enough volunteers to staff a particular project? What systems have you implemented in the past?
28. How have you maintained an active and involved volunteer team in the past?
29. Tell us about your experience rallying volunteer support for a specific activity.
30. What is your experience prioritizing multiple volunteer needs within an organization?
30. What would you do if you were overwhelmed by the requests for volunteers or support from you in you role as the volunteer coordinator?
