Dover recommends tailoring your interview plan to each specific role. For Marketing roles, you can tailor your Interview Plan in Dover using the suggested interview plan, interview questions, scheduling templates, and feedback forms.

📆 Interview Plan

First Interview ⏰ 30 mins

Dover Interviewer or Recruiter Screen

Second Interview - Hiring Manager Interview ⏰ 30 mins

Deep dive on requisite skills

Take Home Assignment ⏰ 3-4 hrs

Please see take home assignment examples below. Typically take home assignments are completed in 4-7 days.

Onsite ⏰ 2 hrs 30 mins

Intro/Prep - ⏰ 15mins
1. Overview of what the day will look like
2. Interviewer: Recruiter / Head of Talent
Behavioral 1 - ⏰ 30mins
1. Review cultural fit questions
2. Design challenge with a designer
3. Interviewer: Hiring Manager / Leadership in Business Area
Technical Screen - ⏰ 30mins
1. Review remaining technical/role-specific skillset content, case interview or take home follow up questions
2. Interviewer: Full time Employee from Business Area
Social Interview - ⏰ 30mins
1. Casual non-evaluative opportunity for candidate to meet people from other Business Areas
2. Interviewers: 2 Full time Employees from different Business Areas
Behavioral 2 - ⏰ 30mins
1. Review cultural fit questions
2. Interviewers: Other Hiring Manager / Leadership in Business Area
Wrap-Up - ⏰ 15mins
1. Close out the day with the candidate, sell company
2. Interviewers: Chief of Staff / C-Suite / Founder / Executive

👩‍💻 Take home assignment

Early Marketing Hire

As a first / early marketing hire at a tech startup, the candidate likely be responsible for a range of marketing activities. Here are a few examples of take-home assessments you could consider giving to assess a candidate's skills and abilities in various areas of marketing:

Social Media Strategy: Provide the candidate with information about your target audience and product/service offerings. Ask them to develop a comprehensive social media strategy for your startup, including platforms to focus on, content ideas, posting frequency, and engagement tactics. Request a presentation or written report outlining their strategy and rationale.
Content Marketing: Ask the candidate to create a content marketing plan to increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your website. They should identify relevant topics, propose different types of content (blogs, videos, infographics, etc.), suggest distribution channels, and outline a plan for measuring success. Have them present their plan and discuss their approach.
SEO Analysis: Provide the candidate with your startup's website and ask them to perform an SEO analysis. Request a report identifying opportunities to improve search engine rankings and increase organic traffic. Ask for recommendations on keyword targeting, on-page optimization, backlink strategies, and any technical improvements that can be made.
Paid Advertising Campaign: Present the candidate with a hypothetical budget and target audience information. Ask them to create a paid advertising campaign proposal, outlining their strategy, budget allocation, ad copy, targeting options, and expected results. Request a presentation or written report detailing their campaign plan.
Email Marketing Campaign: Provide the candidate with a sample email list and ask them to develop an email marketing campaign that promotes a specific product or feature. Request a written report or presentation outlining their email sequence, segmentation strategy, personalization techniques, and measurement metrics.
Growth Hacking Strategy: Ask the candidate to outline a growth hacking strategy to acquire new users or customers for your startup. They should identify innovative tactics and channels, such as referral programs, partnerships, viral campaigns, or product optimizations. Have them present their strategy and discuss how they would execute it.

Remember to tailor these assessments to your startup's specific needs and objectives. Additionally, consider providing candidates with a reasonable timeframe (4-7 days typically) to complete the tasks and allow them to ask questions if needed.

✉️ Scheduling Email Templates

The following are examples of scheduling emails for each interview round.

First Interview

Scheduling Email A (Interview with person sending outreach)

Hi {{first_name}},

Great to hear from you! We’d love to schedule a call with a member of our recruiting team to learn further about your experience and share further information on this opportunity.

To make scheduling easier, could you please find a time here: {{scheduling link}}

Thanks,

Scheduling Email B (Interview with person who did not send outreach)

Hi {{first_name}},

Great to hear from you! We’d love to schedule a call with a member of our recruiting team to learn further about your experience and share further information on this opportunity.

To make scheduling easier, could you please find a time here: {{scheduling_link}}

Thanks,

Rejection

Hi {{first_name}},

Thanks for taking the time to talk with us about the {{job_title}} position. Your background is impressive, and we really enjoyed speaking with you. Unfortunately, at this time we feel it's not the right fit.

We appreciate the time you took to learn more about {{client_name}} and hope you don't mind if we reach back out in the future.

Best,

Second Interview

Scheduling

Hi {{first_name}},

We enjoyed speaking with you about the {{job_title}} role and would love to move forward! The next step in our process involves meeting {{interviewer_first_name}}, {{interviewer_role_title_with_article}}, the hiring manager for this position. In this interview, {{interviewer_first_name}} will provide you with further insights into the role and the company and delve deeper into your skills, experience, and how they align with our requirements.

Here's {{interviewer_first_name}}'s calendar to find a time: {{scheduling_link}}.

Hope the two of you find a chance to connect soon.

Looking forward to hearing how it goes!

Rejection

Hi {{first_name}},

Thanks for taking the time to learn about the {{job_title}} role at {{client_name}}. Our team enjoyed speaking with you, but ultimately we felt that it wasn't a fit at this time.

I hope you don't mind if we keep your information on file and reach out to you in the future! Best of luck in your search.

Thanks,

Take home assessment

Scheduling

Hi {{first_name}},

We enjoyed speaking with you about the {{job_title}} role and would love to move forward!

The next step in our interview process is a short take home project. It should take about a 3-4 hours to complete, and we'd appreciate if you could submit it within 7 business days of receiving this email. Please submit your assignment by converting Google Sheets / Powerpoint presentation into a PDF format. Prompt below:

We will review your response and get back to you as soon as possible. Upon passing this stage, you will be progressed to a virtual onsite, the final round in our interview process.

Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or clarifications. We're looking forward to reading your response!

Thanks,

Rejection

Hi {{first_name}},

Thanks for taking the time to learn about the {{job_title}} role at {{client_name}}. Our team enjoyed speaking with you, but ultimately we felt that it wasn't a fit at this time.

I hope you don't mind if we keep your information on file and reach out to you in the future! Best of luck in your search.

Thanks,

Onsite

Scheduling

Hi {{first_name}},

We would love to move you forward to our next stage, where you would meet more of the team virtually. The onsite will last 2.5 hours and consist of the following rounds:

Prep Session with < Interviewer Name> (Recruiter/HoT) - 15mins
Behavioral Interview with < Interviewer Name> (Hiring Manager)- 30mins
Role Play with <Interviewer Name> - 30mins
Casual Chat with < Interviewer Name> and <Interviewer Name> -30mins - Casual non-evaluative opportunity to learn more about the company’s culture - 2 FTE from other BAs
Behavioral Interview with <Interviewer Name> (Other HM/Leadership in BA) - 30mins
Close out the day with < Interview Name> ( CoS/C-Suite)

Could you please share some time slots in the coming days that work for you?

The team is looking forward to meeting you, please let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks,

Rejection

Hi {{first_name}},

Thank you for meeting the team for our {{job_title}} role. We really appreciate you taking the time to be part of our interview process over the last few weeks.

At this point, we will not be able to move forward with your candidacy. We'll keep your information on file and hope we can reconnect in the future.

Regards,

📓 Feedback Forms / Evaluation criteria

Interview rubrics / feedback form criteria can be an effective tool to assess candidates consistently and objectively during the interview process across various interviewers. Here's an example of a rubric for evaluating candidates for a sales role.

Evaluation

Criteria 1: Marketing Strategy and Planning

Exceptional: Demonstrates a deep understanding of marketing principles, frameworks, and strategic thinking. Provides innovative and well-reasoned marketing strategies.
Good: Shows a solid understanding of marketing concepts and can develop effective marketing plans. Offers some creative ideas.
Average: Displays a basic understanding of marketing principles but lacks depth in strategy development. Provides generic or common marketing approaches.
Below Average: Demonstrates a limited understanding of marketing strategy and struggles to develop coherent marketing plans.

Interviewer picks one of the above and adds comments based on their conversation with the candidate

Criteria 2: Analytical and Data-Driven Approach

Exceptional: Demonstrates advanced analytical skills, using data to drive marketing decisions. Proficient in data analysis tools and can extract meaningful insights.
Good: Shows competence in using data for decision-making and can interpret basic marketing metrics. Applies data analysis techniques effectively.
Average: Has a basic understanding of data-driven marketing but lacks proficiency in data analysis tools. May require additional training or guidance.
Below Average: Struggles to apply data-driven approaches to marketing decisions and has limited experience with data analysis.

Interviewer picks one of the above and adds comments based on their conversation with the candidate.

Criteria 3: Communication and Collaboration

Exceptional: Communicates ideas effectively and can adapt communication style to various audiences. Collaborates well with team members and stakeholders.
Good: Demonstrates good communication skills, both written and verbal. Works well in a team environment and can effectively collaborate.
Average: Communicates adequately but may need improvement in clarity and conciseness. Shows some ability to collaborate but could benefit from further development.
Below Average: Struggles with communication skills and has difficulty working collaboratively with others.

Interviewer picks one of the above and adds comments based on their conversation with the candidate

Criteria 4: Creativity and Innovation

Exceptional: Displays exceptional creativity and brings innovative ideas to the table. Can think outside the box and propose unique marketing approaches.
Good: Shows creativity and can develop engaging marketing campaigns. Offers some original ideas.
Average: Demonstrates a moderate level of creativity but may rely on standard marketing practices. Needs encouragement to think more creatively.
Below Average: Lacks creativity and struggles to generate fresh ideas. Interviewer picks one of the above and adds comments based on their conversation with the candidate

Guide to interviewing Engineers

Guide to interviewing Product Managers

Guide to Interviewing Designers

Guide to interviewing Account Executives and Sales Representatives

Guide to interviewing Customer Success Managers