═══ INTERVIEW PREP — Senior Marketing Manager, Tech Company ═══ SECTION 1 — SAMPLE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Technical Q1: "Walk me through a marketing campaign you built from zero. What was your process?" Ideal answer: Start with the strategic brief — what problem were we solving and for whom. Cover channel selection rationale, not just what channels but why those specific ones for that audience. Walk through execution with specific budget allocation. Close with measurable results — traffic, leads, or revenue attributed. Numbers required. End with what you would do differently. Behavioural Q1 (STAR): "Tell me about a time you had to turn around a failing campaign." Situation: Our Q3 paid search campaign was at 4x target CAC after 3 weeks, burning through budget with minimal qualified leads. Task: I needed to diagnose the problem, pause or restructure, and recover performance before the quarter ended. Action: I pulled a full funnel analysis and found the issue was targeting — we were reaching awareness-stage audiences with conversion-intent ads. I rebuilt the campaign structure into 3 separate funnels by buyer stage, rewrote the ad copy for each, and shifted 40% of budget to retargeting. Result: CAC dropped from 4x to 1.2x target within 18 days. We recovered $28,000 in wasted spend and ended Q3 at 94% of lead target. Weakness answer: "My biggest area of growth is delegating creative decisions. I have high standards for the work and I used to hold on to creative reviews longer than I needed to. I've addressed this by establishing clear creative briefs upfront so my team can make decisions autonomously within agreed parameters. In the last 6 months, the team has shipped 3 campaigns without my direct creative approval — and two performed above benchmark." SECTION 3 — SALARY NEGOTIATION SCRIPTS Script 2 — Offer below target: "Thank you so much — I'm genuinely excited about this opportunity and the team. I want to be transparent with you: based on my research and the scope of this role, I was expecting something closer to $95,000. Is there flexibility to get closer to that range? I'm fully committed to making this work if we can find alignment on the number." SECTION 4 — QUESTIONS TO ASK Question 1: "What does success look like in this role at 6 months and at 12 months — and how is it measured?" Why powerful: Shows you think in outcomes, not tasks. Forces the interviewer to articulate what they actually need rather than what the job description says. Question 2: "What is the one thing the previous person in this role did exceptionally well that you'd want to see continued?" Why powerful: Reveals what they value most and gives you an immediate differentiator to emphasise in your closing remarks. SECTION 6 — RED FLAGS Red flag 1: Badmouthing a previous employer. Why it hurts: Every interviewer immediately imagines you saying the same about them in 2 years. Replacement: "It was a great learning environment. The role ran its natural course and I'm ready for a challenge at this scale." Red flag 2: Asking about salary or benefits before an offer is made. Why it hurts: Signals that the job is a means to money, not a career move. Replacement: If asked, deflect — "I'm flexible and prioritise fit. Happy to discuss once we both know this is the right match." SECTION 7 — FOLLOW-UP EMAIL Subject: Thank you — [Your Name] re: Senior Marketing Manager Hi [Interviewer Name], Thank you for the conversation today. I particularly enjoyed discussing [specific topic from interview] — it reinforced how closely aligned my approach is with what the team is building. My background managing multi-channel campaigns at scale and the track record of reducing CAC while growing qualified pipeline feels directly relevant to what you described as the core challenge for this role. I'm genuinely excited about the opportunity and look forward to hearing next steps. Best, [Your Name]