When you are interviewing potential candidates for a marketing position in your company, you want people with in-depth knowledge of marketing for that position. It is better, of course, if they have more extensive knowledge than that, but marketing is a vast and continually changing field. People have busy lives and do not usually have enough time to keep tabs on every aspect or every new development than what immediately concerns them. Rather than have encyclopedic information on marketing, it will be more useful if they have a quick thinking and adaptive mindset.

Successful marketers know how to gauge situations and improvise as needed. They are not discouraged by setbacks but quickly work around them to mitigate any lasting negative consequences. They focus on strategies that work and discard those that don’t. They make long-term plans and implement them with persistence and persuasion.

To gauge if potential candidates have what it takes to thrive in the marketing industry, here are three interview questions for marketing position that you can ask them:

What made you decide to get into marketing?

This seemingly simple and innocuous question is a great conversation starter and helps to put the candidates at ease. It will also give you a good idea of their level of articulateness and their level of perception. You want people who have chosen to enter marketing with at least a modicum of understanding of what it entails and what kind of work they will have to do.

They must know what types of skills a marketing professional needs and what responsibilities they must shoulder to perform day-to-day tasks. They must be aware that marketing can be a tough field and getting ahead in such a competitive environment requires not just creativity and enthusiasm but also a certain amount of hard-headedness.

Why do you want to work with us?

You want to know if the candidate has researched your company and the marketing position before coming for the interview. If they have taken the trouble to do this, it means they are serious about wanting to work with you and will likely do an excellent job once you hire them.

Keep in mind though, that this question can elicit different answers from beginners and experienced candidates. In the case of entry-level candidates, while they may have a genuine desire to work with you, they are also motivated by the need to get a toehold in the industry and gain work experience. This is perfectly all right if they display a positive attitude and a willingness to work and learn the ropes.

Experienced candidates, on the other hand, may talk about what they will bring to the table as well as their expectations from you. The right attitude and work ethic are important considerations here as well. You want people who not only know how to get the work done but are also adaptable enough to fit in well with your established company culture.

Do you have any long-term career goals? Tell us about those.

What you want to know here is if they have long-term career goals in the marketing field. Your company will be investing in training the candidates you hire in various aspects so that they can adapt better to the company’s work environment, and, given this, you want candidates who will persevere and stick around for the long haul. There is little benefit to your company in hiring people who don’t intend to continue in marketing and who look at the offered job position only as a step to earn money until something better comes along.

If the candidates intend to make a career of marketing, you want to know if they are capable of strategic thinking, if they know how to implement their plans, and if they have the mindset to get things done. The bottom line is, in what way will they benefit your company?

You may want to rule out marketing candidates who cannot respond adequately to these three questions. If they are not resourceful enough to carry out the necessary research to improve their career prospects, they may not have the initiative needed to flourish in the marketing industry.