How to Prepare for a Board Interview

You’ve made it — the board interview. After weeks, months, or more than likely years of preparing for a board appointment, you’re here.

Congratulations, this is a gigantic achievement and we are here to support you every step of the way. We get asked all of the time what board of directors are looking for and what the interview process is like, so this article is intended to demystify.

How to Prepare

Know exactly what you included in your board bio and be prepared to elaborate on it.

Your board bio covers close to your entire career history and achievements consolidated into a one-page document meant to act as a starting point for getting you through to an interview. Your interviewer might very well use your board bio as a guide throughout the entire interview and ask you to expand about your roles, relationships, and expertise. The key here is not to get stuck in the details — you’ve already proved you are qualified. This interview will be more about the board looking for the right person to help the company grow to the next level and beyond, so your answers should be able to communicate that.

Do your homework on the company and their board members.

Thoroughly comb through the company’s website, social media, and recent press. You should not only have a solid understanding of their organizational structure, history and products or services, but also of their industry, competitors, and trends.

• Is their stock performing? If not, what is the reason for the downturn?
• Are they going through executive team growing pains? Or substantial turnover and notable personnel changes in general?
• Have they made key hires in the last year? If so, what is their background and the hiring strategy?
• Is there any pending litigation to be aware of? Or any potentially controversial issues like cultural or policy matters that were recently covered?
• Know their current industry trends.
• Research their key competitors.
• Either buy or try their product or service — how else will you be able to speak to this in the interview?

This isn’t just a fact-finding mission, this work will help you identify some of the potential challenges or opportunities the company may be facing in the future.

Recognize the reasons why you are there.

This is not about the paycheck or the stock options, your time is extremely valuable and you’ve made a conscious decision to commit what little time you have to this endeavor. So what’s your reason? Prepare an answer to the inevitable question, “why do you want to join our board of directors?” Is it the company, product, industry? Is it a personal passion or the next logical step in your career to learn and grow beyond your current role? Be honest and be direct, because once you land the board seat these reasons will have to come to life.

Questions to Ask

Your board interview will be just as much about how you will be a good fit for their company, as to how they will be a good fit for you. Use this time to gain information about the company, the board’s point of view and even potentially some candid insights you can use to evaluate your fit.

What is the board’s vision for the future?

The role of a board of directors is to lead the company’s growth and development. You’ll want to know what exactly that growth plan is and if they are actively working towards it, or still trying to create the plan itself. Again, there is not necessarily a right or wrong answer here, because you are looking to see if the current status of the board is a fit for you. Do you like to start at the drawing board, or would you rather jump into a plan in motion? Are you on board (pun intended) with their strategy, or does your initial instinct leave you with concerns?

What is the company’s financial position?

The board of directors spends the majority of their time together navigating the company’s financials including spending, salaries, and investments. If you are joining a private company it is completely fair and necessary to start by asking who the investors are and where the money is coming from. For a public company, you’ll want to review all the available documents, including reports, public filings, and stock prices ahead of time, but still, ask the interviewer for their perspective.

What are the board’s dynamics?

It’s important to know you will be joining a board that already leads to a high degree of professionalism and integrity. What do their meeting agendas typically look like? How productive is each meeting in keeping to those agendas? How is the decision-making process facilitated? After all, once you join a board, part of your professional reputation will be tied to the work of those boards, so you will want to understand the current board dynamics ahead of time.

What does the board expect of you?

You should have already done your homework on the current board members, but you’ll still want to ask this question directly to the board for their synopsis. The board should have conducted several meetings about the person they are looking for to fill their empty board seat. They should know without a doubt the professional skills and knowledge the candidate will need. What skills are already represented? How does the board feel that your skills will complement? Take notes. You’ll want to remember the qualifications and personality traits they are looking for and use them in your follow up email to remind them why you are the best fit for the position.

Come prepared, do your homework and get all of your questions answered. Your end goal of a board interview will be determining whether it will be a win-win situation for your time, lifestyle and career as well as for the company you’ll be serving.