How to hire a Chief of Staff
What the role does, the job description, the interview questions, and the 40-minute screening pack that tells you who can do the job before you book a single interview.
The role
What a Chief of Staff does
A Chief of Staff sits in the Leadership function. The sections below give you the job description, the interview questions and the screening pack for the role.
Screen before you interview
The Chief of Staff screening pack
The role is operating rhythm, judgement, influence and follow-through. Every applicant gets one link. You get one ranked report.
- 1
How do you decide what reaches the CEO and what does not?
- 2
Describe a cross-team initiative you drove without formal authority.
- 3
How do you prepare a leadership team meeting so decisions actually get made?
- 4
Tell us about a time you delivered hard news to a senior leader.
- 5
What would your first 90 days look like here?
Interview questions
Chief of Staff interview questions
For the candidates who pass the pack. Each comes with a sample answer on the full page.
Ask these after the screening pack, not instead of it. A candidate who has already scored on Business Operations Management, Critical Thinking, Communication, Project Management has shown they can do the work, which frees the interview to do what a test cannot: find out how they think, how they explain themselves, and how they behave when something goes wrong.
- Ask every Chief of Staff candidate the same questions in the same order. Comparable answers are the whole point; a different conversation with each person tells you who you liked, not who was strongest.
- Look for a specific example with a result, not a description of how the candidate would approach it in principle. Follow up once with “what happened next?” and stop talking.
- Score each answer before moving to the next question, and write down what was said rather than the impression it left.
- At volume, record the first 4 of these instead of calling. Candidates answer on their own time, the answers are transcribed and scored, and you keep live interviews for the shortlist.
The pack takes a candidate about 40 minutes, so a Chief of Staff applicant arrives at this interview already measured on the parts you can measure without a meeting.
- 01
Tell me about a time you acted as a force multiplier for a leader or organization.
- 02
How do you understand the chief of staff role?
- 03
Why do you want this role rather than a functional leadership track?
- 04
How do you build trust quickly with a principal and a leadership team?
- 05
How do you drive a strategic project that crosses multiple functions?
- 06
How do you run an effective operating rhythm for a leadership team?
- 07
How do you prepare a leader for a high-stakes decision or meeting?
- 08
How do you handle communication and information flow across an organization?
Frequently asked questions
Send every applicant one link that carries 4 skills tests (Business Operations Management, Critical Thinking, Communication, Project Management), 2 personality inventories and 5 one-way video questions. springhire scores everything automatically and ranks the candidates, so you interview the top few. The free plan covers 10 candidates a month.
About 40 minutes for the tests, plus 10 to 15 minutes for the video questions. Candidates complete it on their own time, on any device.
A short brief, key responsibilities, must-have and nice-to-have skills and the requirements. The JD generator writes one for this role in a minute.
Questions that ask for a specific past example and a walkthrough of how the candidate thinks. This page lists 8 with sample answers, and the full bank has more.
Yes. The free plan includes every screening tool with 10 candidate credits a month and no card. Paid plans start at $39 a month.
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