Hiring and Interviewing: Interview Questions

Searching for a new mental health consultant? Bring potential candidates in for one or more in-person interviews. Include families and direct service staff on the hiring committee for the consultant, even if you are subcontracting services from a mental health agency. 

If you are subcontracting with another agency for MHC services, you should specify in the contract that your agency will play a role in hiring or selecting the individual to provide consultation. Interviews should include both general questions about experiences and skills and “hypotheticals” — examples of scenarios with children, families, and staff that consultants might encounter in your program.

Interview Questions

1. How has your education and experience prepared you to support staff who work with expectant families and children between ages birth to 3 in the home visiting program?
2. How has your education and experience prepared you to work with staff who work with children ages 4 and 5 and their families who are participating in our classroom program?
3. How do you see your role related to working with Head Start staff?
4. Tell us more about why you applied for this position.
5. What is your approach to children’s mental health?
   1. What theories, models, values, and data guide your work?
   2. Specifically, what is your approach as far as promoting social and emotional development, addressing behavioral concerns, and supporting staff and families?
6. Describe how you work within a team.
   1. What are your strengths?
   2. What are some challenges in working with a team?
7. Describe how you would begin building relationships with Head Start staff and families.
8. Please describe your experience using observation as part of your developmental and clinical formulation. What skills do you have that would enhance your ability to conduct observations of a child in a classroom environment?
9. Head Start families come from a range of backgrounds. What is your experience working with people from different backgrounds?
10. This position will require a great deal of autonomy in designing your schedule and managing a case load. Describe your strategies to help keep yourself organized and prioritize the various demands of the work.
11. What kind of experience do you have with collecting and reporting program data for local, state, or federal funding agencies?
12. What experience do you have providing consultation?
13. Tell us about your experience and strategies for promoting staff wellness?
14. Is there anything else you would like to share?
15. Do you have any questions about this position or the agency?

Hypothetical Scenarios

1. While in a classroom, you noted that the assistant teacher was using negative language when redirecting a child. How would you address this?
2. A teacher has expressed concerns that the child is aggressive and cannot successfully enter play with other children. His family members are native Spanish speakers, but the teacher thinks the child understands English pretty well.
   1. What are some of the things you might address with classroom staff?
   2. What do you envision your role is supporting staff in engaging with the family?
3. A family has reluctantly agreed to home visits, but the home visitor has not been able to complete the first one because the last three times they have scheduled with them, the family called to cancel at the last minute. The home visitor is asking for your support.
   1. What do you plan to do next?
   2. How would you approach this situation?
4. Over the past month, the staff have described a large increase in the number of behavioral concerns in the classrooms, and they are beginning to have a hard time supporting the intense needs of both teachers and families.
   1. What would you do if you started to feel overwhelmed by the job?
   2. What would you need to feel supported?
5. In the past, the Head Start program has attempted to provide family education classes but has not had much luck with attendance. Usually only two or three family members show up each week. You are beginning to collaborate with the family services to start a new family education group and would like to improve attendance and retention.
   1. What strategies will you use to recruit families?
   2. What will you do to get families to attend groups?
   3. How will you work to build the capacity of the family service staff?

Last Updated: August 6, 2025