Remote job trend is not new in market but has increased dramatically after the COVID-19 pandemic. Some companies are now totally switching their work from office to employee’s place. This is more convenient for the employee to work and beneficial for companies to save rents and utilities from office. Some people are fond of travelling around the globe, so they want to work remotely. Most of IT and software companies are operating remotely for this reason. Remote working requires special soft skills that are totally different from working in office.
To be more affective and potent, you should acquire interview skills. But many things have been changed with the passage of time and one of them is remote job interview questions. As the requirements for remote jobs are different from cooperate offices. The requirements to work from home includes policies, governing equipment use, performance expectations and network security.
So, Interviewer/HR manager would be interested to know that who is applicable and competent enough for this remote job. We are having a list of interview questions for you along with advice for answering them all. Here, this article will give you an idea of most commonly asked remote job interview questions and how to answer them.
1. Why do you want to work from home? What is a good reason?
The most common question the interviewer asks is why do you want to work from home? So before you shout out “stay in your pajamas all day” or “want to spend more time with friends and family”, think long and hard about the question at hand because this is not the right way to go. You aren’t sure exactly what you should say to impress the interviewer. This is the worst thing to think on your feet during an interview while you’re already nervous. So here are some tips to make you answer more valuable to get one step closer to your goal “remote job”.
First of all, think about the benefits to the employer and the company because you may not know that employers can save money, and increase productivity by letting their employees work from home. It’s good to show them that you care about the future of the company.
Make a list of good reasons which comes to your mind and organize them e.g. reducing workplace distraction, daily commute, positive environmental impact and optimizing your time then link the employer’s benefit to yours. You should express that working from home can benefit both you and your company. You could say that working in a distraction-free environment makes you more productive and creative to ensure that your work finish more efficiently and you can also save your time, money and energy which spend in commute (from home to office) and make it usable in company’s work.
Sample Answer:
By asking this question, interviewer wants to know your motivations about remote work job. You can satisfy the interviewer by answering in the following way.
“I admire the flexibility of working from home if offered by company. I can be more creative and productive at home and use all my available time to focus on my work. I can help the company achieve its eco-friendly goal by reinvesting my time and energy, which is wasted on travel and delays due to weather conditions. I also like the work-life balance which can be obtained in stress and distraction free environment. I am, of course, highly active in communicating with my colleague working remotely and respond all the emails whether it is a working day or not.”
2. Describe your experience working remotely. What are the challenges you faced?
If interviewer ask you “Have you ever done a remote job before?”, more than 50% of the candidates will respond “Yes” because in 2021 after pandemic a lot of people have experienced remote jobs and as they are aware of the benefits that is why they are again trying to get this type of job. The question has its weightage because the interviewer will predict your influence for this job.
If any candidate has experience of working remotely, he must be having idea of challenges but if he did not work remotely, he must know the pros and cons and challenges of working remotely. There must be some specific issues for specific job roles that a candidate must also be aware of to have a positive impact on hiring manager.
If you answer it like that “There were no challenges”, recruiter will think that you aren’t being honest or didn’t work remotely enough to face the challenges. This will leave a bad impression on interviewer from your side.
Sample Answer:
If you have any experience of remote job in the past, you should enlist the problems when, where, and how did you face and resolve them. If you did not perform remote work before, you must have comparable experience like writing papers, letters, home work or organizing any social network deal.
You should keep your answer simple and you might say “Yes, I have been working remotely from last six months. It was a little bit difficult at start but quickly I adopt it. Soon, I realized that it is much easier for me to keep focus on my work from home. But there were some challenging phases like isolation from team, delay in information, lack of connection, communication issues, immediate support from senior in case of any difficulty, these are the generic issues I usually faced during remote working.”
3. How do you focus on your work while working from Home?
A big challenge of work from home is to getting distracted by your siblings, roommates, or friends. It is very difficult to focus on your work while there is your favorite show playing on LED TV placed on your left wall or there are children playing in your room and making a lot of noise. If you have a separate room and you can work without any disturbance, this has a positive impact but still isolation and burnout are also killers of remote work.
You should maintain a balance in your work-life. I hope you would like the Pomodoro Technique which help you a lot to fix your time management. Interviewer knows that this is a tricky question while you are eagerly telling your future boss about your hobbies and game shows. There must be a proper and positive answer for this question.
Sample Answer:
Some people likes the isolation of remote work because it gives them a chance to focus precisely on their tasks, while some required other strategies such as sound-cancelling headphones. Make sure that you have a solid point that will help you stay productive and do your best work.
You might answer it by saying “I always feel comfortable working alone in a separate room but I would like the team collaboration. I want to be in touch with seniors and teammates regularly. I am also looking forward for weekly team meetings via zoom call, google meet or skype where we can discuss issues that any of us face and find better solutions.”
In case, if you have house around a busy street and your work style get disturb because of noise then you can say “I use noise-canceling headphones to block out noise. So, I can focus on my work.” You should also implement it.
4. How do you manage your timelines for Projects and tasks?
In remote working, one has a lot of liberty as no one is present next to your workstation to ask you for working. A successful employee divides the project/assignments in small portions and set realistic target for completing each step. At the end of every day, every week, or every month (depends on project), one can evaluate the progress of project. In case of slow progression, enhance working time, give extra time, seek help from others. A simple PDCA (plan-do-check-act) cycle is the best tool to manage timelines.
Sample Answer:
The interviewer wants to know what you can do to complete a project successfully and whether you can complete your tasks in a timely manner while working from home.
You can response like that “I’m able to complete a project and I can easily manage any task and project timely. To do so, I divide my project in small portions and set day to day target. At the end of day, I evaluate my progress and increase my working time to finish the task.”
5. What are the effective remote communication methods?
Communication has a great importance in working remotely. You need to take information and to pass information, need to conduct meetings and share files and data to team. Before going to interview, you should have all information about communication tools. Commonly used tools are Slack, Zoom, google drive, Dropbox etc. Interviewer want to see that you really know about communication tools and their use. How would you contact to your team members while they are offline and you are unable to contact them on their mobiles? How do you share your files and data with other team members to complete the next phase of your project?
Sample Answer:
You should give a detailed and proper answer to hiring manager so he/she could have satisfied. It would be easy for people who have worked remotely before and faced this situation. They know how to make a collaboration with team and communicate with team fellows. But there will be many of you who have never done remote work before. You should have all the information about communication methods and tools that can be used when you are working as a distributed team.
You might say “I know it’s important to communicate to team members when we’re working on a project and scattered across time zones and communication is asynchronous, but how we communicate with them depends on the type of project. First of all, in my opinion, team meetings on a daily basis on video calls can be helpful in keeping team members in touch and keeping them focused on the project. There are many tools which use to share files and communicate with other members. Most commonly tools which use now a days to communicate are Slack, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Dropbox and Google Drive.” Before leaving for the interview, you need to know about these tools and their use.
6. How well do you handle change?
Change is the only permanent thing in this world but unnecessarily and unproductive changes are not appreciated. A positive change in behavior, culture and working style always appreciated. Employer wants to have a flexible employee in his organization. Some companies are fast-paced, and so it can beneficial for both employers and employees to build teams that can adopt change and stay flexible when faced with unique challenges. The hiring manager may wish to hear an example about any situation where you are flexible and have adapted to the change while handling the unexpected situation.
Sample Answer:
If interviewer ask you, “Describe a situation where you were flexible and adaptable?” On this question, you should share previous experience of adapting change in your work and life. Show an open mind to accept change for betterment of company and to keep yourself updated with modern world. You can also use the STAR method to answer in a better way. In simple words, you will tell an unpredictable situation which you faced, your task in that situation, the action you took and the results of your action.
For example, you can say “I adapt easily to any change in my life because of my previous role in a company where my manager was sometimes away because of his some busy schedule and total management was under my supervision as a senior person in our department. I had to arrange some unplanned meetings and handle incomplete tasks in order to finish them within given time because we didn’t have enough time to deal with client’s project. I also shared with one of my seniors for better advice before making a final decision.”
7. How to resolve conflict with a Remote Coworker?
Conflict normally occurs in office jobs as well as in remote working. Communicating the things face to face and to remotely using emails or other communication means are different. Receiving person may interpret the things in wrong manner or hastily. To avoid these issues, be very clear with your words and tone. Use polite and professional words in emails. One should be proactive to avoid conflicts and to address the issue if things gone wrong. Sometimes, It is also possible that you’ve been trying to one-up a friend with a worst co-worker in your field to show that you’re good enough at resolving conflicts professionally.
Sample Answer:
Interviewer wants to know that if candidate is aware of how caustic conflict can arise if it is not resolved in a remote environment. Sometimes worker get conflicts personal in hurry. Disputes can escalate if not resolved in a timely manner. But no need to spend all your energy to explaining the stories of various conflicts you faced and how did you resolve them. Your goal should be to focus on your skills to resolve conflicts professionally.
You might say “I was once working with my colleague who took two or three vacations a week. I was understanding the first couple of times, but once I realized it was a pattern, I was fed up with his behavior because I had to do his part of work. But I didn’t get angry and tried to understand his condition and invite him out for coffee then asked if I could help him. I used that as an opportunity to mention that I was a little worried about his scheduling issues. He admitted that he felt pulled in too many different ways and this is because of some serious family issues which would resolve soon within some days. After solving those problems for a few days, he will become regular and will do his part of work.”
8. How do you improve work life balance while working from home?
Separating work and life is very difficult when your office and home are located at the same place. There are some tips to improve your work life balance. Get up on time and be ready for work. Take proper shower and do exercise if you normally do. Make your workstation in such a way that can separate you from your normal life of home. Make a complete day schedule to make your day more productive. Do not sit idle on home office space in nights and on weekends. Do proper breaks of lunch and coffee. Also schedule post working activities that you enjoy like sports, gaming etc.
Sample Answer:
HR manager ask this question to judge a candidate if he/she is capable to keep him/herself engage to boost their mental and physical health. It is very easy to be at a loss when prioritizing your tasks, when you’re at home. So, identify the time in a day when you’re most productive is the best option. When you sort out your best hours for work, ensure you stick on it. But this all is very difficult to clearly tell the situation to your employer and let him believe in you that you’re capable to handle this phase.
You might answer it like this “If I ever stuck inside my house, I’ll make sure to rewind with some physical exercises and gardening to keep calm my mental health. I find gardening therapeutic and relaxing while exercise helps me to stay away from frustration and remain focused at my work. I also prioritize my tasks and take time out for my favorite activities to help me stay happy and positive when working remotely.”
9. How do you ensure that your project is on schedule to meet the deadline?
These types of problems normally occur in every job. We all know that deadlines are the source of relentless and worrying pressure. The clock is ticking, the pile of things is still there, and you are stepping hard with each passing minute. It seems like all your efforts would still fall short, and you are unlikely to meet the deadline and achieve your work goals. You must know how to meet a deadline, you can also get here the time management training. In such scenario, first inform your boss and your teammates and ask them for help because you are not going to compensate the delay. It would be better to propose a solution. If any of your team member is not able to work due to XYZ reason, approach the other member to get the work done. One of the most important qualities of a remote worker is taking responsibility and find solution of problem rather than just reporting it.
Sample Answer:
With this question, employer want to know the strategies and pro activeness of the candidate. It is recommended that you understand the importance of asking questions up front, make sure you have a clear understanding of the work, managing expectations around timelines, and ensuring work is going to be done before deadline.
You may also answer it like this “I know the importance of completion of project within timelines. Deadline matters to complete any task. Firstly, I would try to understand exactly what the task involves and evaluate what is required. Next, I’ll make sure that I have what I need to get the job done promptly. All of us knows that things don’t always go to plan, so I’ll keep in mind potential problems. Such as illness, equipment failure, or an unexpectedly urgent and important competing task which can affect your plans. I’ll divide project in various small tasks and create a detailed schedule. I’ll keep the manager informed of my progress on the job, highlight the issues that affect my progress and if I fail to deliver on time he will understand the situation and could be ready to help me.”
10. How do you handle multiple tasks and priorities?
In remote working, its very important to prioritize the tasks to finish. You will have a lot of stuff in your to-do list. Use the concept of important and urgent to your to-do list and make all your efforts and energies on urgent and important tasks. There are some simple steps to priorities your tasks and easy to handle it. First of all, make a to-do list for prioritizing your work then determine important versus urgent tasks. Sometimes you get so overwhelmed with your day-to-day work that you don’t even notice which task need immediate attention and it lead you to the entire project failure. Schedule your day according to the tasks which needed to be complete first without external interruption and list them in order of highest to lowest priority based. This will help you to manage your workflow and keeps you on track. You can also use the following numbering for prioritizing tasks
- High Impact Low Efforts (1st priority)
- High Impact High Efforts (2nd Priority)
- Low Impact Low Efforts (3rd Priority)
- Low Impact High Efforts (4th Priority)
Sample Answer:
If employer ask you, “Tell me about a time when you had too many things to do and you had to prioritize your tasks. How would you handle it?”
You can respond it like that “Before starting my work, I create a list of tasks which involve in completion of project in order to urgent (priority) and important (secondary). If any task is unclear, I acquire more information before evaluating it. I divide this list into my daily schedule work to meet the deadline. My daily task list helps me to manage a steady workflow but sometimes priorities can shift unexpectedly. That is the reason I keep limit the number of daily tasks and try to save some time for such out of the blue assignment. I review and re-prioritize tasks if a new assignment is added to my to-do list.”
Note: Further, you can also added above mentioned numbering for prioritizing tasks into your answer.
11. How will you solve the problem, when your manager and teammates are offline?
The bitter truth is that sometimes things go wrong, no matter how much you plan ahead and how accurately you organize your files and execute the plan. When things get messed up during remote work, you are less likely to get help from your teammates and manager because they are offline or not available due to some busy schedule. This is the time when you are stuck and there is no way out of it except to make important decisions on your own. For this you must have the knowledge and ability to analyze the situation and go for the best possible solution for urgent matters. Use all possible resources and powers to solve the problem and at the same time keep trying to connect with your team and manager to inform them and take guidance for further working.
Sample Answer:
With this question, hiring manager simply want to know your ability to taking decisions by your own. Do not hesitate to say that you will take decision by your own if deemed necessary.
You can answer it like that‚ “In this situation, I usually use all the possible resources within my power to solve the problem on my own but sometimes I hit a wall where it out of my reach. When that happens, I do as much as I can and make sure I’ve contacted all the team members through email, texts and phone calls. To avoid the situation where all the members are offline or unable to communicate, I would like to create a way to send instant messaging among my colleagues in case of emergency. When it comes to making decisions on my own, I return to my company’s guidelines to help find the best solution in such a critical situation.”
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