What if while sitting down for your interview, questions about teamwork are thrown at you? To you, an applicant it may seem unnecessary but to every employer, it is paramount. Know more about Teamwork Job Interview Questions
Employers are interested in your answers because it is a key (your answers) to determining your working style as it relates to being in a team. In every workplace, employers require the employees to work together as a team in the completion of tasks or planning of projects.
Teamwork job interview questions are used in determining how best an applicant can thrive in a team. Your answers to the questions should reflect your positive experiences on a team, and goals accomplished with a team. Good delivery of the required answers will determine if you’re fit for the position.
Why are Employees Interested in your Answer to Teamwork Job Interview Questions?
Employees are so much interested in teamwork-related questions because it gives them insight into your working style (alone or with a team). Questions about teamwork reveal an employee’s experience, challenges, and qualities exhibited which are all associated with teamwork.
While answering teamwork-related questions, employers are looking out for real-life scenarios where you failed and succeeded as a team. This helps the employer understand what kind of team environment you need to function effectively.
How to Answer Teamwork Interview Questions
To land a job, there is a specific means of answering the teamwork interview question. This is called the STAR interview reply strategy. STAR is an acronym that stands for:
S – Situation (story context)
T – Task (your role in the story)
A – Action (how you addressed your role)
R – Result (the outcome of)
Your inclusion of these: four parts into your replies gives your employers clearer responses with pertinent examples that are proof of your experience.
Illustrations of Teamwork Interview Questions and Answers
- How do you perceive working in a team environment?
Most times, this is the first question that an employee asks you. The question is asked to better understand your team environment preferences. Your response should paint a picture of how you feel about a team.
A typical response can be:
“I worked on a Local Organizing Committee for a non-profit organization. I worked with a team of people in ensuring the success of the event which I find interesting and exciting. Though there are moments, I want to retract and be on my own for a few hours but I still go all out for my team. I also learned and had the conclusion that I’m most productive when I work on a team. The result of our hard work was impressive as both individual and collective goals were achieved”
- Illustrate with an example a time you exhibited strong teamwork qualities and skills
Possessing strong teamwork skills ensures productivity. While answering this question, highlight and note all your unique skills and experiences. Never forget to tailor your answers to this question about the role you’re applying for and the example you must cite ought to showcase your most relevant skills.
A typical answer can be:
“I worked on a spelling bee team in college. I scheduled meetings where we all come together to brainstorm on how to achieve full online and offline advertisements. In the meetings, I also allocated tasks to various people to make the jobs easier and less task-full. I ensured that everyone duly and achieved their role such that on the spelling bee day, things went smoothly and we boasted of about 500 students registering”.
- Ever been in a team and had a failed project? Share your experience
Yes, employees want to see success from teams but they also want to see how you handle failure and how you overcome and push through? At this point, employers want team members who are willing to learn from their mistakes and produce better results. Ensure you share an experience where you didn’t achieve the intended result and lessons learned from it.
Example:
“I worked on an event planning team where we didn’t get to run the event as smoothly as we watched. There were lapses in communication and delegations which birthed; uncompleted tasks abandoned tasks and exceeded deadlines. I didn’t achieve my desired plans but I learned the power of communication and delegation in that project. I learned not to use the word ‘somebody should do this, and assign the duty to a particular person. Also, staying in touch with everyone and others staying in touch with the team”.
- Have you ever been in a position where you found it difficult to work with a team lead or a team member? How did you handle it?
This question is targeted at seeing how you perform not only as a team leader but as a team member. How well do you accept supervision? How well do you work with other team members?
A reply to this question can be:
“I have often worked with leaders and team members who I take time to adjust to their modus operandi. I wouldn’t call it difficult because most times, it is how they function. However, I try to find out how each person works and operates and then try to adjust. No matter how long it takes to connect”.
- As a team leader, how would you motivate your team?
In teamwork, what we have is ‘We’ with leadership. Your response to this question should highlight your leadership abilities.
You can use this as a reply:
“People want to know how much you care about them. I’ll take out time to call, leave notes, and even emails. I appreciate them for every little success encouraging them to pursue bigger ones. Little gestures will produce good results as it has done all over the years”
The questions never end. There are still tons of questions out there that are related to teamwork that you can be asked in an interview. The deal is to get yourself ready at all times. Some other questions include:
- What means would you use to communicate a problem to your team?
- In a team, if you had the feeling that a team member is not competent, what would you do?
- How did you go about a situation when you did not agree with your superior or thought that their decision over a matter was wrong?
Conclusion
Teamwork is important in every job and having people who possess team spirit encourage teamwork and makes tasks productive. While going for an interview, expect questions that will aim at your ability to function in a team or even lead the team.
The first rule in such an interview is to present yourself as a team player. While answering questions, use the STAR formula as guidance. Also, you may experience other interview questions that seek to explore how you deal with success and failure, your prioritization abilities, and your fears.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the format of answering questions in a teamwork interview?
Use the STAR format S – Situation
T – Task
A – Action
R – Result
- What are the major skills of a team player?
Teamwork requires the following skills:
- Communication
- Time management
- Problem – solving
- Collaboration
- Critical thinking
- Listening skills
