‘How do you organize your day?’
Why are recruiters asking this?
Time management is important for everyone. In an interview, it’s the time for the company to get to know if you can meet the demands of the job. Your ability to prioritize your work is important for most jobs, and interviewers want to ensure that you can get the tasks done in the right order.
When you answer, using the STAR method, it’s important to pick a story where you can demonstrate your communication skills, understand the big picture, and be efficient. You might also describe a time when your approach helped you in an unexpected or challenging situation.
Checklist for a great answer
- Select a compelling story, where you can showcase your skills
- Describe in detail the methods you use (to-do list? technology?)
- STAR method
Examples
I am a generally very organized person. My daily to-do list helps keep me focused on one task at a time, but also allows me to visualize my daily priorities. This is especially useful when unexpected issues arise and I need to re-evaluate what is the most important task to accomplish. THroughout my experience I have found that leaving a little bit of “wiggle room” throughout that day allows me to pivot my priorities when necessary.
One example of this occurred about one month ago. I had a full day scheduled with follow up calls to our current clients. Around 11am as I was in the thick of my tasks, my manager came to me with urgency. She needed help preparing a presentation for a huge potential client later that day. I realized I could move my follow up calls to the following day, as the presentation was extremely important and time sensitive.
Because I understood my tasks for the day, I put myself in a position where I was able to decipher what was most important. I was able shift my priorities to help my manager accomplish a more pressing matter without sacrificing other time sensitive tasks. In the end I felt very proud, especially because my manager was able to secure the big client!
Other similar questions
- Tell me about a time you had to be very strategic in order to meet all your top priorities.
- Tell me about a time you set a goal for yourself. How did you go about ensuring that you would meet your objective?
- How do you manage your time?
- How do you keep yourself organized?
How do I get better at these questions?
PRACTICE! PRACTICE! PRACTICE!
The illustrious economist and statistician EF Schumacher once said: “An ounce of practice is generally worth more than a ton of theory.” We at Mockmate strongly believe in exactly this, which is why we created our AI-powered job interview simulator. Now is the time to stop reading blog posts and watching YouTube videos, and begin to perfect your interview skills by actually doing it! Get started here!
