18 Remote Job Interview Questions You NEED to Answer

I don’t recommend sharing a challenge from your personal life unless you have an exceptionally good story that you can relate back to the job you’re discussing. And of course, if one of your main goals is working remotely and joining a distributed team, then, you can say that, too. In general, employers in any interview will want to know why you’re looking for a new job. There’s no “right” or “wrong” answer here, but the goal is to answer clearly and to show confidence in explaining how you’re conducting your job search. And if you’ve done any remote work, whether full-time or just a few days per week/month out of the office, then mention it. But, without the ability to see your clients in person and shake those hands, it can be easy for those relationships to slip away — something your employers are sure to worry about.

• Additionally, working remotely requires a different set of skills and mindset than working in the traditional office environment.
• You need to know they’ll keep plugging away (on the right things) without constant check-ins from you.
• Don’t try to pretend that your kids will leave you alone for eight hours each day; most employers are logical enough to be very open-minded about kids and work right now.

Or explain how you keep on top of everything with a to-do list app, or how you keep your social media smooth as butter with IF and ThinkUp. Just like your systems for scheduling, the way you keep track of files and other information is really important. So, you can just drop virtual files on your coworker’s virtual desk if you need to share info with them. But the files need to be named and organized clearly so you’re not spreading “digital clutter” or losing track of data. With this question, companies are both looking to see what equipment they might need to provide you with and checking on how aware you are about what working remotely might mean for you physically and logistically.

Why are you job searching right now?

Even though you’re being asked why you want to work remotely, you can still branch out to mention other aspects that don’t directly deal with working from home. Asking for an example will give you insight into how the candidate operates. These answers will help you determine whether or not they are truly flexible and can mesh well with your existing team. Distractions are a fact of life for any worker, but the types of distractions you face in an office are different when you work remotely. There could be a noisy roommate, living on a busy street, or a pile of laundry in the next room. People that haven’t worked remotely before haven’t experienced the unique challenges of remote work.

• Ask how applicants plan to manage their days, take appropriate breaks, and stop working when it’s quitting time.
• If they haven’t had experiences before this, you can see where their pain points are and help them find solutions.
• Conversely, if the candidate says there were no challenges, it’s a safe bet to think they aren’t being honest or don’t have enough remote work experience to face the challenges that come with remote work.
• Time to get real; an employer wants to know if working remotely is even an option for you.
• People might be working from different countries, from completely different timezones.

When you get this question, it’s easy to jump into all the reasons remote work is going to make YOUR life better. And you should definitely tell the boss what special life circumstances are keeping you out of the office. But you’ll really wow the hiring manager if you can tell not JUST why remote work is going to improve your life, but why you do your best work remotely.

How will you coordinate and communicate with your coworkers to ensure the work gets done efficiently?

Communicating well may be the most important skill a candidate can have in a work setting. While that’s definitely true for an in-office setting, remote teams lack the ease of in-person collaboration. Strong communication skills and practices are more essential than ever. There’s a good chance you’ll be asked something along the lines of “What can you contribute to this company?” in your next remote job interview. It’s one of the most common job interview questions because it helps the hiring managers assess whether or not you’d be a good fit for the company’s specific needs.

This is another situation where you’ll want to leverage the STAR method. Use your answer to demonstrate how you’ve navigated roadblocks in the past and show your resourcefulness. You could talk about how you taught yourself work from home experience a new skill or when you leveraged your network to fill a gap. When you’re working in a distributed team, you’re going to run into situations where you don’t know how to do something you’ve been tasked to do.

Tell Me About a Time When You Weren’t Sure How To Do Something. How Did You Go About Seeking Out Information?

They’ll have to provide specific reasons as to why they believe they’d do well as a remote worker. Their answers will let you tell if they’ve already thought about how they’d be successful, without relating their answers specifically to the subject of the question. Without team members around you, working when you’re remote can be a challenge. Especially when you work at home, it can be difficult to separate that area from leisure and instead focus on working. This motivation can come from a list of some great motivational quotes or creating a productive home office.

Obviously, when you work from home, you’re not around as many people in contrast to working in an office setting. Communication is essential for all teams, but it plays a vital role when workers are based in different locations. Promising candidates are aware of the various ways colleagues can get in touch with one another and aren’t afraid to learn new methods if it means better results.