A typical interview question about teamwork is, “Give us some examples of your teamwork.”
What the Interviewer Wants to Know
An employer will ask this question to learn how you have worked with other personnel in the past. This will give the hiring manager an idea of how you might get along with colleagues at his or her company. Employers want to hire people who are team players, so respond in a way that will show the hiring manager that you’re able to work well with others.
How to Answer “Give Us Examples of Your Teamwork Skills”
Use the STAR interview technique. The question “Give us some examples of your teamwork” is a behavioral interview question. Employers are asking you to reflect on your past experiences in order to show how you might act at the new job. When answering a behavioral interview question, your best bet is to use the STAR interview response technique:
Situation. Provide a bit of context about the experience. You want to let the interviewer know a bit about the team. You can mention the number of people on the team, your specific role, and so on. While you do not need to go into a great deal of detail, providing a bit of background information is helpful. Task. Explain the team’s goals – in particular, what project you were working on. If there was a specific challenge that your group faced (and overcame), explain that problem. Action. Explain the steps taken (including your own) to meet the team’s goals. Perhaps you were all very good at delegating specific tasks and accomplishing them. Maybe you all had strong communication skills, and avoided conflict by expressing any concerns quickly. If you mention a problem the group faced, explain how the team solved the problem. This will demonstrate your effective problem solving within a collaborative work setting. Result. Conclude by explaining the results of the team’s actions. Emphasize what your team ultimately achieved. Did you meet or even surpass your goal? Did you complete the assignment ahead of time?
Don’t Focus Too Much on Yourself: While you might mention an action you took to solve a problem or help the group, don’t focus too much on your own achievements. Emphasize how the group worked together as a whole. You want to demonstrate your ability to work with others, and that includes sharing your success with the group. Express Confidence and Positivity: You want to convey that you do well working with others and that you enjoy it. Therefore, try to sound positive during your answer, especially when you discuss your successes. Similarly, avoid anything that might sound negative about your team – don’t place blame on others, or complain about another person’s failure.
Examples of the Best Answers
Review examples of the best ways to answer interview questions about your teamwork skills. Why It Works: This response clearly establishes the project, along with the positive outcomes (completing ahead of schedule and receiving positive feedback) and the reason the team worked together smoothly. Why It Works: This candidate establishes a common challenging aspect of teamwork, along with how team members were able to move past it. Why It Works: Often, people struggle to work with others in different departments. In this response, it’s clear that the candidate can work smoothly with people from other teams. Why It Works: This response has a clearly stated challenge, along with the steps taken to overcome it.
Examples of Answers for Student Job Seekers
Here are sample answers for student interviewees who don’t have a lot of formal work experience. Why It Works: As this candidate deftly demonstrates, experience playing team sports is a good stand-in for on-the-job collaborative work. Why It Works: Companies want to hire candidates who are interested not just in personal glory but working toward something bigger—this mention of the big picture is quite appealing to interviewers. Why It Works: In this response, the candidate is able to show off important leadership skills, as well as an understanding of the factors necessary for a smoothly-functioning team. Why It Works: This response walks through many of the advantages of teamwork in a personal and thoughtful manner.
Tips for Answering Questions About Teamwork
Prepare for this interview question by reflecting on times you have worked as part of a team in a work situation. Try to think of at least two examples from your recent work history (ideally, from the past couple of years). If possible, think of examples that relate to the type of teamwork you would be doing at the new job. For example, if you know the job requires a lot of team project work, mention some examples of successful team projects you have completed in the past.Turn to school projects, volunteer work, or extracurricular activities for examples if you are an entry-level employee. Keep it positive. Don’t include any experiences that ended in conflict, or experiences where the team failed to complete its goals.
What Not to Say
Negative results. Did the team fall apart in conflict or fail to deliver? These can be powerful learning opportunities, but during an interview, you’re better off focusing on something positive. Long, rambling responses. It can be hard not to get bogged down in the nitty-gritty details of a project. But in your response, try to give the background, and any results, in broad strokes. Avoid talking too long, using company-specific jargon, or getting lost in your storytelling.
Possible Follow-Up Questions
How do you feel about working in a team environment? Tell me about a rewarding experience on a team. Describe a time you worked with a team, and the project did not go as planned.
Just about every job will require teamwork and collaboration. Even roles that seem solitary (such as an artist) require a person to interact and collaborate successfully with others. Use the STAR technique. Avoid rambling and frame your answer effectively with this tactic.
