The interviewer asks this question to get an idea of how you spend your time during the work day or week. Before answering, take some time to consider past jobs and how tasks there relate to the new position. As with many interview questions, giving examples from an old job will earn a lot of points.
One no-no is obvious. Don’t mention non-work activities or time wasting activities. These include:
? Long lunches to work out at the gym
? Driving a child home from school during work time
? Chatting at the water cooler
? Taking care of personal business such as taxes or bills
Focus on work related tasks. It’s also a good idea to mention things that demonstrate organizational skills such as, “On Friday afternoon I make sure everything is ready to go for Monday . I clear up the voice mail, making sure I’ve answered all calls and messages. I check my appointments and make a list of top priorities for the new week.”
Typical Work Week:
“On Monday I begin by going over the list from the previous week, setting priorities. I review the progress of existing projects, then check the calendar to refresh my memory on the upcoming week. I like to meet with my staff early, mid and late week to discuss priorities, check progress, and then prepare for the following week. I want to make sure, as much as possible, that we can all dedicate to tasks that move projects forward, so I make habits out of organizational tasks for speed.”
There’s no reason to go into too much detail about off the job activities. You may want to tell the interviewer how organized you are at home, but keep it short.
Typical Work Day:
“I make sure to be ready and out the door so I can get to work at least 30 minutes before ‘start time.’ That way if there are delays such as traffic I’m still on time for any meetings or important tasks. I check voice mail and the calendar, then plan my sit down work time around other things like meetings. Sometimes it’s hard to balance between being friendly and keeping on task, but people understand that I don’t like to chit chat during the day – I like to work.”
The following answer, taken from a recent interview, can be filed under “disastrous.”
“I spend a lot of time looking for ways to get out of doing work.”