How do you prioritize your work?
This question doesn’t always come up in a job interview,
but when it does, it is really important that you have a strong answer.
Because being able to manage your time and prioritize
your work is an essential skill regardless of what job you have.
When an interviewer asks you this question, you need to be able to demonstrate these abilities.
If you can’t, don’t expect the potential employer to consider you as a strong candidate
for their position.
So today I’ll share with you how you give a strong answer to the question:
"How do you prioritize your work”.
First of all.
Let’s talk about what it means to be strong in prioritizing your work.
It means that you have a thorough process for organizing your work tasks.
All of them.
It could be that you’re using a fancy technical system to track this, but it doesn’t have
to be.
A to-do list in excel, in a journal or on paper works just fine.
It doesn’t matter what you use to keep track of your work tasks.
What matters is that you are keeping track of it somehow.
And that the method is effective for you.
Being strong in prioritizing your work also means having a methodology for determining
what tasks are urgent and what tasks are important.
These are not the same thing.
Almost all of the activities at work are important, but not all of them are time sensitive,
and you need to be able to demonstrate that you can make this distinction for every work task.
You also need to have a way of avoiding distractions and having flexibility in your schedule.
So that you’re able to still produce high quality work, even under time pressure.
Like in a situation where your manager tells you:
"This has to be done today!"
And you then need to be able to deliver
on time and with quality, despite having a full schedule already.
So, when you are asked this question in a job interview, these are the things the interviewer
is looking to understand.
Do have a method for keeping track of your work tasks?
How do you determine what’s urgent and what’s important?
How do you ensure the works get done on time and with quality?
And what is your approach for handling unscheduled tasks?
With all this in mind,
here’s an example what a strong answer can sound like when you are asked:
"How do you prioritize your work?"
I have a very strict action list that I follow for planning my work.
This list consists of both routine activities, project tasks and one-off tasks.
I schedule ‘production time’ in my calendar and to the extent it is possible, I keep these
time slots.
Of course, there may be meetings that come up which I need to attend at a timeslot which
was originally scheduled as ‘production time’, but because I have it blocked off
in my calendar, it doesn’t happen too often.
When I’m asked to work on an activity, I always make sure to have a clear understanding
of the deadline.
I then put my own deadline to be at least a day earlier and longer if I can.
Because I do this with all the activities I have on my plate, I have a time buffer in
case anything unexpected comes up that needs to be done right now.
I’ve prioritized my day, so I handle the ‘must-get-done-today’ tasks as early in
the day as possible.
So, for example if I have a delivery deadline that day, I make sure this task is done first.
And that's how I prioritize my work, and I have done so for years.
This is a strong answer because you explain how you prioritize in a clear and concise
way and it talks about all the elements the interviewer wants to get a better understanding
on.
And there you have it.
Now you know how to give a strong answer to the question:
"How do you prioritize your work?"
in your next job interview.
My name is Petra Pearce, and I'm a Career Strategist, a Coach and
the founder of the www.thecareerupgrade.com.
I help professionals like you to land the job you want,
build a career you deserve,
and make the money you're worth.
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I hope you found this video useful.
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And, let me know in the comments what method you have in place for prioritizing your work?
Thank you so much for watching, and I’ll see you in the next video.