how do you meet deadlines interview question in this video i'll share the best example answer to
this question i'll also share what to avoid and break down the strongest parts of the answer so
that you can use something similar in your own interview i'm Amri Celeste an interview coach
and hr recruitment specialist with over 10 years hiring experience and i make videos to help you
get hired so if you're job hunting or interviewing do like and subscribe so first why do interviewers
ask this question this will be because the role you're interviewing for has important deadlines it
could be a deadline driven role such as a project manager or a role where you're regularly working
on projects you might have a tight production schedule or you could be working in sales where
you have regular revenue targets each week or month any role with deadlines and they want to
know your approach to meeting deadlines it could be that the line manager or the hiring manager
is a deadline driven person and they're assessing a few different skills here mainly organization so
what does organization mean to you what steps do you take to look ahead and prepare can you even
tell in advance whether something like a deadline even looks realistic and if it doesn't what do
you do about it another thing is communication so this can be involved in deadline related questions
because even though the question is about how you meet deadlines sometimes the answer can involve
asking for help outsourcing delegating moving a deadline or even missing a deadline and all of
these things require decent communication skills in order to maintain your working relationships
or at least to make sure that you don't damage working relationships in the process of working
towards a deadline this question falls into the competency and situation or interview
questions category because meeting deadlines is a competency that they would be assessing you for
and they will almost always expect you to include an example in your answer i have a couple of
useful videos explaining what competency based interviews are and how to pass them
same with situational interviews so i'll link those videos in the description below
it really helps to understand different types of interviews the more you know the more you
can navigate any interview and ultimately get an offer what to avoid there are four things
you must avoid when answering this question the first is not demonstrating any of the skills that
are associated with being able to meet deadlines some of the things i see in people's answers are
that they demonstrate their strong points but none of those strong points are associated with
the skills that the interviewer is probing for if they ask this question some people are naturally
not organized and this question may flummox them they may just think well it's a deadline you just
work towards it right um i've had this answer and actually not being organized is not a bad thing in
most cases it's linked to that person's style of thinking and it can mean in many situations that
their key skills lay in other areas however if the interviewer asks you this question then they are
looking for someone with that thinking style who is organized so you need to either demonstrate
your organization skills in a way that's relevant to the role by paying attention to why they need
someone organized in the role by understanding the key responsibilities and the duties on the job
description or if you're not naturally organized how you develop these skills over time they are
looking for somebody with these skills second thing is using overtime as a key skill to meet
deadlines with an answer like i work really hard i work late or weekends to make sure that i meet a
deadline sometimes working late can add something to your answer if you're talking about a specific
unusual circumstance where you had to do this but if you're using working overtime
to answer this question which is about how you meet deadlines in general it actually shows
a pattern of disorganization because in many cases if you go for a job let's say with a 40
hour a week work pattern that means that the task that they've given you in that job should be able
to be completed within the 40 hours that they've given you if that's not happening that could mean
either that you're overworked and your employer has completely misjudged how long it takes to
complete tasks in that role which does happen on a regular basis and it could mean that you
need a team or an assistant or it could mean that you work in a style that is not efficient and not
organized and you regularly overcompensate by having to work late evenings or weekends
to catch up working overtime used to be something that was generally heavily prized in the past and
in some cases it still is but when i'm coaching clients i highly encourage them to target jobs
that don't damage their physical and mental health in the long term and i would encourage
you to do the same a major red flag is a company that prizes you working yourself to the bone so
if you have to include this in your answer think about whether or not it's the job for you
so yeah overworking is another thing to avoid in your answer leave a comment and let me know
if you've ever experienced this so if you've ever been in an interview and they expected over time
what did you say how did you handle that situation third thing to avoid is going into your interview
unprepared to answer this question how you prepare can be a make or break difference
and i say this all the time but it's the most common reason that candidates get declined
so if deadlines is a requirement in the role you need to think about your style and approach to
this before you go to the interview and you can watch this video to get an idea of how
you should be preparing for your interview the last thing to avoid is not including an example
in your answer an example is much much more powerful and effective than simply saying that
you meet deadlines very well you're very organized with great communication to boot an example allows
the interviewer to visualize you in a situation where you're already demonstrating that skill
and it allows them to be the judge which is the format of the interview the interviewer
is assessing your answers so do include an example how to answer the key to answering the how do you
meet deadlines interview question is about what you do when you first become aware of the deadline
it's about how you plan and the questions you ask an example answer is when i'm given a deadline i
tend to set expectations as early as possible so that people involved know what to expect i also
keep anyone involved updated as i'm working so that if for any reason things move off track they
are aware of the changing deadline this tends to minimize any negative impact or disruption
that may be caused for example as a team assistant i was tasked with updating employee files
although this sounded like a simple admin task the steps involved in order to update one single file
involved collecting documents and sending out forms and there were at least 200 files
i could see from the plan we discussed that i would not meet the deadline i was given
i sat down with the manager that had allocated me the deadline i clearly outlined the steps i
would need to take when undertaking this task and the estimated time i expected each one to take
when i did this the manager actually drew the conclusion that we should push the timeline back
by an additional month with this extra time i was actually able to complete the task one week early
therefore making sure i met the deadline although i'm naturally quite organized which
is one of the things that drew me to this role when i looked at the job description
in my general day-to-day approach i also use tools to keep myself organized such as setting calendar
reminders and notifications i also use templates to speed up the writing and sending of emails
and even online schedulers if i'm arranging a high volume of meetings for the team why is this a good
answer and how can i use it so let's look at how you can use this template to create and form your
own answer in this first section of the answer this person shows their natural organization
skills simply because they have a plan they have an approach they're not blindsided by the question
they're saying whenever they're given a deadline the wheels in their brain start turning and they
actually think about the steps taken to do this task and what's very clever here is the person
doesn't directly ask the manager to extend the deadline asking to extend a deadline is absolutely
fine and highly recommend it if you need it so do include that in your own answer if you ever
needed to do this but in this answer this person shows their communication skills by breaking down
the tasks that would take the longest in order to get the task done by the deadline and they
let the manager who gave them the deadline reach the conclusion on their own in your own answer
communicating up front so this person can see the work that goes into you meeting the deadline is a
very effective aspect to include in your answer especially if the deadline is very demanding
if you've got value from that answer do leave a comment below and let me know which part you found
most useful do also click like on this video if you're enjoying it it does help this video gets
shown to more people who are looking for answers on meeting deadlines now anytime you're answering
an interview question where you're demonstrating that you needed something from someone or you had
to persuade or convince someone any method you used where you allow them to draw the
conclusion themselves without you straight out telling them what you want is a very powerful
communication skill because this person feels that they have come up with the idea themselves to help
you even though it's something that you already wanted it's essentially the power to convince and
persuade indirectly in this answer this person has also done something that would make them an
asset to any team you may have heard this phrase before they underpromised and over delivered
this is so much better than going crazy trying to meet an unrealistic deadline
and then not meeting it when people are expecting you to let's say you order a pizza and your heart
sinks when you see it's 40 minutes away and you're really hungry then they deliver it in 20 minutes
it's much nicer than when they say it's 30 minutes away and in an hour you're still wondering where
it is so under promise over deliver is a powerful approach to include in your answer when you're
answering this question do include any scenario where you agreed a deadline knowing that the high
likelihood was that you would meet this deadline earlier than expected especially if a colleague
client customer or manager was positively impacted by this so the early meeting of the deadline
allowed them to do something or gain something as a result of that that's the type of thing you
want to include in your answer so this could be something like a bonus that was gained as a result
of you hitting a deadline maybe you freed up time for someone to do an important task or maybe you
allowed someone to spend a little more time on an important critical project in this last part of
the answer this person has added an additional explanation outlining their own organization
style and this is really helpful to do in your own answer if the skills you want to show or
skills that are required are not demonstrated in your answer so sometimes the example is strong
but let's say the job was looking for somebody who is comfortable using tools to organize themselves
you need to clearly outline what tools you use now you might notice i added the phrase i'm naturally
quite organized in here and just be wary of using this phrase use it only if you're then going
to go on to explain how you're organized if you struggle with interview answers i highly recommend
my top 20 interview answers guide this guide is packed with tough interview questions and answers
for your job interview it includes answers to difficult questions like what would you do if we
didn't give you the job and what is your biggest achievement it also includes a bonus question and
what you should be asking your interviewers at the end of your interview so it's totally free you can
get yours by clicking the link in the description below this video now if you're very sharp you may
have noticed the words situation task action result on this slide here during the answer
this is because i was using the star method to answer this question the star method is a very
powerful tool to use to answer interview questions it helps to make your answer effective and
concise it's also known as the star technique this is something the interviewers will often
expect you to cover especially with these types of interview questions so if you're job hunting
or interviewing it's very useful to know how to use it you can watch this video that gives a more
detailed explanation of what the star method is and it includes an example answer to show you how
to use it so i'll also link that video in the description box below this video thank you for
watching like if you've got value subscribe if you want more and tap the notification bell so that
you'll know when the next video is ready for you thanks again and i'll see you in the next video
you