Working from home offers a number of benefits but also poses unique challenges. Particularly if you’re transitioning from the office to working from home for the first time. For some people it really doesn’t matter much where they work, and who they work with, as long as they enjoy the job they are doing. Of course there were extreme examples, but I hope you got the point. You should always try to learn something about the working environment in the company, and your answer should at least somehow correspond with the things they can offer you. At the height of lockdown, the Office for National Statistics reported that half of the working population were obliged to work from home.
- Inspiration fuels creativity and when that is blunted it’s hard to get work done.
- You could talk about how you taught yourself a new skill or when you leveraged your network to fill a gap.
- All our client communication happens by phone, Hangouts or Skype.
- If your candidate says they don’t like that they don’t have an office to go to and you’re 100% remote, then remote work might not be the best option for them.
- A lot of people today, including myself are enjoying the privilege of working from home.
- Just be sure to mention how quickly you’ve learned new tools in the past.
This is one of those work-from-home interview questions that you will probably get asked. If your favorite job included group outings and frequent team lunches, or your least favorite one was when you felt stuck behind a desk, an interviewer may not see you as a great fit for a remote role. If you’ve primarily worked in an work from home experience office during your career, the hiring manager may have a few questions about why you’re applying to a remote job. Fortunately, we’ve got you covered on some common interview questions for remote jobs and ways to answer them. Will you be a good team player or better with individual tasks that don’t require much direction?
Pros and cons for Working from Home Employees
I moved from San Francisco to Oakland a few years ago for more space. Now, I work primarily from my home office (second bedroom) and from a standing desk. When I become too much of a hermit, I’ll vary my environment by working from cafes and coworking spaces. I spent a lot of time over Christmas break re-designing my office this year. I added a new couch, photos from sailing trips, and some old reclaimed wood shelves. I also installed some recessed lighting to compliment the natural light from outside.
Maybe for you, the ability to start earlier and end earlier is essential, and while you’d like to bring your dog to work, it’s not a dealbreaker. Whether you worked from home regularly already or you’re https://remotemode.net/ one of the thousands of workers that could be working from home for the foreseeable future, we want to hear from you. Sky Ariella is a professional freelance writer, originally from New York.
How Do You Plan To Stay Motivated in a Remote Setting?
Let your interviewer know that you’re comfortable using virtual software like Zoom and Skype for video conferencing to resolve any conflicts with your coworkers. Make it apparent that you’re not the one to shy away from approaching the matter in a respectful and professional manner while humbly having a chat to tackle conflicts. Making the interviewer aware of your neutral, calm, and composed approach towards such challenges will be a great way to show that you’re a good team member to have. To answer this one, talk about any organizing or planning apps (Evernote, Trello, etc.) that you use.
We work from cafes, coffee shops, breweries, coworking spaces and even parks. I have a treadmill desk (which I love!) and an office with plenty of light. I use a MacBook Pro, external monitor, iPhone, iPad, lab notebook, whiteboard, and good office chair. I usually work somewhere with a view (even though I am not today, as you can see in the picture below), and when I’m on calls, I usually stand up. I have a designated office (which morphs into a “family room” in the evening) which is a bonus room over our garage.
Tell me about your favorite/least favorite job.
That’s why this question is a common one in work from home interviews. Whatever reason you give for taking up a remote job, it needs to have weightage and has to be valid. Refrain from anything that makes remote work sound like it’s easy, and you’re taking it up for the sake of running personal errands.
According to Jones, the key here is to have a detailed, thoughtful answer (complete with specific examples) prepared. That should be fairly easy for people who’ve worked remotely in the past, but if you haven’t, don’t sweat it. “Sometimes people get tripped up when they are asked a question about a situation they’ve never been in—and remote work is new to a lot of folks,” Jones says. “If this happens, communicate what you would do if you encountered XYZ situation in a remote role; sometimes the thought process is more valuable than the actual answer.” And they’ll likely be asking you questions aimed at teasing these traits out.