Remote workers travel the world, set their own hours, and rarely feel tied to a cubicle. It can be challenging to work from home without the buzz of an office environment and the energy of your colleagues to keep you going. Ask this question to uncover how your candidate maintains their focus and balance. Look out for answers that mention taking reenergizing walks and regular breaks—this can signal their ability to maintain work/life balance. In a remote team, you can’t just pop into your boss’s office to ask a question. People might be working from different countries, from completely different timezones.
Any time spent working remotely is a plus when interviewing for a fully-remote job. When I was working as a recruiter, I took a job interview for a remote position at a new company. Think of fun things you could do with your team over video conferences, like trivia contests, virtual happy hours, or simply taking a little time during meetings to chit chat about life. Explain to the interviewer how you would decide when to set up video conferencing versus when you’d shoot out an email or a message.
— Mention the Company’s Culture
Understanding how they switch out of work mode will help you better understand how they will do it when they are working for you. Whatever it is, try to find out what they do now to help them “turn off” when they make the switch to a fully remote employee. Not having a “home office” should not disqualify someone from the job. However, understanding how and where an applicant works best helps you understand them as a potential employee. When you work in an office, you can usually get the answer you need when you need it. Simply pop into a coworker’s or supervisor’s office and ask your question.
If it’s a design or marketing role, ask what struck them about the company’s website. If it’s a finance role, ask what struck them about the numbers you released last quarter. work from home experience Whatever it might be, embracing the company’s mission shows the hiring manager that you’re likely to grow with the company and create a career that you’ll love.
How will you coordinate and communicate with your coworkers to ensure the work gets done efficiently?
And it will also help you see if the candidate has thought about (and can deal with) the unique distractions remote workers encounter. New remote workers need a plan when their supervisor is 12 time zones away. Finding out how they will deal with the situation will give you insight into their problem-solving skills.
- When all your interactions with colleagues are virtual – either voice, video, or text – it’s easy to miss out on social cues like body language or tone of voice.
- Any time a job is fully-remote, you can expect the interviewer early in the conversation to ask your thoughts on working remotely.
- Working remotely requires employees to be trustworthy, organized, and competent, and employers typically grill candidates with tough questions.
- But when it comes to interviews for remote roles, it’s even more important, as people who work from home need to be especially proactive, organized, and communicative.
- Ask about how they plan their team goals and how they like to be informed about progress.