How Would You Describe Your Work Style? [With Answers for 2024]

What is your preferred work style? This is a very common question in any interview which evaluates whether you are a good fit for the job. So, a well-framed answer might increase your chances to get into the organisation without hassle. The question might seem to be a vague one, but this can make or break your interview. You might have a different approach to your work style which may not match with that of other employees, but you should always put an impression that you are a very good adapter and you can adapt to the different environment as and when required. Show your collaborative attitude and dedication towards work to help the company achieve its goals.

What is your workstyle?

Your response to this question will provide the hiring team with the basis for evaluating whether you are going to get this position or not. You can learn about their working environment at the same time, realise about what kind of environment you are most comfortable too. Here we will provide you with some of the workstyles that might suit you. Take a look:

1. What is your preferred work environment?

Answer. This is one of the most important questions that you might get asked while in the interview that whether you are comfortable working in a team or working solo. Managers will prefer individuals who can work as a team but independence is also a key factor in working. If you know that you can work well in cooperation with others, then share your collaborative skills and how you could perform better with such collaboration. It might be also possible that you prefer working alone, in that case, you should also specify the importance of collaboration and how much the feedback of colleagues matter.

2. Are you a follower or a leader?

Answer. You should also take into account the relationship with your manager related to work life. The hiring team will be interested in knowing whether you like to take orders from your manager or if you are interested in leading your team. Also, you might be more accustomed to little or no supervision unless you would want your progress report. Make sure that you make an effort to mention the benefits of working as a team and how important it is to take advice from your manager. This will make sure that you work according to the needs of the organisation towards achieving the target.

3. How effective and efficient are you?

Answer. You must be very fast with your work but the task might be left with a lot more glitches in it which might not be desirable. So, good work will always ensure that you get accurate results along with your fast pace. This will put the impression that you can cope up with the fast-paced world. Your answer should be framed in a way that contains all the necessary strategies about how you can meet such high productivity at work. You can also talk about how you schedule your day and the week, the total number of hours you need to work daily to get a certain job done and if you can work late at night to complete the task.

4. Honesty is the best policy

Answer. Try to be as honest as possible because there is nothing wrong with mentioning your work style. If you are comfortable enough to work in a quiet environment, then you should always mention that to the interviewer. You should also talk about how flexible you can be depending on certain situations.

5. Be precise yet comprehensive

Answer. Do not cite your entire life history or history of your job experiences which are already written in your application. Keep your answer concise and comprehensive and relevant to the job requirements only. Try to talk about your best qualities that have to lead you to this position and how you are the perfect fit for this position. For instance, if your job requirement call for better leadership roles, then mention how good you are at leading your teams.

Instances of What is your workstyle?

Instances will always support you to have a better understanding while framing your answers. So here we have some intsnaceswhich can help you through this interview. Take a look:

Instance 1:

You can start as: “I am quite adaptable to changes. If I am working as a sole employee, then I am quite a fast worker and complete jobs before the deadline. But this does not mean that I am not comfortable working in teams I enjoy it a lot. While I was working in my last organisation, I was given a huge impromptu presentation. In most cases, I can tackle all of it single-handedly, but in this case, it would have taken a lot of time to complete the task. There is one most important benefit about teamwork which is that we can delegate the work between deserving candidates who would be able to perform the allocated task well and the organisation was able to complete the presentation two days before time. However, when I am working alone, I always make it a point to get feedback from my supervisor on the progress. I also ensure that I take suggestions from my colleagues and manager. The continuous feedback from the staffs has to help me in becoming a more polished employee at work.”

Instance 2:

You can start as – “I am comfortable both ways – working independently or as a team, depends on the type of work. I get along with people quite easily and love to make friends. This is also applicable for my workplace and this helps me to get good collaborative behaviour with colleagues, with no respect to their position in the organisation. However, there are some kinds of work that require patience and focus and in that case, I like to work alone in my office. For instance, when I need to evaluate the company’s balance sheet and report it to the manager before the end of the next week, I prefer coming early and leaving late at night, so that I do not lag in working. In that way, I can have my full focus and patience on the accounts and complete the task with the maximum accuracy.”

Instance 3:

Go like this – “I like to be consistent at work throughout the year. In my previous company, I was known to be the most dedicated worker because I took leave for 5 days only throughout the year. If you are dependant, then you have to have excellent collaborative skills to get your work done on time. Hence, I always make it a point to help my team to achieve the target most efficiently. For instance, our previous organisation had recruited a very experienced engineer. She was quite an intelligent one and had exceptional innovative qualities but was not familiar with the Agile method of work. So, I took out a week to explain to her the entire method to improve collaboration techniques and boost productivity. This had a very good impact on his performance and the profitability increased by 26% within 4 months.”

Instance 4:

You can start like – “I have amazing organisational skills and for that, I can manage multiple tasks all at a time with utmost efficiency. I like to do all tasks independently, however at the same time, I am in great support of suggestions from my teammates because that might make the project more presentable. I like to get in touch with my manager if everything is going on the right track and take regular feedback on my progress report and also ask for suggestions to better my work. This type of open conversation helps me to complete my tasks and duties within time with maximum effectivity.”

Instance 5:

To be honest, when it comes to performing tasks, I am quite a dependant soul on others. However, I have rarely missed on any work that has been allotted to me and I am quite known for arriving early and leaving late from work only after completing all the tasks. This dependence on others has increased my collaboration skills. I am quite serious with the deadlines and ensure that me and my teammates have completed everything before time. Would like to specify this with an example, in my previous organisation, one of my teammates was facing a serious problem with her task and the deadline was next week. So, I decided to work late at night for that entire week to finish all of it. This way, not only we could complete the assignment but also submitted it two days before the deadline.