Describe Your Average Work Week – When you lead the interviewer through a normal workday, you are allowing them to see themselves in your shoes.
The interviewer will be able to tell if your actions fit the seniority level of this position based on your response. If they contact you for a junior post and you tell them you presently manage a team of 20, they will likely assume that you are overqualified for the position.
If you have a job description, try to match the list of role duties with the day-to-day activities in your present or most recent workplace.
Read Also:
Maintain as much succinctness as possible in your response. It’s easy to start rambling when asked open-ended questions like this one.
Article Road Map
Why Interviewers Ask The Question “Describe Your Average Work Week”
When an interviewer asks you to walk them through a normal workday, your response might reveal a variety of information.
An interviewer is first and foremost interested in what duties you presently have (or had at your most recent employment) and how you handle that work.
When an interviewer asks you to walk them through a normal workday, your response might reveal a variety of information. An interviewer is first and foremost interested in what duties you presently have (or had at your most recent employment) and how you handle that work.
Finally, one of the goals of any interview is for both parties to get to know each other better—and your interviewer may be paying attention to how you build your response in order to figure out what aspects of your day are most important to you.
What Not To Say When You Answer The Interview Question – Describe Your Average Work Week
During interviews, everyone is a diligent worker, detail-oriented, and team player. It’s acceptable to claim these characteristics for yourself, but because these terms and phrases are so commonly used, back them up with examples if you use them.
Being dishonest or failing to respond to the questions. While you don’t want to be overly particular and appear inflexible, you also don’t want to be so unclear that the interviewer doesn’t get a feel of you as an employee.
When it comes to our job, we all have preferences. This is your chance to express yourself. If you genuinely detest early meetings or have any other peculiarity, you should express it in your response.
Do not Give Overly Specific, Rigid Responses. Unless you can pinpoint both the company’s and the interviewer’s desired work style, it’s better not to be too specific. If you declare, “I work best alone,” and the boss wants a team player, you’ve already eliminated yourself.
Tips to Prepare Your Answer – Describe Your Average Work Week
Use these pointers to help you plan and develop your response to queries like “What does a normal workday look like?” and related ones.
« Go through the Job Description
When preparing for an interview, you should frequently refer back to the job description. Because a job ad may be beneficial as a guide anytime you’re unsure what a certain interviewer is looking for in answer to a specific interview question.
The question “Describe a typical workday” is no exception.
Begin by carefully reading the job description and noting any of the job tasks, experiences, and abilities stated, whether it’s as broad as working with a team or as narrow as utilizing Salesforce to track contacts with a possible client. These are the qualities your interviewer will most likely be looking for in your response.
You should also try to determine which credentials are most crucial to the job—what duties are essential to the position you’re applying for? What requirements or responsibilities are stated first? Is there anything that is mentioned more than once?
« Make a list of your responsibilities in your current or most recent job.
Understanding what your interviewer is looking for is only half the battle when it comes to answering this question. The other half is a regular weekday for you. So consider all of the duties for which you are frequently accountable at your present or most recent employment. It can be useful to jot them down so you have a list to refer to as you go.
« Locate the Overlap
Even if you’re explaining your present work in your answer to this question, make sure you’re doing so through the lens of the job description. Your response should center on duties you perform that are relevant to the position for which you are being evaluated.
Examine the qualities you highlighted in the job offering and compare them to your existing worklist to see if there is overlap. Are there any duties listed that you already fulfill? Is it possible to demonstrate that you have a needed skill by executing any of your work duties? You should also list any tasks that are equivalent or transferrable to the job credentials.
For example, if the job description states that you will be uploading content to WordPress, you should include your experience uploading content to a different content management system (CMS), and if the posting mentions interacting with donors, you should include your experience interacting with customers.
Also, make a note of anything that isn’t expressly included in the job description but may be useful. Do you “do anything outside of your area or job description that has a larger impact?” Do you, for example, create or take part in an employee resource group?
Are you a member of the social committee that organizes events? These activities may speak to abilities that will aid you in this position or demonstrate to the interviewer how you will contribute to their workplace as a whole.
The list you end up with contains all of the various responses you might provide to this question in order to demonstrate to the interviewer how good a candidate you are for the position.
Highlight or underline everything on this list that corresponds to the most significant qualifications you selected previously.
You will not include everything on this list in your response (and you may add items that are not on this list), but this list will be the foundation of your response.
« Continue in Chronological Order
When composing your response to “Describe a normal weekday,” bear in mind the framework that the question provides.
Though the emphasis will be on your work responsibilities, you are not simply putting them in random order without explanation.
You’re describing a typical day to your interviewer, stressing the portions that are most relevant to the position you’re interviewing for.
To begin with what you do first thing in the morning and work your way through your day.
« Keep your reaction to a minimum.
Maintain a high degree of concentration and answer succinctly. Don’t get into the specifics of each assignment. Instead, provide the interviewer with a high-level summary.
They don’t need to know how much time you spend answering emails, but if maintaining in touch with coworkers or clients via email is essential to the position, you should still mention it.
Allow the interviewer to prompt you for further information. If they want additional information about a certain work task, they will inquire!
« Don’t Forget to Include the “Why”
Your response should contain the logic behind your most essential duties, whether that is why you perform a task at all or why you do it at all.
Returning to the email example, “it may be beneficial for them to hear that you arrange your day to focus on emails in the middle and end of the day since you know you’re at your peak brainpower in the morning, so you spend that time to higher priority activities.”
Or perhaps you spend time on LinkedIn every day because you understand how important it is to keep on top of the newest trends in order to be productive in your marketing sector.
« Be Strategic While Being Honest
Even while it is vital to focus on duties that demonstrate your qualifications for the position, don’t feel obligated to skip over anything that isn’t specified in the job description.
You should always be truthful—plus, if there is minimal overlap to discuss, it will be obvious to the interviewer that you are leaving stuff out. Even if everything you say isn’t directly related, interviewers want to get a feel of who you are, how you present yourself, and what you’re capable of.
For example, if you “wear several hats throughout the day” or “spend big amounts of time on concentrated work,” that might be useful information for the interviewer in determining whether you’ll flourish in this job and blend well with the firm or team you’ll be joining.
If your present employment varies frequently and there are many schedules that might be called your “normal” day, you can choose which sort of day to describe.
For example, if you work in accounting and are responsible for various areas of a company’s finances, but are interviewing for a payroll-specific position, you may explain a typical day leading up to payday when your focus is more on the sort of work you’d be doing in this next capacity.
It could be good to emphasize at the start of your response that there is no such thing as a normal day, and you’ll provide an example of a day when you’re working on payroll, preparing for a major meeting, or closing sales for the quarter.
« Make space for follow-ups.
Finally, keep in mind that job interviews are ideally a discussion, so attempt to conclude your response with an opportunity to continue that dialogue rather than simply moving on to the next topic, advises Davis.
Wrapping up a question like this one, when you’re giving a high-level summary, with something like, “Is there anything you’d want to hear more about?”
might help soothe your worries about talking too little while also preventing you from delving into too much information upfront.
Describe Your Average Work Week Sample Answer
Describe Your Average Work Week? You must explain a typical work week in this question. It’s a simple question to answer.
Make sure your response demonstrates that you are organized in your daily routine, that you deal with your duties, and that you will be able to adapt that to the job role you are applying for.
If you have previous experience in a comparable job, this should be a breeze. Here are some possible approaches to the question.
Sample Answer 1
“My average workday consists of overseeing a staff of three junior accountants. I supervise their work and go through the incoming financials.
The majority of the day is devoted to data analysis, mentoring, and reporting. I also spend some time on the phone with clients who have queries about their monthly charges.
I reviewed the list of responsibilities in your job offering and can safely state that I complete the majority of these activities weekly, and some on a daily basis.”
Sample Answer 2
P”My typical workday consists of answering around 150 calls each day, sending 200 emails, and meeting over 300 individuals that visit our office in person.
We are quite busy, but we are also very efficient. When I’m not dealing with customers, I’m confirming appointments for the executive team and planning their travel and schedules for the next week.
These tasks, I feel, are extremely well suited to the requirements of your position.”
Sample Answer 3
“My typical work-day consists of answering around 150 calls each day, sending 200 emails, and meeting over 300 individuals that visit our office in person.
We are quite busy, but we are also very efficient. When I’m not dealing with customers, I’m confirming appointments for the executive team and planning their travel and schedules for the next week.
These tasks, I feel, are extremely well suited to the requirements of your position.”
Sample Answer 4
“My days are rarely the same; nevertheless, my major daily tasks involve training new warehouse workers and working directly with the contingent labor.
I am really concerned about workplace safety, whether it is through training, certification, or auditing.
Every day, I have at least three hours of paperwork to complete, as well as phone conversations with our clients and vendors.
Your job description seems extremely similar to mine, except with larger distribution accounts and a larger staff. I am certain that I would do admirably in this role.”
Sample Answer 5
“I deal with a lot of small to medium-sized customers, and as the project manager, I spend a lot of time with them.
On a weekly basis, I have many meetings to keep our clients up to speed on the development of their projects. I also cross-collaborate with a range of departments to maintain consistent communication across.
Except for the fact that your business has a larger customer base, I am well-versed in the requirements of this new job.”
Sample Answer 6
“The majority of my workweek is spent on customer support tasks. I welcome, help, and ring up about 80 clients every day.
I will provide reimbursements as needed and get fresh products and inventory every Tuesday. Cleaning is another something I do on a regular basis.
After reviewing your job description, I am certain that I would outperform your expectations in all areas of responsibility.”
Sample Answer 7
“I spend a large portion of my day cold calling from the lead sheet I receive every morning. It may appear monotonous, but I like the fact that I meet different individuals every day.
I learn about their firm, industry, and executives, so I do a lot of research as well. Once I’ve scheduled an appointment, I forward the warm lead to one of our account managers to demo and close.
That’s an average day! Could you take me through a normal day in this position?”
Sample Answer 8
“My day is spent primarily in the classroom. When I’m not teaching, I’m marking papers, putting out fires among students, offering extra tutoring time to challenging students, and volunteering my lunch hour to oversee or conduct intramurals.
I like what I do and am forward to learning more about the environment at your school.”
Sample Answer 9
“My days are seldom the same; nevertheless, my major daily tasks include workflow planning, research analysis, and comparing our rivals;
I also conduct several weekly meetings with our team regarding crucial stages in our sourcing, product launch, marketing strategies, and CRM.”
Sample Answer 10
“A typical day at work for me is making several phone calls to current and prospective landlords to negotiate business points on lease extensions and conveying those business points to internal and external lawyers for writing.
Writing business support papers and creating financial models describing new and renewal lease conditions, presenting deal terms to senior management to get internal approvals, meeting with the
market’s general manager to discuss individual deal strategies and long-term growth plan, Coaching younger team members and new recruits on negotiation techniques, as well as editing and revising their work as appropriate.”
Conclusion
The more you understand about the company’s work environment and culture, the more you’ll be able to customize your response to demonstrate that you’d easily fit in.
It’s acceptable to express any conditions that must be satisfied in order for you to work efficiently. For example, if you have a habit of asking a lot of questions at the beginning of a project, you might want to highlight that.
Examples are always more meaningful than a long string of adjectives (such as “hard worker”) that hiring managers hear in interviews all the time.