Learn about the key differences between remote-first and remotely-friendly companies. Hiring managers want to know that you’re time zone conscious and understand how to work asynchronously. As good as no commute and no open office is, remote work can also be distracting. Roommates watching Netflix, laundry to be done, kids wanting to play.

Describe the situation you were in, the goals you were working toward, the actions you took, and the result. Employers need to know that you can manage and remediate conflict with remote coworkers. Disagreements and misunderstandings are inevitable when working remotely, so knowing how to defuse a situation is an incredibly important skill for any remote worker. If you see people in person, there tends to be natural moments to resolve conflict, while those who work from home need to be more proactive.

Why are you job searching right now?

One of the challenges of working from home is drawing clear boundaries between work-life and home-life. Taking enough breaks, signing out at a reasonable hour, not letting work encroach on your downtime are all things remote workers need to master in order for work to be sustainable. Use these remote interview questions to help you dig into how your candidates will strike the right balance. If you’ve worked remotely in the past, it should be simple to answer.

You can read word-for-word sample answers to “How do you prioritize? A response like the sample answer above will satisfy the interviewer. No matter what level you’re at, you may also want to mention why you’re looking to work remotely now. When answering either question, focus on your professional story and keep your answer to 90 seconds or less. Time to get real; an employer wants to know if working remotely is even an option for you.

Why do you want to work remotely?

As with other remote interview questions, if you can point to an example from a past remote environment, that’s ideal. Preparing for a remote interview is, in many ways, no different than preparing for an in-person interview. Just like you would prepare answers to commonly asked interview questions, you can prepare answers for work-from-home interview questions too, and ace the interview. (Be sure to check out additional tips for interviewing success, such as the STAR Method). 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.

They shouldn’t leave the interview feeling like they have a long list of pressing questions they didn’t get to ask you. Not asking questions can cost you the job whether the interview is a phone call, video call, or in person. Employers interview a lot of people for each remote role, and they get plenty of applicants.

Remote Job Interview Questions to Prepare For

Team members and team leads need to be equally committed to solving the kinks of a distributed team. Find out how you can support your potential team work from home experience member, and how you could be a better remote teammate in general. It’s important to leave the candidate enough time to ask you additional questions.

• They don’t want to hire someone who will become unhappy when working from home isn’t what they expected.
• Leslie Stevens-Huffman is a business and careers writer based in Southern California.
• The same holds up with other companies and their preferred apps and platforms.
• There are topics employers ask about most when hiring a remote worker, and if you can’t give a good answer to these questions, it could cost you the job.

Candidates should be able to provide specific areas of the job that excites them. Those that seem genuinely excited and can go into detail about their interests are great hires for your organization. This directly addresses what they think they’ll have trouble with. Every new job has aspects that a candidate isn’t completely comfortable with. This helps you and them find points that will be challenging and come up with ways to fix it before it starts.