Interview questions are stressful because there’s no one right answer. Hiring managers and recruiters assess several things every time you answer, like your communication, technical, and time management skills.
Among the many techniques interviewers use to vet candidates, collaboration interview questions measure your potential to work well with others. Collaboration is essential in nearly every workplace and industry, so your answers to these questions matter. Luckily, you can practice powerful and professional responses to feel well-prepared and nerve-free.
What are collaboration interview questions for?
According to a survey by Deloitte, when employees collaborate, 73% do better work, 60% are more innovative, and 56% are more satisfied. Because collaboration yields such favorable results on employee performance and well-being, employers who foster collaborative environments and seek candidates with teamwork skills have a higher chance of improving their organization’s success.
To test a candidate’s teamwork skills, recruiters use collaboration behavioral interview questions to ask for specific examples from past experiences. These questions often follow a “Tell me about a time” structure to persuade candidates to dig into their work experience and provide comprehensive, informative answers.
Collaboration interview questions also inform hiring managers whether you’ll fit in with their workplace. Maybe their team works in a fast-paced environment and they want to determine whether you can help others overcome challenges, meet tight deadlines, and prioritize tasks under pressure.
An answer emphasizing your preference to sit back and talk through options might not be right for a team that needs you to quickly commit to a decision and continue working.
How to answer 7 common collaboration interview questions
Because employers place such value on teamwork skills, how you answer interview questions about collaboration could make or break your chance of obtaining the role. By providing well-prepared and specific answers, you can successfully demonstrate how you handle team dynamics and why you’re the right fit.
Prepare your answers to these seven collaboration interview questions and feel confident about your next interview.
1. “Do you enjoy cross-departmental work?”
Your interviewer wants to know whether you work well not only with your teammates but also with subject matter experts in other departments. Your answer also hints at how you deal with change and handle diverse opinions and perspectives.
Use specific examples to implore that you enjoy and are good at cross-functional teamwork. Maybe you’ve worked as a marketing professional dealing directly with the sales team, or perhaps you’re a designer who often works with UX and web development professionals. Whatever it is, share detailed scenarios of times you worked well with other teams.
2. “Tell me about the typical role you play during team project work.”
The interviewer wants to know what role you tend to play on the team, like leadership versus support. This helps them determine if your working style suits the specific position they’re recruiting for and if you’ll fit in with their current team’s personalities.
Inform the recruiter of your position within a team while driving a project to completion. The hiring manager aims to weed out those who sink to the sidelines and can’t work cooperatively, so use an example demonstrating your leadership skills and ability to accept guidance and feedback.
3. “Tell me about a time you wouldn’t have completed a project without teamwork, and how you collaborated with your teammates.”
This question tests your view of teamwork, like if you see working as a team as helpful or detrimental to completing projects. You might share several examples of working as a team, but that doesn’t mean your overall philosophy on teamwork is positive, so the interviewer wants to try and weed out your true feelings on collaborative work.
A great way to convince the listener you believe in teamwork’s import is to answer that there are too many projects to count. Then, share your best example, something that highlights not your own effect on completing a project but someone else’s.
Perhaps you worked on a project that required a lofty number of individuals to complete, like a film, or maybe a leadership professional mentored you so you could complete a task yourself.
4. “Give me an example of a time you disagreed with a coworker and how you resolved your disagreement.”
Recruiters ask this question to discover how you view workplace conflicts and your role in supporting their resolution. They want candidates that handle disputes professionally and see disagreements as an opportunity to come together and find mutually agreeable solutions.
Although your past workplace conflicts may have caused frustration, stay calm and professional, focusing on how you can handle any situation that comes your way. Keep your answer as positive as possible, limiting any complaints and highlighting takeaways.
Use your answer as an opportunity to showcase your effective communication skills and avoid any conflicts involving serious personal topics to maintain your professionalism.
5. “Do you prefer to work independently or on a team?”
The interviewer doesn’t want to know whether you prefer one way of working over the other. Rather, they’re hoping you excel in both environments. Employers want a flexible employee willing to pivot quickly and take on different project types and workplace environments.
Use your answer to showcase your adaptability — an essential skill for those taking on diverse project work. Include an example of where independent work made sense and you enjoyed it, and one where teamwork was the best approach and that style paid off.
6. “Describe a time you had to work with a new team.”
Cross-functional collaboration interview questions test whether or not you’re capable of working with new teammates and interdepartmentally. This skill is valuable when various departments must interact to achieve common goals.
To answer cross-team collaboration interview questions, give an example from your last job that illustrates your ability to handle diverse experience levels and perspectives. This will likely involve showcasing your delegation, decision-making, and communication skills.
If you’ve never worked cross-departmentally, you could discuss working with a new client or starting a new job.
7. “Tell me about a time when you set aside your priorities to help a team member.”
Your willingness to help others says a lot about you, like whether you’re empathetic and genuinely value teamwork. This question also pokes at your time management skills, since you might have to shift your own work to help someone else.
Showcase your task prioritization and collaboration skills in your answer. And while demonstrating wanting to help others, also express how you ensured you had time for it, like assessing deadlines and delegating work. Include examples where you helped teammates accomplish significant goals, and mention experiences that required you to work within tight time constraints.
Collaborative interview questions: Extra tips
While there’s no right answer to these questions, there are plenty of wrong ones. Here are a few final tips to ensure you impress your interviewer and stand out from other candidates.
Provide positive team experiences
Prepare for your interview by collecting several positive teamwork experiences you can use in your answers. This preparation ensures these successful examples are front of mind so you can avoid accidentally sharing an anecdote that doesn’t reflect your teamwork skills well or prompts you to complain about a difficult coworker.
Use data to showcase the benefits of collaboration
To persuasively express how much you understand and value the benefits of collaboration, use specific data points and examples, like:
- Performed X% better because we worked cross-departmentally
- Further increased a product’s ROI because we collaborated with highly experienced freelancers
- I completed 15% more sales calls one quarter thanks to a teammate’s help
Showcase how your values align
Become familiar with the company’s core values and discuss how you align with these values in your responses. Showing the hiring manager that you’ve researched the company demonstrates your attention to detail and interest in the role. And expressing how your values are concurrent with theirs persuades the listener that you’re a great fit for the position.
Use effective body language
How you express yourself is just as important as the words you use. Make eye contact often to convey trustworthiness, use power poses to express confidence, and actively listen to show you care about what the interviewer has to say and ensure you don’t miss important details such as role responsibilities.
Demonstrate skills from the job description
During an interview, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and unsure of which information to share, causing you to use your time inefficiently and skip pertinent details.
To stay on track, map out responses beforehand that include specific examples that use language from the job description. If the job asks for conflict resolution and time management skills, ensure your answers use this language to convince your listener you’re perfect for the role. And try to slip in technical skills from the job ad, like software you’re proficient with or languages you understand.
Make the answer your own
Yes, you must keep your answer professional, teamwork-focused, and positive. But most importantly is that your answer truly reflects how you feel about collaboration. Hiring managers might sense dishonesty if you look away often or hesitate before answering. And employers want honest employees, so delivering a cookie cutter and inauthentic answer might be a red flag.
When composing your response ahead of time, consider what teamwork truly means to you and reflect these authentic insights in your answer.
Turn the question around
After you provide your excellent and personalized answer, and if there’s room for questions, ask the hiring manager how their team encourages and handles collaboration. Inquiring about the way they approach teamwork further expresses your interest in working with a collaborative team. It also demonstrates your care and concern for the role and the workplace culture.
Teamwork makes the dream work
Collaboration is among the most desired qualities employers search for in candidates. And recruiters pose various interview questions to seek out employees with these vital skills. They hope to find adaptable teammates who can excel in various workplace environments, including collaborative ones.
Practicing your answers to collaboration interview questions lets you become comfortable articulating your teamwork capabilities and showing employers how you’ll contribute to their team’s success. In the end, this hard work pays off, as you’re able to sell yourself and obtain that second interview.
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