Here are ten questions you’ll probably be asked when you interview for a remote opportunity—plus advice on how to respond and sample answers.

1.
Have You Worked Remotely in the Past?
This might feel like a conversational ice breaker question, but it’s one you need to answer thoughtfully. The hiring manager is trying to gauge your level of interest in and comfort with taking on a fully remote role.

How to Answer
You can keep your response relatively simple. If you have experience working remotely in the past, be prepared to detail when, where, and how you were able to succeed in that role. If you haven’t technically worked remotely before, that probably won’t be a dealbreaker these days, but you should have a comparable experience ready to share—like writing papers in your dorm room or organizing a fundraiser via Facebook.
2.
What Types of Remote/Distributed Team Tools and Software Have You Used and How Did You Use Them?
Distributed teams live on video and chat platforms and typically rely heavily on collaborative tools and project management software, so hiring managers will naturally want to gauge your level of comfort working with remote tools like Zoom or Slack, collaborative platforms like Google Docs, or project management software like Trello, Airtable, or Asana.

How to Answer
In addition to listing the types of technologies you’re familiar with, you should also be prepared to explain how and why your team used them. “Be prepared to describe a variety of practices to make remote work effective,” Leech says. Prior to your interview, revisit the job posting or ask the recruiter which tools your prospective team uses so that you can frame your response with those technologies in mind. And know that you probably won’t have experience with every single platform any given employer uses. That’s OK! Just be sure to mention how quickly you’ve learned new tools in the past.
2.
What Types of Remote/Distributed Team Tools and Software Have You Used and How Did You Use Them?
Distributed teams live on video and chat platforms and typically rely heavily on collaborative tools and project management software, so hiring managers will naturally want to gauge your level of comfort working with remote tools like Zoom or Slack, collaborative platforms like Google Docs, or project management software like Trello, Airtable, or Asana.

How to Answer
In addition to listing the types of technologies you’re familiar with, you should also be prepared to explain how and why your team used them. “Be prepared to describe a variety of practices to make remote work effective,” Leech says. Prior to your interview, revisit the job posting or ask the recruiter which tools your prospective team uses so that you can frame your response with those technologies in mind. And know that you probably won’t have experience with every single platform any given employer uses. That’s OK! Just be sure to mention how quickly you’ve learned new tools in the past.
4.
How Do You Manage Your Time and Stay Organized?
“You have a lot of independence in how you manage your time when working remotely,” Taparia says. There’s no one sitting next to you to make sure you’re working on this or almost done with that. With so much flexibility, it’s crucial that you can be organized and juggle your different tasks and responsibilities in order to get things done and meet deadlines—and interviewers will want to make sure you’re up to it.

How to Answer
Don’t be afraid to talk about all the tools and strategies you use to keep track of what you need to do, decide what takes precedence, plan how and when you’ll get it done, and follow through. That might mean calling out specific apps you live by or talking about your color coding system for prioritizing to-do items in your planner.

Taparia also recommends explaining that you’d want to understand how their team works. “Talk about how you’d make sure you’re prioritizing your work according to team goals,” Taparia says. “Are you checking in with your managers regularly to ensure you’re working on what’s most important?”
5.
How Do You Keep Yourself Motivated and Engaged When Working From Home?
As lovely as rolling out of bed and into your desk chair might sound, remote work does have some downsides. Working in your home can be distracting (think your roommate’s loud sales calls or your cat constantly walking across the keyboard). It’s also easy to get sucked into doing just one load of laundry when you know your boss isn’t going to walk by and ask you why you haven’t turned that report in yet. Plus, you don’t have colleagues sitting all around you to serve as positive peer pressure to keep working or to provide a sense of camaraderie that keeps you going. So hiring managers will want some assurance that you’ve got a grasp on how to push through the inherent distractions and distance of remote work.

How to Answer
Answer honestly! Do you love the Pomodoro Technique? Do you prefer to be in constant communication with your coworkers via Slack? Is the relative solitude of remote work a natural fit for your work style because it allows you to get into deep focus? Great! Now you just need to explain how and why.
6.
What’s the Key to Making Sure a Project Is Successful When Working Remotely?
A lot goes into successfully completing any project—remote or otherwise—but hiring managers are going to be especially interested in how prospective hires would approach a project when in-person collaboration isn’t an option. “Clear communication is key when you can’t chat with people on a whim like you can in the office,” Taparia explains. “Hiring managers are going to want to know that you understand this and have the experience to successfully complete projects remotely.”

How to Answer
Taparia recommends demonstrating that you understand the importance of asking questions up front, making sure you have a precise understanding of the work, managing expectations around timelines, and ensuring work is going in the right direction. “Even better if you can explain that you’re willing first to seek answers…on your own before asking others,” he says. Including an example of a real project you’ve worked on remotely in the past (if relevant) may also help to strengthen your answer.
7.
Tell Me About a Time When You Had to Adapt to Change.
You’ll often get some variation of this question during the interview process—whether for a remote job or not. But being adaptable is especially important when you’re part of a distributed team, as it can sometimes be more challenging to coordinate schedules or keep everyone on the same page, and you don’t have the benefit of your colleagues being a few steps away to deal with the change together. That doesn’t mean you can’t support one another, but even that takes a bit more initiative when you’re working remotely.

How to Answer
This is a great example of a situational or behavioral interview question, which should be a signal to you that the hiring manager wants you to share a story from your past work experience. It’s a chance to see how you actually behaved to give them a sense of how you’d function in the job you’re being considered for.

You’ll first want to think of an example that demonstrates your ability to adapt to change—whether it was in a remote job or not. Then use the STAR method to organize your response. You can get detailed advice on how best to use it here, but here’s a quick overview to get you started: First, explain the situation you want to use to answer the question, then describe the task you needed to complete in that situation. Next, discuss the action you took to complete said task, and finally, explain the result of that action. Easy enough, right?
8.
Tell Me About a Time When You Had a Conflict With a Coworker.
“The employer wants to know whether you can recover if things break down,” Leech says. Disagreements are inevitable, so knowing how to navigate and defuse misunderstandings before they get out of hand is an incredibly important skill—especially when you’re part of a remote team. Coworkers who see one another on a regular basis tend to have more opportunities to resolve misunderstandings, while folks who work from home will need to be more proactive about getting things straightened out when conflicts arise.

How to Answer
“Candidates should demonstrate an awareness of how caustic conflict can become if unresolved in a remote environment,” Leech says. Talking things out in person tends to be the most straightforward way to resolve issues, so when you can’t do that in a timely manner, conflicts can simmer.

This is another excellent example of a situational interview question and the perfect opportunity to use the STAR method. Leech advises including a detailed example of how you’ve resolved a conflict in the past. “If you weren’t able to resolve things, share what you should have done instead, as it demonstrates an ability and desire to learn from your mistakes,” she says. Discussing what you learned can be incredibly valuable, so if you don’t have a glowing success story, it’s OK to share an example of a time things didn’t work out the way you’d hoped. That said, avoid sharing stories about huge blowups. As interesting and relevant as those examples may be, the goal is to keep the focus on your conflict resolution skills.
9.
Tell Me About a Time When You Weren’t Sure How To Do Something. How Did You Go About Seeking Out Information?
When you’re part of a distributed team, you’re pretty likely to run into situations where you don’t feel 100% clear about what you’ve been tasked with. And while that’s normal and totally understandable, it’ll be important for you to demonstrate that you know how to navigate these gray areas. “Managers want to be confident that you will be able to find the right people and information to engage with for a deliverable without having them right in front of you,” Jones says.

How to Answer
It’s the STAR method to the rescue again! Working remotely means that sometimes you’re going to feel a bit…remote. So when you run into roadblocks, you’ll need to be resourceful. Can you think of a time when you needed to be proactive about researching how to do something? Or a time when you had to teach yourself a new skill? Being prepared with specific examples of your ability to figure things out on your own or pull in the right resources when needed will show the interviewer you’ll be able to do the same in this role and give you a leg up.
10.
Do You Have Any Questions for Me?
This question is code for: So are you interested? (Hint: Interested applicants always have questions!) This is your chance to show that you’re thoughtful, well prepared, and truly understand what it’ll take to succeed on a distributed team. Remote work environments don’t typically allow for you to ask questions as frequently or casually as you can in the office, so demonstrating that you’re organized and proactive about gathering information will help you to stand out.

This also happens to be an excellent opportunity to learn more about the company culture so that you can determine whether a prospective employer is going to be the right fit for you.

How to Answer
The answer to this question should always be yes. In addition to having a list of questions about the company, the role itself, and next steps in the interview process, you should also be prepared to ask questions that are specifically related to working from home, as this will demonstrate that you understand the nature of remote work.

If the company has recently transitioned to a remote model, you might ask about how the transition is going, what tools they’re using to keep the team together, and how going remote has affected the company culture. If they’ve been a distributed organization for a while, you can ask what they consider the key to a successful remote workforce to be, what types of employee activities they do to maintain company culture, or what traits they look for in a remote worker.

As with every interview ever, it’s essential to show up well-prepared. 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.
Collected from career.du.edu