Interview questions can have hundreds of different purposes. Some interview questions are designed to trick you. Others are designed to learn more about your past. Others are designed to see if you will say something negative, and so on. All of these questions tell the interviewer something about who you are as a candidate that they can use to help make a decision.

At first glance, the same cannot be said about questions that appear to be “gimmes.” One of the most egregious examples is “How well do you handle deadlines?”

“I handle them very well”

It seems like a fairly obvious answer, and it is. The answer to how well you handle deadlines is “very well.” If you answer with something along the lines of “Pressure makes me cry” you are probably not going to be hired. So why do companies even bother asking it?

Why Companies Ask Deadline Interview Questions

Companies ask questions about deadlines for two reasons:

1. To warn you that the company has strict, pressure filled deadlines.
2. To see if you can naturally inspire confidence in the employer about your ability to handle deadlines.

Warning – Deadlines Occur

Remember, when an applicant goes to an interview, they are interviewing the employer as much as the employer is interviewing them. They need to see if this is a place they want to work. If someone left their last job because they felt too much pressure, then perhaps they don’t want a job that is going to be filled with an equal amount of pressure. Simply asking this question will get rid of some of the pressure-averse candidates.

Inspiring Confidence

In addition, though the meaning of the answer is still the same, you can answer it in a different way.

“Yes, I handle deadlines well” is not as impressive as “With my previous job, we were under strict deadlines every day. If we failed to meet these deadlines, we would not be receiving any revenue from the project. Though the pressure started out somewhat difficult, over time these deadlines became a motivator, rather than a detractor, from quality, error free work.”

They say the same thing, but one says it better. That inspires confidence in the employer that you are not simply giving them a BS answer.

Approach All Easy Questions

Whenever you receive questions that appear to have very obvious answers, consider those two reasons behind the question. Sometimes they are warning you about their company. Other times they may be looking for an answer that inspires them. Either way, there may be other factors in the question besides just the answer.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Sometimes easy questions are letting you know more about the company.
• Sometimes easy questions want you to give them a more confidence inspiring answer.
• Sometimes both.

Related posts:

1. Deadline Interview Question Number 1: Tell Me How You Work Under the Pressure of Deadlines?
2. Deadline Interview Question Number 2 – How Do You Handle Deadlines for Multiple Assignments
3. Interview Question: How Well Do You Handle Pressure?

Deadline questions are fairly common. They are asked both for your benefit and for the interviewer’s benefit. By asking you questions about how you deal with deadlines, you learn that the company may be somewhat high stress and use it to make a decision about whether you want to work there, and the company learns if you can handle deadlines based on not only your answer, but also how you answer.

Yet you may be asked more than simply “do you handle deadlines well.” You may be asked how you handle deadlines well. In other words, what do you do to make sure that deadlines don’t stress you out too much?

How to Answer

Focus on strictly professional things that you do. If you sit and meditate, that is not the type of answer that employers want to hear. Instead, you should focus on what you do with the project to make sure that you do not feel stressed.

Bad Answer

“Whenever I am getting close to a tight deadline I like to take a moment and pray. I ask God if she will grant me the strength I need to complete the project, and if she will bless me with her powers of happiness even if I fail.”

No.

Good Answer

“In order to reduce the stress of a deadline, I make sure that I have mapped out all of the tasks I need completed to finish the project before deadline, including quality checks and confirming all aspects of the project are in place. In general, I also try to complete all of the most difficult aspects of the project first, so that the deadline does not feel as difficult. I also communicate with every member of the team and the client to make sure that everyone knows where we are in the schedule and what needs to be completed next.”

This is a much better answer. You are saying that in order to reduce stress at the deadline, you make sure everything is going perfectly, and have plans in place that help you feel confident about its completion. That reflects well on you as an employee and as an individual.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Focus on the business side of handling stress.

Related posts:

1. Deadline Interview Question Number 3 – How Do You Prioritize Multiple Projects with the Same Deadline?
2. Deadline Interview Question Number 2 – How Do You Handle Deadlines for Multiple Assignments
3. Deadline Interview Question Number 1: Tell Me How You Work Under the Pressure of Deadlines?

“Well, the first thing I do is I throw a coin directly at my supervisor. Whichever side of the coin imprints itself as a bruise on their face, that is the project I work on. If the throw misses, I take a staple gun, walk up to the front desk, and staple the first associate I see on the back of the neck. Then I take a stopwatch and time their scream. If they scream for an odd number of seconds, I go with the first project. Even, second. If they throw in curse words, I immediately skip all projects and prance naked around the office until security tackles me, then I start the process over again from the comfort of my own home.”

Your ability to organize is constantly on trial at the workplace. People that put no thought into how they prioritize multiple projects tend to struggle when coming up on deadlines. So employers may ask you how you organize. There is no right answer, provided that whatever you say sounds like it would work.

Bad Answer

“I ask my supervisor what he/she thinks should take priority and I start working on that, unless told to stop.”

Good Answer

“Through a combination of deadline, difficulty, project length, team status and inherent importance. For example, a short deadline, difficult project where a team requires my work is going to get priority over an equally short deadline, easy project, because the team’s productivity is based on my own productivity. I also try to group similar items together and get started early on difficult, time consuming projects so that when I brush up against the deadline I am not scrambling and can give attention to other projects as needed.”

This is all the interviewer really wants to hear – that you understand how to give priority to certain projects and you put thought into how you give that priority. Supply this type of answer and you should have no problem impressing the interviewer.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Explain factors that go into giving priority.
• Explain how you incorporate those factors into your decision.

Related posts:

1. Deadline Interview Question Number 3 – How Do You Prioritize Multiple Projects with the Same Deadline?
2. Deadline Interview Question Number 2 – How Do You Handle Deadlines for Multiple Assignments
3. Organizational Interview Question: How Do You Keep Track of Your Own Projects?

Over the last few posts, we have shown some of the questions that employers may ask with regard to deadlines. An applicant that cannot handle stress is going to suffer in productivity when deadlines arise. These companies want to hire someone that they believe can handle the pressure of multiple projects.

One of the toughest things for an employee is managing multiple projects that have the same (or similar) deadlines. So employers may ask you how you prioritize, in order to gauge both your ability to handle pressure and your ability to organize under pressure.

How to Answer

The best thing you can do is simply show that you have put thought into this. Also, it is a good idea to discuss how you communicate the finishing of the project with clients/supervisors. Both of these will be appreciated by the employer.

Bad Answer

“I figure out which project is most important, and then I try to do that project first before finishing the next one.”

Okay, but how do you decide which project is more important? Prioritizing by money earned is not enough. Sometimes a smaller project can be more important than a larger project. This does not necessarily mean much.

Good Answer

“First I plan out the remaining tasks. In general, I will have already done this well in advance of the deadline. I look at these tasks and decide the easiest route to their completion. Sometimes it is easier to work on one project at a time, sometimes it is easier to switch back and forth depending on similarities in the type of tasks required. If one is due sooner in the day than the other, then that one will receive full priority. In addition, throughout the day I will inform all the necessary individuals of the current project status, so that they also do not find the upcoming deadlines too stressful.”

Multiple deadlines on the same day can be difficult, so your best bet is to show that you have a plan in mind. Though the answer above may not be how you prioritize under the pressure of actual assignments, it does do a good job showing that you come at these problems with a plan.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Show that you have a plan.
• Make sure the plan includes how you choose priority and how you communicate.

Related posts:

1. Deadline Interview Question Number 2 – How Do You Handle Deadlines for Multiple Assignments
2. Deadline Interview Question Number 1: Tell Me How You Work Under the Pressure of Deadlines?
3. Common Interview Question – How Do You Prioritize Multiple Projects?

We recently discussed the most common question about handling deadlines – namely, whether or not you can handle them at all. To answer that question, you need to focus on past experiences to “prove,” in a way, that you know what you are doing and can handle the pressure of upcoming deadlines.

Companies that have a number of deadlines may follow up on that question with two additional questions. First, how do handle deadlines to multiple assignments at once, and second, how do you prioritize these deadlines. In this post, we will discuss the former.

How to Answer “Multiple Assignments”

If the employer asks you how you handle the pressure of multiple assignments, the trick is somewhat simple. Focus on organization. Show that you handle multiple assignments by ensuring everything is in order and organized. Focusing on the pressure is the wrong way to answer this question.

Bad Answer

“Whether it is one assignment or multiple projects, I handle the pressure well. I focus on completion of the project and put my best effort into finishing it on time.”

This answer doesn’t inspire confidence. It is simply a throwaway answer.

Good Answer

“The key to handling the pressure of multiple assignments is to update and keep track of each project independently, as well as prioritize my time in advance so that I know what, when, and how each aspect of the project is occurring, and update myself on its progress. The more I know about each project the better, because it will allow me to adjust accordingly and ensure that I meet each deadline successfully.”

Focusing on the organization of these projects is much better, because it shows the interviewer that you have a plan. It is far more likely to convince an interviewer that you truly can handle pressure.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Focus on how you organize.
• Try to show interviewers you have a plan.

Related posts:

1. Deadline Interview Question Number 3 – How Do You Prioritize Multiple Projects with the Same Deadline?
2. Deadline Interview Question Number 1: Tell Me How You Work Under the Pressure of Deadlines?
3. Uncommon Interview Question: When You Find Yourself Under a Tight Deadline, What Do You Do to Handle the Stress

Imagine if you worked at a place without deadlines. A place that allowed you to work at your own pace and finish whenever you like. Imagine that they still paid you. How long do you think that company would last before it completely went under?

Every job has deadlines, otherwise nothing would get accomplished. Companies that often have tight and stressful deadlines like to ask their applicants how they handle pressure. They do this for two reasons:

1. To make sure you understand that if you take the job, there is going to be a lot of pressure.
2. To see if you can prove to them that you handle deadline pressure well.

Obviously you are going to claim you handle pressure well. Do so with confidence, otherwise the company may doubt your resolve. Yet you can also shine a little with this question if you answer it correctly, by saying something that gives the company confidence you know what you are doing.

Bad Answer

“I work really well under pressure. In fact, I thrive.”

This doesn’t really say much, though good on you to claim that pressure is great. If it was great, it wouldn’t be pressure.

Good Answer

“Deadlines have always been more of a motivational tool. When I worked for Company XYZ, we often had to work triple time to meet some of the strict deadlines in the field. In the beginning it was difficult, because it was a new experience, but the more I got used to deadlines and what they require, the easier they became, and I suspect I will feel the same way towards any deadlines I may experience in this new position.”

Everyone can claim they can handle deadlines, but why should the company believe you? The best thing you can do is “prove” it to them by discussing deadlines you had at a previous employer.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Yes, you can handle deadlines.
• See if you can discuss pressure at a previous employer and how you handled it.

Related posts:

1. Deadline Interview Question Number 2 – How Do You Handle Deadlines for Multiple Assignments
2. Deadline Interview Question Number 3 – How Do You Prioritize Multiple Projects with the Same Deadline?
3. Interview Question: How Well Do You Handle Pressure?