Interview Q What Were Your Responsibilities in Your Last Job - Walrath Recruiting, Inc.

Interview Q What Were Your Responsibilities in Your Last Job - Walrath Recruiting, Inc. Todays question is one that is extremely common to have asked, What were your responsibilities at your last job?. What seems like a simple check on what youve done in the past may be nothing more than that. However, answering in the correct way can win you points, and answering wrong can hurt you. Theres a few important things to keep in mind when answering, but before we  move on, lets discuss a process to make answering this question a breeze. Tracking Your Skills Whenever youre in a position working, its good to do a  skills check. What this means is take some time out of your day to sit down and make a list of all your responsibilities as well as skills youve been developing. For this list, include everything you do, tasks from the job description, menial tasks, things youve taken up doing, etc. Making an exhaustive list of responsibilities and saving it somewhere keeps you from struggling to recall everything in the future when you need to remember it most. It will do you wonders in your current  position. Having everything laid out before you makes it difficult to  forget anything and ensure that you are on task. Now when youre asked this question in an interview, you are prepared! While having a list of everything is great for you to reference, you dont want to necessarily bring up all of those responsibilities in the interview. Dont focus on tasks that are menial.  Saying that you were in charge of the morning drink run only scores you points with your coworkers, not interviewers. In the interview, focus on responsibilities from past jobs that overlap with what is demanded in the new position. Its crucial  to only do this if there is overlap, dont stretch the relevance of past roles to fit the new one. Quantifying Your Qualifications Most importantly, be honest and make sure you dont embellish your responsibilities. If you are able to give answers that show results, this is a great time to do so. Saying that you, concentrated marketing efforts where you invested in magazine ads increased company market share 5% is much more impressive than only saying that you, coordinated ad buys. If you took it upon yourself to go above and beyond in your job, make sure you mention what it is you did that wasnt in your job description. If you have a relevant unique skill set that you think may set you apart from other candidates, mention how you used it in your last position and how it benefited your company. We hope you find this approach useful whether or not its for an interview. Well be back with another question next week!