A question about your work philosophy is generally asked to managers, team leaders and high level executives.
It is also asked to professionals who work in a noble profession as nursing, teaching and social work.
The Interviewer’s Perspective
Interviewers who ask this question expect to hear a thoughtful, intelligent answer of someone who cares to realize himself professionally.
If you have ever done self assessment for your career or you naturally have self awareness, you must have an answer to this question.
The answer that will please the interviewer will reflect keenness, enthusiasm, mature experience, and strong work ethics.
There is no good or bad answer, but an honest answer – Whatever you say the most important thing is to be honest about it.
Most interviewees are not effective liars and most interviewers are very good at spotting dishonesty.
Employers are much more impressed by honesty and enthusiasms, than by an image of exaggerated perfection.
Work Philosophy – Examples of Work Philosophies
Sample work philosophy statements are as follows -
Your Philosophy Towards Work
The 12 best work philosophies that one can think of are:
- Teamwork: The love to work with others. The advantage of working in a team – Two heads are better than one. ‘Teamwork Makes a Dream works’ – The benefit of accessing more ideas, working in harmony and helping each other for achieving mutual goals.
- Helping/Serving: The Power In Serving Others. Helping people or serving customers to get back something.
- Motivation: Commitment, dedication and loyalty towards work – Commitment will bring in dedication, hard work and best results.
- Resourceful: The creative use of resources. Being resourceful – Making the best use of own resource and external resources to get the results you want.
- Balancing: The “Work hard – Play hard” approach is a new philosophy towards work. Better Work-Life balance or a good life/work management skills brings success. Means – Balancing your day work with interesting fulfilling personal life, for example – Pleasure after work, sport, hobbies, playing with your kids, rich family life and special interests. I suggest seeing this video – How to make work-life balance work. Don’t miss it – It is one of the greatest I have seen lately.
- Unique: The ‘Making a difference at work’ approach – Adding value and uniqueness to the job. Being a talent. It is not the CEO that makes the difference but the company talents.
- 100% Effort: The “do your best” philosophy – Contribute your best skills, experience and effort for the optimal productivity. Two good quotes: “Much good work is lost for the lack of a little more” and “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it”.
- Focused: Focus of Being Focused to find success – being determined. Get the work/job done on time and no matter the circumstances.
- Leadership: Taking responsibilities – Leading by example.
- Creativity: Initiation, creative planning, active listening and critical thinking approach. Intuition and imagination brings creativity and the ability to explore new thinking – If you don’t exercise creative ways you get to no where sooner or later.
- Learn from mistakes: “Learn from mistake and accepting them to improve next time” philosophy. An error doesn’t become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.
- Visionary: An inspired person (a dreamer.. ) who tries to follow a vision as much as s/he can. Which means they might change careers suddenly, begin learning new skills or start their own business, and generally prefer less lucrative jobs, if that’s where their dream takes them.
Ask yourself – What Inspires You? What are your aspiration towards work and career?
How to tell the interviewer about your work philosophy?
With the above in mind, decide whether you are the type of person who follows a certain philosophy. Once you decide about your type, be honest about it during interviews.
Describe your work philosophy with good examples from your career in a focused manner from one (or more than one) of these perspectives. Interviewers will be equally impressed by any philosophy as long as it is truthfully and enthusiastically told.
Your career philosophy – Who You Are and what is your Career Path
How you plan your career and how you choose a job is part of your job & career philosophy.
Whatever category you belong to, it is important to be detail-oriented and thorough when researching and choosing a job. Mention this as part of your work philosophy and you will come across not just as a man who knows what he wants, but as an employee who knows what he is doing.
Things to learn include the goals and means of the company, its market niche, risk, demand, competition, and even how content the current employees are, etc.
Last but not least,
Adaptability
You have the job. Now it’s a question of how you react and adapt. To make a positive impression on the interviewer, your work philosophy should include reasonable willingness to adapt and fit into the environment.
If any problems arise, an employee with an effective work philosophy tries to analyze them actively and deals with it. This healthy philosophy towards work requires direct and effective communication with others, including even asking people for advice on how you could do your job in the best possible way given the situation.
Make these elements part of your work philosophy and you will increase your chances of success.
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