Mastering Job Interviews: Handling Multiple Projects Question with Ease (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Corporate managers love to bury their employees under a heavy workload. They assign you yet another client or one more project. You are working overtime already and they know it, but why wouldn't you work from home or manage your time and work better? You are young and you can surely handle a heavy workload, and if you cannot, they will simply chew you and squeeze you to the maximum until you cannot stand it any longer and leave the place or experience a complete burnout. This isn't the most encouraging opening to a video about an interview question, I know. But mark my words, if they ask you in an interview about managing multiple projects or working on several projects simultaneously, it's not necessarily a good sign and you should consider twice whether to accept their offer or not. But if it is your dream job or an important step on your career journey, it is important to know how to deal with this question. Let's have a look at three sample answers now, including an answer for someone with no previous working experience. They should help you find the right words when it matters the most. So here we go. Answer number 1. I always try to have a to-do list in work. I assign low, mid, or high priority to each task on the list, not to the entire project. And then I work accordingly, taking care of the tasks with highest priority first, regardless of the project they belong to. Of course, if I got a call from a manager or a specific deadline was set for me to deliver some report or analysis, I prioritized it to other tasks to ensure I'd meet the deadline. In my opinion, the most important thing is to have a meaningful system in your work, something you can rely on when you aren't sure what to do next. That's what I always try to do. Answer number 2, for someone with no previous working experience. I've never worked anywhere, but I guess the entire life is about prioritization. We try to juggle our roles in life. A son, a father, a colleague, a friend, a husband, and perhaps even a lover. Depends on how many of them you have. The more balls you have in the air, the more difficult it gets. My personal philosophy is to try to find balance in life. I mean, you should not give all your time to work or to your wife, totally neglecting all other bonds and relationships. And you should always try to find some time also for your own hobbies, when you do something you love. In my opinion, a similar attitude may work well in the job. Instead of prioritizing one project to another, which will certainly result in a neglect of some duties in the later, I'd prefer dividing my time in work, and give some time to each project and each manager, so we progress on all fronts. But as I said, I am new to the workforce. I'd gladly learn from more experienced managers how to prioritize my work in a most effective way, while working on multiple projects. And answer number 3. I divided my day in work to three parts. Early morning was the most productive one. I arrived before anyone else, nobody bothered me with anything, and I could work on some tasks that demanded creativeness or a lot of thinking, or a quiet office. That's why I worked on the most important tasks in all my projects. Later during the day when the office was buzzing with people and everyone wanted something from me, I spent time responding to emails and internal communication, and taking care of easier administrative work. Then later in the afternoon when the atmosphere calmed down again, I focused on more creative tasks again, working always on the one with the closest deadline. So that's it. I hope the answers gave you some inspiration for your own perfect answer. If you are not sure yet however, you can check the link in video description below, for 7 sample answers to this tricky question, including some outside of the box thinking answers. In any case, thank you for watching, enjoy the rest of your day, and good luck in your job interview.