How to Conduct an Interview for a Remote Job: Some Useful Questions

Great work and results are about achievement — not location. It used to be that remote work was the exception, not the norm.

Nowadays you may find many companies with remote team members and that’s quite effective.

The author of the post on Aha blog admits that their team work remotely and motivated people do great work wherever they are.

Today employers are getting savvier about working remotely. More acceptance from company leaders means more opportunities to work from where you perform best. What is a remote job seeker to do?

The first thing you need to do is to do research on prospective employers to make sure the company is appropriate and match your values. The best opportunity to learn this is during the interview process. Here are some helpful questions to ask in a remote job interview from the article:

How many people work remotely?

Find out during the interview, if the company has a fully distributed workforce. Ask it to make sure that remote teammates are fully integrated and included. Unfortunately, today many remote workers report feeling left out.

Do you use video or phone for meetings?

The best option is video. You need video meetings for any in-depth discussions with a distributed group, you want video meetings. These give everybody the opportunity to pick up on body language and expressions.

What collaboration tools do you use?

If the company relies solely on emails, there is a chance there it will be communication lags. There many useful tools such as Aha to share strategy, planning, assign tasks, track due dates, and so on.

How frequently do you meet?

Anything short of a weekly meeting would hurt transparency and teamwork. Just as important are the targeted tet-a-tet meetings that team leads hold every week.

How do you build team spirit?

This will look different depending on the company, but it is important nonetheless. Any team building or problem-solving activity will increase the team spirit in any team.

Gathering in person is also important. Getting everyone together for a few days of work and fun is a great way to share big plans and tackle projects while enjoying each other’s company in person.

What other questions should people ask when interviewing for remote jobs?