How do you prioritize multiple projects when they all seem equally important?
Share your system for prioritizing work with the interviewer. As with any nonprofit, World Food Program USA wants individuals with excellent time management skills. The better you can prioritize, the more productive you will be, making you an asset to WFP USA!
"I keep steps when completing long-term projects on my digital calendar so that I know what part I need to work on any given day. Since the steps are listed on the shared calendar, everyone on my team will be able to see my progress as well. For smaller tasks, I keep a whiteboard in my office that allows me to erase tasks when complete. I am motivated when I see items crossed off a list. I rank projects based on deadlines and how long I think they will take to complete and then break them down into steps for my calendar and whiteboard."
Avoid setting unrealistic expectations for yourself. Don't say, "I can handle multiple projects at once with no problem whatsoever." Show that you can self-assess, understand the work in front of you, and analyze which task you will need to address first.
"Any time I deal with multiple projects simultaneously, I reserve a meeting room for a few hours and use color-coded notecards to visualize each step of each project. The colors correspond to the projects. I write the steps out on the notecards and place them on the meeting table. Then, I organize them based on difficulty and due date. This allows me to visualize the scope of the work I have to do and provides a plan and structure for completing all the projects as efficiently as possible."
