Describe a time when you motivated yourself to complete an assignment or task that you did not feel like doing.
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Show the interviewer that you will still get the job done even when you aren't excited about the task at hand. Think about a time when there was a work-related task that you did not want to do. Perhaps the dreaded file room needed to be purged of outdated files to make room for the new.
'Describe a time when...' means that the interviewer is looking for a story-based example for this behavioral-based interview question. This style means forming a response using the STAR method. STAR is an acronym for Situation, Task, Action, Result. Organizing your response using this framework will ensure that you provide the interviewer with the right amount of information and detail to form a compelling answer.
Tell the interviewer about the overall situation, what your task was, and explain why you were not excited about it. Be sure to tell the interviewer that even though you were not enthusiastic about the mission, you made it happen promptly, knowing that it would help the organization as a whole. Give as much detail as you can regarding the actions you took to reach the finish line.
'Describe a time when...' means that the interviewer is looking for a story-based example for this behavioral-based interview question. This style means forming a response using the STAR method. STAR is an acronym for Situation, Task, Action, Result. Organizing your response using this framework will ensure that you provide the interviewer with the right amount of information and detail to form a compelling answer.
Tell the interviewer about the overall situation, what your task was, and explain why you were not excited about it. Be sure to tell the interviewer that even though you were not enthusiastic about the mission, you made it happen promptly, knowing that it would help the organization as a whole. Give as much detail as you can regarding the actions you took to reach the finish line.
Example #1
"(Situation) My current company receives an incredibly high volume of online job applicants every day. (Task) As the HR assistant, it is my job to review the resumes in our job portal every week. The task can be repetitive, and it takes a lot of care and attention. (Action) I set rewards for myself. Sometimes there will be up to 200 resumes to review. They all begin to look the same over time, so I set a goal to look at 20 at a time, give myself a quick break, then return to the task. (Result) I do this every week and have been able to get through all the new resumes every week. As a result, no applicants wait more than seven days for a response, which I believe is excellent business practice."
Example #2
"(Situation) Recently, my boss asked me to clean out our huge office supply closet. It was a daunting job. (Task) The 3,000 square foot room had become a dumping grounds of junk and random items that we never use. As the admin assistant, I knew it was up to me to put my whole heart into the task, making the lives of my co-workers so much better through the art of organization. (Action) I came to work over the next four days, prepared with comfortable clothes and shoes, and tackled the job. I created a pile for keep, one for recycling, one for donating, and one for the garbage. (Result) In the end, the supply room looked like an office supply store! Everyone appreciated my hard work, and I was glad that I chose to shift my mindset and find the motivation to get the job done with enthusiasm."
Example #3
"(Situation) In the warehouse where I currently work, our turnover is high, due to the strenuous nature of the job. (Task) I manage over 500 warehouse associates and see around a 5% turnover rate month-over-month, which equals about one person per day. This number means a lot of terminations, which I do not enjoy leading. (Action) Although I dread this task, I balance it out by reminding myself that we have a fantastic new employee lined up as a replacement who will perform better and compliment the positive workplace culture. (Result) By changing my mindset, I can better focus on the job at hand, which is leading and growing the associates who want to be there."
Example #4
"(Situation) Part of our project process is to have an initial discovery call with our clients. The call is around an hour-long, but I find myself taking up to two hours since a lot of the call is explaining our process to the clients. I began to dread these calls. (Task) As the marketing manager, I lead these calls. I know that at least 50% of the call is not a good use of time for my team, myself, and my client. We spend so much time explaining our approach and less time talking to the client and their vision for the project. (Action) I decided to have our team create a library of resources for our clients. We would share these digital resources before the initial client call, allowing the client to learn more about our process upfront. (Result) Now, I spend much less call time relaying tactical information, and more time getting to the necessary details. These calls are much more enjoyable for everyone now."
Example #5
"(Situation) As an assistant manager for the clothing department in Department Store X, my least favorite task is cleaning out the dressing rooms and doing take-backs. (Task) However, these tasks are a significant part of what I do and an important part of keeping the store clean and organized. As the assistant manager, I never show my dislike for these particular tasks. (Action) Instead, I incentivize myself and my team to make these tasks fun. I will run little contests for the team, such as whoever gets their section of the store perfectly organized, gets a coffee on me. (Result) I have been able to change the vibe of my team and department by implementing these incentives. As a result, our store now looks clean, tidy, and organized. The customers appreciate the added effort since it makes their shopping experience much better."
Example #6
"(Situation) At Company ABC, every sales rep must document in the CRM immediately after a client appointment. (Task) As a salesperson, I do not always like filling out the CRM immediately, since it's time-consuming, and I often need to get to my next client appointment. Also, I like the call, the chase, the close. Taking time to pause and write out the details of conversation, projections, and all that jazz is not something I look forward to doing because it slows me down. However, I understand that it's a necessary step in the sales process. (Action) To ensure that I am compliant, I now give myself an extra 15 minutes between appointments, ensuring that I have the time to document properly. (Result) Not only does this approach help me to stay on track with my notes, but ultimately it has helped me to sell more since I have more up to date client analytics. I realize that our CRM is an essential sales tool, and even if it takes slowing down and doing a seemingly monotonous task, it helps me and my company to succeed."
Example #7
"(Situation) We all know that the report card season is busy and can be overwhelming. (Task) As a junior-high teacher for our city's largest middle school, I have over three hundred students, so it's an enormous task. (Action) I make these report cards personalized, knowing the parents appreciate the added effort. So, it becomes a rather large project. I make sure to break the reports up by class and complete one class per day. (Result) It's not a fancy process, but it works for me. I believe the extra effort is appreciated as I often receive kind emails from the students' parents, thanking me for the added detail on how their kids are performing in class."
Example #8
"I like to set rewards for myself when there are undesirable tasks at hand. For instance, a large part of what I do is review all electronic documents that come into our portal on a weekly basis. Sometimes there will be up to 200 documents to review. They all begin to look the same after awhile, so I have set a goal to look at 20 at a time, give myself a quick break, then return to the task."
Example #9
"(Situation) My current company receives an incredibly high volume of online job applicants every day. (Task) As the Admin Assistant, it is my job to review the resumes in our job portal every week. The task can be repetitive, and it takes a lot of care and attention. (Action) I set rewards for myself. Sometimes there will be up to 200 resumes to review. They all begin to look the same over time, so I set a goal to look at 20 at a time, give myself a quick break, then return to the task. (Result) I do this every week and have been able to get through all the new resumes every week. As a result, no applicants wait more than seven days for a response, which I believe is excellent business practice."
Anonymous Answer
"I try to weave in motivators such as listening to podcasts while on a long drive. This way, I'm learning something, and the drive is pleasant. If it's a particularly monotonous task such as administrative paperwork, I find that scheduling time throughout the week so that it doesn't all pile up at once is enough of a motivator."
Rachelle's Reply
Your answer shows your ability to make the most of the time that you have each day. Well done!
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Anonymous Answer
"I was working for an engineering firm where we worked on billable hours; the projects are quoted based on hours and cost per hour. When the project manager was evaluating the project they had failed to show me my project scope and assumed that I could finish my portion in 80 hours when in actuality it would take 100 to 110 hours to complete. I was up for the challenge to finish the instrument section of the project within the 80 hours but inevitably had to work and not get paid for any hours after 80. I motivated myself to complete my part of the project, telling myself that I am a team player, and in the end, the project was successful. The experience is proof that Murphy's Law has some validity."
Rachelle's Reply
This example is excellent; however, Murphy's Law may be the wrong turn of phrase here. Murphy's Law means 'anything that can go wrong will go wrong.' Saying this ends your response on a negative note when the story is actually positive and reflects well on you! Other than that, this is a great answer.
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Anonymous Answer
"I had to take a spreadsheet of 1,000 sales leads, connect to them on LinkedIn, and find 2-3 related colleagues in their company and connect to them, and also add them to our CRM. It was quite laborious, but I used to do it in blocks of 20 companies and take a break."
Rachelle's Reply
Wow - that sounds like a huge undertaking! Nicely done.
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Anonymous Answer
"I like to set rewards for myself when there are undesirable tasks at hand. I brake the main goal into pieces and at a time I achieve, I give myself a quick break, then return to the task."
Rachelle's Reply
Try getting into a specific example as this is a 'tell me about a time' type of question.
Rachelle's Reply
"Recently I had a challenging report to create. I chose to set rewards for myself. I broke the report into sections, giving myself a quick break each time I completed a section."
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Anonymous Answer
"I usually get bored to complete assignments which are monotonous. For example, in my current role, I am driving a regression suite automation, which means that some functionalities in our development will be handled automatically in the system. To start with, we needed to clean up our folders by sorting them instead of releases, which we had three years back, per functionality instead. This took so much time and was really like doing the same thing all the time. What I did to get me motivated in that situation, was to do a little in small sessions, but by breaking it off with other tasks continuously. This did that I did not get too bored during the day, and still get a variated workday, by doing it in small session and meanwhile doing other things. This developed my patience also as well as result-oriented, that even though it was boring I needed to complete it to the deadline no matter what."
Rachelle's Reply
This is a great example you used here. I would remove words like "bored" and replace with "not challenged," so your potential employer doesn't feel like you will get bored easily if something is not fun or exciting.
Rachelle's Reply
"When a task is monotonous, and I am not feeling challenged, that is when I need to motivate myself the most. In my current role, I am leading a project in which some functionalities are automatically handled by our system, thus relieving me of some duties, but also creating more monotonous tasks for me to complete. To get through these tedious tasks and to motivate myself, I split my tasks into smaller sections, that I can finish over a couple of days. This way, I get a varied workday mixed in with all types of functions, making it more exciting and challenging."
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Anonymous Answer
"There was a time that we were asked to clear the archive room and sort the files for out of site storage company, on hearing this I was not very motivated to jump into this project. Since it is a team work, we communicate with each other on how we can have this job done quickly and efficiently. Then we divided into small groups and each one has a designated part of the task. It turned out not as boring as I had thought that we work closely on creating a tracking log, putting the file in the correct alphabetical order in the boxes. I also realized this is also an important work that we keep good tracking record of student files as per our academic statute."
Rachelle's Reply
Your response is positively positioned which is exactly what the interviewer would like to hear.
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Anonymous Answer
"One time, I was assigned to reorganize a storage closet. The closet was quite large, and I approached the project with enthusiasm because I knew that the closet had not been organized for a very long time. It took me several days to complete the reorganization and my managers were not optimistic that I could finish the job within an acceptable time, but when the managers saw the end result, they were pleased that I took the necessary time to get the room cleaned and organized."
Kristine's Reply
You show a determination to complete your work assignments even when you don't care for them. Great! Try to be more specific, telling a story using the STAR method. Describe a particular task you didn't feel like doing. What was the task you didn't feel like doing? Why were you not excited about it? Then, explain why you did the task anyway (e.g., that it helped your team or the organization as a whole.)
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Anonymous Answer
"My first job out of college was a position of a Management Trainee at Enterprise Rent a Car; one of our duties was to wash cars. In the beginning, I didn’t like the concept of washing cars in dress clothes, but after doing it a few times, I just took it as a chance to get out of the office and do a bit of physical activity. I got used to it and didn’t bother me at all after a few days."
Rachelle's Reply
That would be an uncomfortable task, for sure! Your answer shows that you are willing to do what it takes to succeed at work. As a side note - when working as a recruiter, I often had clients request that I find candidates who have graduated from the Management Trainee program at Enterprise Rent a Car. This is very valuable experience affording you a lot of transferable skills! :)
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Anonymous Answer
"I don’t enjoy performing the maintenance on my vehicles but knowing the expenses I’m saving on labor by doing it myself, drives to do the job."
Mary's Reply
If you can, consider using an example from work that shows a specific time you had to self-motivate. Consider your response in three key areas: Situation, Actions, Result. If you cannot think of an example from work, consider the following edits.
Mary's Reply
"I do not enjoy performing maintenance on my vehicles. However, I know that completing these tasks in a timely manner will save me labor costs in the long run, so I regularly track maintenance needs and always perform the work before issues arise. Because of this, my vehicles are in excellent working order."
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Anonymous Answer
"I am a very responsible person both at work and in my personal life. I understand to accept a job offer is to keep my word and exceed the expectations of my employer. I am also a self-starter, and I enjoy the feeling of contentment when I get my work completed. Also, I am proud of my work and motivated by the fact that my clients get helped through my work, and there is meaning in what I do."
Rachelle's Reply
It seems that you thoroughly love your work, which can be a rare thing to witness these days. Great work :)
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Anonymous Answer
"During one of my rotations, one of our tasks was to manually audit what the robot packaged and compare it to what is on the computer system. This was a very tedious task but my partner and I decided to work together and make it as fun as we possibly could to ensure it was done. Once we actually started finding mistakes we were happy to audit to prevent further errors."
Rachelle's Reply
Great answer and to the point.
Rachelle's Reply
"During one of my rotations, one of our tasks was to manually audit the robot packages and compare that to what was in our system. This task was very tedious, but my partner and I decided to work together and make it as fun as we possibly could. Once we started finding mistakes, it motivated us to conduct a thorough audit to prevent further errors."
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Anonymous Answer
"I was tasked with moving our center from a 3000 sqft suite that had been there for ten years to a new building location. That was a very daunting task considering we were the boneyard of other centers that we had closed over the years. There were days where I wanted nothing to do with the job, but ultimately I was successful in moving the Center and even in helping plan the layout of the new space, and now we've been in that building for seven years."
Rachelle's Reply
This sounds like an overwhelming task, indeed! When you had a day where you did not feel like doing anything related to the task, how did you pull yourself back in? I am sure the interviewer would love to know precisely what techniques you use to maintain motivation in these situations.
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Anonymous Answer
"I like to set rewards for myself when there are unpleasant tasks to do.
For instance, a large part of what I do is process checks. I recently had 300 checks to process in one day, in addition to my usual tasks.
I had to set a goal to process 25 at a time, give myself a quick break, then return to the task."
Rachelle's Reply
This example is specific and measurable. Great work! I have reworded it slightly. Be aware of 'burying the lead' when you give answers. See my example below to see the difference.
Rachelle's Reply
"I recently had 300 checks to process in one day, in addition to my usual tasks. I set a goal to process 25 at a time, giving myself a quick break, then returning to the task. Setting milestone-based rewards for myself is a great way for me to maintain motivation."
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Anonymous Answer
"Once the conference calendar for the new year is established, I am the lucky one who gets to manually input all the bookings in the system (we are talking about something along the lines of 50 bookings for each week of the conference). And I admit, it is quite a boring task because its the same action repeated over and over, and it takes long hours, but I recognize how important are these tasks because it allows me to start all the planning of training courses and activities besides the official bodies. A strategy that I use to keep me interested, is to divide it in a few days, set a specific amount of time per day, put some relaxing music, and focus on the task only. In that way, I remain focused, and it goes faster."
Rachelle's Reply
You have a nice approach to taking on this repetitive task. Try giving the answer a bit more upfront and then painting the picture afterward. I have revised slightly, below.
Rachelle's Reply
"Once we establish the conference calendar for the new year, I must manually input all the bookings in the system, which can be in the hundreds. I admit it is quite a tedious task because its the same action repeated for long hours. A strategy that I use to keep me interested is to divide the work into a few days, set a specific amount of time per day, put on some relaxing music, and focus on the task. When I am so focused, the work seems to go much faster."
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Anonymous Answer
"I am mostly active and self-motivated. But when I have to do something that I don't feel like doing, I turn around to be who works following the money. I remind me the company pays me because I work. And it works much more than I try to find the meaning of itself. Once the work initiated, I feel like performing better."
Rachelle's Reply
This seems like a good way to stay motivated! It's good that you added in the fact that you are self-motivated most of the time.
Rachelle's Reply
"I am active and self-motivated; however, there are times when I run out of steam. During those times, I remind myself that the company pays me for my best work. Once I have initiated a task, I always feel better and can perform as expected."
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Anonymous Answer
"I am part of the disciplinary committee for senior management and contributing to the termination of any employee is not an easy task for me, especially when they are people you have worked with and built rapport with. I have, however, always maintained objectivity in all the hearings and gave measured opinions."
Rachelle's Reply
Yes, that is a tough position to be in. It sounds like you handle this type of situation with the best intentions. Very good answer.
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Anonymous Answer
"At work, I dislike purging and cleaning the tinting machines because it's a messy job so I have told myself that as soon as I clean the tint machines, then I can have my break which has motivated me to do it so I can get that break."
Rachelle's Reply
Very good example! It's great to reward yourself for completing messy or undesirable tasks. Nice answer.
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Anonymous Answer
"In my previous role, maintaining the hiring: the paperwork was very monotonous as it was not challenging, and it just needed employee signatures. In this situation, I divided the task into small groups of five people, and hence I was only dealing with five people at a time. Therefore I was able to complete the job in just one week and complete other essential tasks of the day."
Rachelle's Reply
Very smart thinking! In your answers, you show a lot of talent when it comes to productivity and efficiency.
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Anonymous Answer
"In my current role, part of my side work is to review scanned sig cards. Make sure they have been input into the system electronically. The job to me is tedious and well, boring. But, it needs to be done. As part of the schedule I’ve put together for the branch, I allow myself time on Tuesdays to complete this. I like to reward myself with a sweet treat when I finish this task."
Rachelle's Reply
Small rewards are an excellent way to self-motivate. This is a nice example.
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Anonymous Answer
"I like to set rewards for myself when there are monotonous tasks. For example, I remembered I needed to configure 50 IPCs, and the job was not challenging since I just did the same steps for each IPC. To get through these tedious tasks and to motivate myself, I had set a goal to finish the configuration of 10 IPCs at a time, gave myself a quick break, then returned to the job."
Rachelle's Reply
This sounds very tedious, but you found a way to make it happen and stay on pace. Good response.
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Anonymous Answer
"I am currently pursuing an online program for my RN-BSN. Right now, in my current course, I find myself not as motivated to complete papers as I don't see them challenging enough. I have a deadline for each assignment, so I finish a little bit every day. By doing this, I meet the deadline, and it makes me feel motivated each day to do more."
Rachelle's Reply
This is a good way to approach tasks that you are not as excited about. Nice solution! How would you apply this in a workplace setting?
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