What do you need from your boss in a work setting, and what do you expect from your peers?
As with many interview questions that examine personality characteristics, there is a range of answers that indicate that the interviewee is a normal, well-adjusted human being. Saying that you need nothing at all from your boss or peers and hope to see as little of them as possible; or that you really would like to talk to your boss every day, and that your peers should be available at all times for your questions - these two ends of the spectrum might raise a few eyebrows. Be honest, but be realistic about how company hierarchies need to function.
"I am pretty good at working independently. I am a self-starter, and I don't like being idle. So I don't need someone constantly looking over my shoulder to see if I am doing what I am supposed to be doing. I also wouldn't be super-happy to see the boss getting involved in every detail of my work. Of course, I am really talking about that stable point where I have learned what I need to know to make the kind of contributions that I believe I am capable of. At first, I realize that I will need instruction in the company's methods and products, how to best fit in to the culture. But once that phase is complete, I expect to work independently within the priorities I've been given. I'd like to have the boss check in with me from time to time to see if I need anything that I think can help me do my job better - training, for example. I expect to check in and have him either give me his current list of priorities for my work, or to sign off on the list I suggest. I expect him to give me feedback about how I am doing so that I can keep improving. Lastly, I expect my boss to give me opportunities to grow and advance, that he won't, for example, refuse to allow me to move to other opportunities in the company just because it is inconvenient for him to lose whatever expertise I have developed.
From my peers, I know that I would initially need a lot of help ramping up to full competence in this job. I would want to feel that I could go to them with just about any question, whether it was technical or some other job-related piece of information, and know that it would be received with patience and respect. I would expect to do the same for newer employees once I had been around for a while. "
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