How would you handle working in an increasingly remote work environment?

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This is a question to gauge if you are disciplined enough to work from home. Be sure to touch on how you would stay focused and communicate with team members. Even after things return to normal, remote work may continue to be more common across many industries including accounting.

COVID hit hard when I was an accounting student in college. My professor had to learn new ways to teach our lectures. He did this by using Zoom video. Working remotely became second nature to me. We were even able to intern at an accounting firm using different video platforms. I would say working remotely is exactly what I like.

"I have experience working remotely. At my internship, we were able to work from home on Fridays in the summer. I enjoyed working from home and was able to stay on task and communicate effectively with my team members. There were some ground rules I implemented, such as maintaining regular hours, keeping my morning routine as if I was going to the office, and scheduling breaks to take care of non-work related tasks. I also had a standing meeting with my manager and team members every morning to discuss priorities for the day."

Anonymous Answer

"I did remote work since 2021 at VITA Program - this is a tax preparer program - from Tuesday to Thursday every afternoon. I logged in to my account at the scheduled time, looking for all the emails that my coworker sent to me. I opened the group message to communicate with my coworker and my manager. So, if anyone in my team has any questions, she or he could text message. The group message just allows for working, not for normal chatting because I do not want to distract during working."

Amanda's Feedback

This is a great start because it sounds like you have some remote work experience. You can strengthen this answer further by explaining how you stay productive and efficient when working independently. Do you have a dedicated space for a home office? Do you utilize time management or organization tools such as reminders apps or calendar notifications to make sure priorities are accomplished? Sharing more detail helps the interviewer gain more insight into how you manage work virtually.