Have you ever been overloaded with work?

How to Answer
Answer Example
Community Answers

Most engineers have been overloaded with work either in school or at a job. While nobody likes being overloaded with work, keep your answer positive by focusing on your time management skills. Avoid blaming others for any stress caused due to having too much work.

"Recently I was responsible for keeping a manufacturing line up and running and also for installing capital projects. It was often difficult to find time to work on the capital projects while still putting out the daily fires on the line. I learned that when I'm overloaded with work, I can work overtime for a while to get the situation under control, and then see if I can improve the processes I'm responsible for in order to help reduce my future workload."

Anonymous Answer

"Back when COVID started I was taking two intense courses on quality engineering and operations research, both of which required studying from morning to evening for daily quizzes and completing the course in two weeks. I knew it would be very difficult for one to learn a large volume of new concepts every day while applying the knowledge right away to solving complex statistical and programming problems, especially for me as someone with little coding background. I decided to take initiative so that I could still have the performance I aimed for, so I made good use of the course materials posted for preview in my vacation time before they actually started. During the courses, I became more comfortable working on problems at a faster pace but I still had to invest a couple of extra late nights when things got really hectic. Finally, I was able to finish both courses with practical skills and excellent grades, and I feel very confident dealing with overloading work in the future with that experience."

Marcie's Feedback

Excellent! You come across as hardworking, motivated, and proactive, which are all great qualities that the interviewer will appreciate. In addition, you do a great job of using the STAR method here to describe the situation, your task/actions, and the end result. Finally, you connect how you handled this past situation with what might happen in the future when you're overloaded with work. Great response!