How to Answer: What have you done in past situations to contribute toward a teamwork environment?
Advice and answer examples written specifically for a Summer Law Clerk job interview.
13. What have you done in past situations to contribute toward a teamwork environment?
How to Answer
Ensure to review the job posting before the interview to familiarize yourself with the work involved. At the time of the interview, you should know whether this position entails mostly independent or team work. As such, should the position entails mostly team work, you should answer this question by emphasizing your love of team work and enjoying sharing/brainstorming ideas with team members.
Should you not answer adequately as per the duties involved, you may be automatically disqualified - for instance, if you answer you prefer independent work and dislike team work when applying for a position that mostly entails team related duties. Not only will this show you are unsuitable for this position as you did not do your due diligence beforehand (as you did not read the job posting before applying for the position nor before the interview), but the interviewer may also believe you are simply looking for any job without being serious about working for this firm particularly.
Answer Example
"I absolutely love team work and I pride myself on my team playing skills. I sincerely enjoy working with others and sharing ideas so as to come up with creative solutions and work toward a common goal. To contribute to a positive team environment, I (... X a situation when you, for instance, sought team members ideas in a project or promoted more effective communication channels so that each team member feels his/her voice is heard), while employed for (X firm) as (X position title)."