It'south safe to say that we've all learned a lot over the last year…

Yet, whilst you might be able to hands articulate your learnings from a personal perspective, knowing how to identify what you've learned in a professional sense may be more of a challenge. Especially if y'all're put on the spot with this question in your next job interview .

We've already covered some of the emerging questions interviewers are asking in 2021 , but here'southward our advice for how to answer: 'What's the nearly valuable matter you lot've learned during the last yr?'

The existent question

What they're asking: 'What's the most valuable matter you've learned during the terminal yr?'

What they're actually asking: 'Do yous have the ability to reverberate on times of adversity in order to learn and abound?'

This question really straddles the line betwixt a character and a competency question .

On the face of information technology, the interviewer is request yous to talk about an chemical element of your character – your power to learn. But despite how it may seem on the surface, they're really not that interested in your personal growth.

So instead of covering your recent cookery course, or talking about the fascinating history book you just read, yous need to think about what you've learned that you tin can really apply to the role .

To practise that well, you lot need to start past looking at recent challenges you've faced.

Step 1: Reflect on your recent challenges

Another way of thinking about this question is to think well-nigh what limitations you had professionally, that you've overcome during the last year.

Outset by writing downward a few of your recent challenges or weaknesses , that you think you've improved upon during the last twelve months. You could also cull to talk about a mistake y'all've learned from, or just a general change to the business landscape that you've had to suit to.

For example, it could be getting used to the challenges of working remotely, if information technology's non something you'd done much of in the by. Or a fault yous made whilst learning a new organization, which you worked to correct.

Once you've jotted a few things down, yous'll have a perfect starting betoken to move on to step ii.

How to answer: What are your weaknesses?

Step ii: Explain what you learned

Now you've identified and articulated the areas you wanted to develop in, it's time to talk almost how you went most this.

It could be that you've completed a course or undertaken some personal development , which has helped meliorate your skillset. Or it could be that you lot've taken learnings from a item incident after performing a retrospective, and taken steps to ensure the same incident won't happen once more.

Any you choose to focus on, the key hither is that you can clearly explain the steps involved – making sure they're as quantifiable and measurable equally possible.

Step three: Reflect on the impact of what you learned

The last step is to put everything together. Explicate how you applied your learnings in a specific business setting.

Just similar with a traditional competency question, the best approach hither is to employ the STAR method . This uncomplicated technique stands for: State of affairs, Task, Approach and Results.

A topline tactic for using it to answer this question could exist: 'Explicate the steps you took to learn Ten, how you then applied it to Y, which led to Z results'.

In other words, choose an anecdote well-nigh a time you picked upwardly a new professional person skill, walk the interviewer through the steps yous took to larn it, and then finish by outlining the happy outcome it resulted in for the business.

Case reply

My squad had to switch to a remote working format as a consequence of the pandemic. It was a huge learning experience for me, and something I found really challenging at first, as I wasn't used to working with colleagues remotely. However, the experience taught me merely how flexible and resilient I can be.

The first step was connecting with our tech team to ensure we were set with the correct tools – such as Zoom and Slack. I also did some online research to place best practice when it comes to successful remote working.

I quickly figured out that we could condense several of our weekly meetings into one and also keep track of each other'south progress with a shared worksheet. This made bottlenecks more visible and helped usa prioritise and plan our time better as a team.

We're more than productive and organised than we were before -which simply shows yous how much you can learn if yous really throw yourself into new challenges.

Need more interview answers?

Unfortunately, we don't take a crystal ball to tell you lot which interview questions volition come on the big day. However, we tin help you prepare for every eventuality and avoid any interview nightmares .

Buy James Reed'southward latest volume: Why Yous? 101 Interview Questions You'll Never Fear Again to observe out how.

Five interview questions you should stop being scared of

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