Episode #006 – Are you an organized person?

Now the question almost answers itself. If you’re in the six to 14-year experience bracket, probably you’re getting into anywhere from a team lead to a manager, mid manager or even a senior manager role. So the question like, are you an organised person? Possibly the most trivial answer is yes. Of course, you want to give that kind of an answer. 

But there is a nuance. There are things that this question presents as an opportunity that this question presents to bring out, and that’s what you need to be mindful of. 

Are you organised? Are you not organised? It’s not like a binary switch. It’s a spectrum. So make sure you bring out examples of places where you could be very organised and just not organised yourself. But you can, if required, impose the organisation and the skills therein on the team and structure out if something is very chaotic to begin with. If that is what the situation demands. Similarly, if it is a team, that is an early stage, and things are very chaotic, and before you start establishing any kind of process or put some sort of structure, it requires you to iterate it requires you to be freewheeling it requires you to accommodate the situation as it is. Then you may want to bring out that aspect. You are organised, but at the same time, you understand what the situation is and are able to exercise the right muscle in the right proportion for the situation. 

So are you an organised person? Well, there’s a trivial answer to this, which is to make sure that when this question comes, if and when this question comes, you use it wisely and present. And make sure you’re to get across the various facets of your personality unlocked so that you can guide the interview in a particular direction.