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During the interview, a hiring manager wants to know all about you – your experience, your accomplishments, and, of course, your work ethic. While it’s easy to discuss expertise and achievements, showcasing your work ethic can be more challenging. It’s less tangible, and a combination of several factors, including drive, dependability, willingness to share ideas, and going the extra mile, all play a role in it.

The good news? There are a few easy strategies to keep in mind when this question comes your way. Here’s look at five of them:

How Can You Show Your Work Ethic in an Interview?

1. Prepare.

Before trying to determine how to describe your work ethic, ask yourself a few questions that can help you fine-tune your answer. These include:

• What your greatest accomplishment is
• What motivates you to do your best
• The kind of work environment where you flourish
• How you approach challenging situations at work

The answers to these questions can give you some insight into the best way to respond during an interview. For instance, if your greatest accomplishment was increasing sales at your current employer, then discuss how you went about doing it and the results it achieved for your company.

2. Use keywords.

When you’re discussing your work ethic, keep a few critical keywords in mind that will help you bring it all to life for a hiring manager. These include words like: driven, motivated, fast learner, engaged, enthusiastic, persistent, and diligent. When you use these words and have examples to back them up, you’ll further be able to paint an impressive picture of your work ethic to potential employers.

3. Be specific.

When answering questions about work ethic, be as specific as possible. Focus on just one or two accomplishments, but provide a detailed overview of how your work ethic played a role in company success.

4. Focus on actions and results.

Don’t talk about job duties or responsibilities in your interview answers. Instead, highlight the actions you took and the tangible results you were able to achieve for the team.

5. Keep it simple.

Above all, keep your response simple. Don’t go into a 10-minute monologue about your work ethic. Offer one or two examples of why your work ethic made a difference, whether for your team, employer, co-workers, or customers.

Here’s an example of what to say:

“We suddenly had a major increase in our number of customers and the team was left scrambling. I committed myself to working a little more each day, so we could navigate through all the work. I decided I’d work an extra hour for a few weeks to do that. After three weeks of some hard work, we were able to get our new customers successfully onboarded and assigned to account managers. My boss told me that they couldn’t have done it without me.”

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