Tell me about a time you worked in a team
Pick a shared goal, explain what you personally added and show how the team got there. Your own actions need “I”, even in a story about “we”.
Practise this questionChoose your example
Interviewers ask this to hear how you behave around other people: whether you share information, step in when someone needs help and keep going when the group doesn’t agree. A team can be colleagues, a university project group, a sports team or a group of volunteers.
Choose something with a little friction or something at stake. “Everyone got along and it went well” gives you very little to talk about.
Goal, your part, outcome
- Give the team’s goal.
Say what the group was trying to do and why it mattered. Keep this short.
- Name your part.
Say what you were responsible for, so the listener knows which part of the story is yours.
- Show how you worked with others.
Describe a specific thing you did to help the team: sharing information, supporting someone or sorting out a problem between you.
- Finish with the outcome.
Say what the team achieved and what you took from it.
This is the STAR method applied to teamwork. Read the full guide, with a template to copy.
Two example answers
These are illustrative answers, not scripts to copy. Replace the details with experiences you can discuss honestly.
Situation At university, I was part of a group of five planning a charity fun run, with eight weeks to raise money and sign people up.
Task I took on sign-ups and sponsorship forms, and my numbers also had to feed into the route and marshal plans that others were working on.
Action I set up one shared sheet so that nobody was working from an old list, and I updated the group on numbers before each meeting. When the person handling marshals fell behind because of exams, I offered to contact past volunteers from my list, and we split the calls between us.
Result We had enough marshals on the day, and the event ran as planned. I learned how much time one shared source of information can save a group.
The speaker makes their own part clear and steps in without taking over. The colleague who fell behind is treated fairly, which matters as much as the outcome.
Same question. Your story.Situation I’m a pharmacy technician at a community pharmacy. When a nearby branch closed, our prescriptions went up sharply and the team began to fall behind.
Task My role covered stock and supervising the dispensary assistants, and I wanted to help the team keep waiting times down.
Action I suggested a short huddle at the start of each day, when we agreed who would handle each part of the workload. I reorganised the ordering so that the most-used items came on the morning delivery. When one assistant was struggling with the extra volume, I took on their most time-consuming task until they had got used to it.
Result Over the next month, waiting times came back down to where they had been, and the pharmacist asked us to keep the huddle. The team told me they felt less stretched too.
The answer shows ideas, practical support and a result the speaker could actually observe. It credits the team while still making the speaker’s contribution easy to hear.
Same question. Your story.What to leave out
- Saying “we” all the way through, so nobody can tell what you did.
- Taking all the credit for what was a team effort.
- Complaining about a teammate rather than saying what you did about the problem.
- A story with no difficulty, where everything simply went well.
- Stopping before you say how things turned out.
Listen for “I” and “we”
Record your answer, then listen to how often you say each one. “We” is fine for the team’s goal and the outcome, but each of your own actions should be clearly yours. Record it again if the listener would struggle to say what you did.
Check the balance too. If most of the recording explains the project, shorten the setup and give your own part more room.
Common questions
Can I use an example from outside work?
Yes. University projects, sports teams, volunteering and clubs can all work if they show how you behave with other people. Use a work example if you have a strong one that fits.
What if the team didn’t succeed?
That can still make a good answer. Be honest about the result, explain what you contributed and say what you would do differently. It can be more convincing than a story where everything went perfectly.
Now say it out loud.
Use your own example. Record a first take, listen back and choose one thing to make clearer.