"Tell us about a time you worked in a team": how to answer
Pick one specific time a group had a shared goal and something got in the way. Spend most of your answer on what you personally did to help the team get there, then say what happened and what you learned.
What recruiters look for
- Your role, not the team's. What you contributed, said and decided.
- How you worked with others. Listening, sharing work, handling disagreement, supporting someone.
- An obstacle. A team that simply got on with it shows less than one that hit a problem.
- The outcome. Did you reach the goal? What changed because of what you did?
A structure to follow
Use STAR (see our guide to the STAR method):
- Situation: the team, the goal and the deadline, in one or two sentences.
- Task: the problem the team hit, and your part in solving it.
- Action: three or four things you did, written as "I".
- Result: the outcome, plus one line on what you learned about working in teams.
Good sources: group coursework, sports teams, societies, part-time jobs, volunteering and engineering competitions.
Example answer
Sam is a fictional second-year mechanical engineering student. The details are invented to show the shape of a good answer. Use your own.
In my second-year design module, four of us had five weeks to build a small wind-turbine model to a set power target. Halfway through, our blade design was producing half the target power and the group had split into two camps over what to change. I suggested we stop debating and test both designs on the same day. I booked the department wind tunnel, wrote a one-page test plan and split the work so each camp ran the other's design, which kept the test fair. I logged the results in a shared spreadsheet so everyone could see them. One design was clearly better, so we built on it together and passed the power target in week five. I learned that a fair test settles a disagreement faster than an argument, and I now suggest one early.
About 140 words.
Common mistakes
- "We" all the way through. The reader can't tell what you did.
- No problem to solve. "We split the work and finished on time" shows very little.
- Blaming a teammate. Describe the difficulty fairly and focus on how you helped.
- Leadership by another name. If the form also asks about leadership, use a different example here.
- Generic AI phrasing. "I am a strong team player who thrives in collaborative environments" says nothing. Specific actions do.
FAQs
Can I use a group project from my course?
Yes. Course projects are one of the most common examples, especially for placements. Make your own contribution clear.
What if the team didn't succeed?
That can still work if you explain what you did, what you learned and what you'd do differently.
How is this different from a leadership question?
Teamwork is about contributing and cooperating; leadership is about taking charge. Use different examples if a form asks both.