This article has been approved by an Indeed Career CoachDuring the interview process, the hiring manager may ask you questions regarding your experience and duties at your current position. They may do this to understand if your skills and responsibilities align well with the projects they need completed at their company. You should explain your current job responsibilities and duties clearly and in detail to help them visualize the tasks you successfully complete.In this article, we discuss why employers ask you to describe your current job responsibilities, how to answer this question in an interview and we list examples to help you better answer this question.
- Remember the responsibilities listed in your resume. …
- Connect your responsibilities to the ones in the job posting. …
- Use details when explaining your larger and important projects. …
- Describe how you use your skills to benefit the company.
Describe Your Current Job Role – Sample Answer
Dental assistant example
“My duties and responsibilities regularly consist of ensuring the dental office is running properly and solving any problems the patients or doctors may face. I keep each operating and cleaning room sanitized and assist with any medical procedures if the doctor and hygienist need extra support. I will also use my strong customer service skills to check a patient in, retrieve any of their patient information and gather their x-rays when they first come in for their appointment.”
Why employers may ask you to describe your current job responsibilities
Employers may request information about your current job responsibilities to gain an idea of how your duties and experience relate to the responsibilities of their role. They may feel more confident about hiring you for the role if they know you have completed similar tasks and projects. If you have responsibilities similar to the ones in their role, then it often means you can complete their companys projects with limited training.
When asking about your job responsibilities, employers may also want to know what results you may have provided your company when completing these work duties. This helps gain an idea of what benefits you may bring their company if you were to complete similar responsibilities.
Connect your responsibilities to the ones in the job posting
Once you have an idea of the responsibilities mentioned in your resume, you can begin explaining these duties and responsibilities in detail to the interviewers. Try to remember the responsibilities listed in the job posting and connect your current responsibilities with those mentioned in the posting.
For example, if the job posting states that one of the positions responsibilities is writing social media posts, you can explain how one of your responsibilities is creating and implementing weekly social media posts for specific outlets. Describe any results these posts brought in, if possible.
Employers are asking this question to learn if your experience matches the responsibilities required in their position. If you explain your similar experience and mention your accomplishments when completing that responsibility, this may give them a better idea of how youll complete these same tasks for their company.
Data analyst example
“I work to provide my company with a strong online presence through brand awareness and audience conversion. I accomplish this by creating marketing material and advertising campaigns that have successfully reached our target audience and created a conversion rate of prospects to customers by 20% in two months. I also use my research skills to conduct regular competitive research to determine ways we can improve and stand out from other companies.”
Why Would You Need to Describe Your Current Job Responsibilities?
Its a reasonable question. The hiring manager has read your resume right? But before we answer it lets take a look at another question.
Job responsibilities are what an organization uses to describe the work and functions that an employee needs to perform in a particular role.
And back to the first question, yes, the hiring manager has read your resume. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be preparing for an interview. But there are a couple of reasons an interviewer might still ask you to briefly describe your current position.
Okay, so let’s say you sent a resume that was off the charts. You used a beautiful resume template. You followed all the best career advice you could find.
To top it all off, you just so happen to be the most talented candidate that applied for the job. You may not know it yet, but your skills and experience blew everyone else out of the water.
The hiring manager is thrilled. But she has her reservations. She needs to pinch herself and make sure you’re not too good to be true. So, she asks you to briefly describe your current position.
Now, you’ve never lied on your resume. You’ve never inflated your skills. You’ve never made up numbers to illustrate your achievements or exaggerated your job responsibilities.
But there are those out there who do.
So, how do you reassure the interviewer that your resume is pure gold?
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| Start by giving a brief overview of what you do. Briefly describe one or two of the more fantastic job responsibilities from your resume. Then go into some details that didn’t fit on your resume. |
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| Ignore the achievements you listed on your resume. Go for something you’ve not shared with the interviewer yet instead. |
What you want to achieve with your answer is a balance.
It’s safe to assume that the interviewer is familiar with your resume experience section.
At the same time, you will want to go into greater detail about some of the things you have already included.
Remember that you want to keep your answer brief.
So, don’t linger on your resume achievements.
The end goal is to paint a clear and compelling picture of what is that you do at your current or most recent job.
Keep in mind that the interviewer might phrase the interview question in a different way.
Here are some alternatives to the “could you describe your current position” question:
Okay, not quite the same question. But you can answer it in a similar way.
Instead of starting with your job responsibilities, explain what your employer does. You can also mention the work culture. Draw on similarities between the two companies.
Then briefly describe how your current position fits into the scheme of things.
For example:
Sample description of your current employer:
Sample transition to a description of your current role:
Pro Tip: Sometimes the interviewer will ask a direct question about your current job title, role or responsibility. So, it’s best to practice what you might say about any of the bullet points you included in your experience section.
For example, “It says here that you’re in charge of a team of 15+ people? Could you tell me more about that?”
Also, keep in mind that you might have to describe other jobs.
Want to know how to select professional achievements for both your resume and interview? Read our guide: “Achievements to Put on Resume – Complete Guide (+30 Examples)”
When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, job skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building a professional resume template here for free.
When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.
Examples of “Describe Your Current Position” Best Answers
So, what does the best answer look like for the “can you describe your current position” interview question?
Here’s an example of a job offer for a cocktail server:
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Describe a couple of job responsibilities that you tailor to match the job description. Choose duties that reflect your strengths and show what it’s like when you get results.
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A laundry list of all the tasks you do day after day.
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Pro Tip: Keep it brief. One thing you don’t want to do is rattle off a laundry list of job responsibilities.
The hiring manager wants to know more about that accomplishment from your resume and less about all the boring things you do.
You know the accomplishment that shows you’re a whiz at optimizing filing systems? Such a wonderful whiz that you increased office productivity by 25%? That’s what you should mention.
Now that you’ve aced your interview, what’s next? Time to send a thank you email to the interviewer. Here’s how: “How to Write a Thank You Email After an Interview(+10 Examples)”
Bonus: Download FREE step-by-step checklist of things to do before an interview. “Things You Need To Do Before Your Big Interview.”
Plus, a great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Heres what it may look like:
See more cover letter templates and start writing.
Use Action Words
Since employees depend on job descriptions to better understand their duties and functions, use action verbs to describe roles and responsibilities. Directives such as delegate, review, investigate and collaborate, communicate the expected behavior of the employee. Active starters also provide a clear understanding of visible and measurable performance goals and objectives.
Examples:
Supervise, train and evaluate 15 full-time employees.
Negotiate purchasing contracts with external suppliers.
Produce three marketing concepts per week for assigned clients.
FAQ
What are examples of job responsibilities?
- ‘Duties included providing administrative support to employees and managers via a range of tasks related to communication and organization, including answering phones and emails, data entry and maintaining a file system’
- ‘Responsible for time-sensitive and confidential material’
How do you describe job roles and responsibilities?
What are your responsibilities at job?
How do I describe my current job on my resume?
List your position and include the years you worked at the business in parentheses. If you are still working there, list the month and year you started and listed the “finish date” as “Present.” List all your responsibilities in bullet points while using action words.
