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Character Trait-Based Interview Questions to Ask Applicants

Sprockets’ hiring platform is designed to assist hiring managers and HR professionals in making the best data-backed hires using a breakdown of 55 characteristic traits through psycholinguistics and artificial intelligence. Our personality assessment tells you which character traits your top performers possess. To find out if your applicants have the character traits of your top performers, use the list of questions below! (Or let our software do the hard work for you.)

Interview Questions

  • Achievement-striving: When is the time you have been most satisfied in life? 
  • Activity level: What is an average weekday for you? 
  • Adventurousness: If you could take any vacation, where would you go and why? (Somewhere they have already been or somewhere new?).
  • Agreeableness: Do you enjoy working on a team or on your own? Why?
  • Altruism: If you saw someone drop a $20 bill on the street, what would you do with it?
  • Anger: Tell us about a time when things didn’t go the way you wanted— like a promotion you wanted and didn’t get, or a project that didn’t turn out how you had hoped.
  • Artistic interests: What are you passionate about?
  • Assertiveness: Tell me about a time you needed to get information from someone who wasn’t very responsive. What did you do?
  • Cautiousness: Tell me about a time you had to make a split-second decision. 
  • Challenge: Tell me about a time when you had too much to do, but not enough resources (this could include staffing, time, money). How did you handle the pressure, overcome the deficit and/or achieve goals? 
  • Closeness: Why did you move here/have you always lived in XYZ location? 
  • Conservation: When is the last time you tried something new?
  • Cooperation: Talk about a time when you had to work closely with someone whose personality was very different from yours.
  • Dutifulness: Tell me about a time you have had to step up and take the lead on something to ensure it got completed?
  • Emotionality: What do you do to cheer yourself up or unwind after a long day?
  • Excitement:  If you could go on a trip to any location in the world, where would you go and why?
  • Extraversion: Tell me about a time that you were put in an uncomfortable situation and you owned it.
  • Friendliness:  Tell me about a time that one of your peers was upset and you helped to cheer them up. 
  • Gregariousness: Describe a time that you came in contact with a famous individual that you were not expecting to meet.  How did you react? What was discussed?
  • Ideal: Tell me about a time that you messed up and what you did to fix it.
  • Imagination: If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
  • Intellect: In 5 minutes, could you explain something to me that is complicated but you know very well?
  • Liberalism: What is an everyday ideal that you don’t agree with?
  • Liberty: What time period would you choose to live in?
  • Love:  Who is your favorite person in the world and why? 
  • Modesty: What are the top three factors you would attribute to your success?
  • Morality: Describe a time when you were asked to perform a task or spearhead an initiative that went against your values. What did you do? What was the outcome? 
  • Orderliness: What do you do to stay organized?
  • Practicality: Tell me about a time you had to be very strategic in order to meet all your top priorities.
  • Self-consciousness: How do you like to receive feedback at work?
  • Self-discipline: Tell me about a time you were under a lot of pressure. What was going on, and how did you get through it? 
  • Self-expression: How would you describe yourself in one word?
  • Stability: Why do you want to leave your current job?
  • Structure: What type of work environment do you thrive in?
  • Sympathy:  Tell me about a time that you helped someone who was going through a hard time. 
  • Trust: Do you prefer group or individual projects?
  • Vulnerability: What skill or expertise do you feel like you’re still missing?

Want more insights on these interview questions? Looking to improve your current hiring process and reduce employee turnover? Reach out to our team!

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