How to Answer These Personality Questions in Your Next Interview

The pandemic has changed the way we conduct interviews, but whether you’re interviewing behind a computer screen or a plexiglass wall, you will still be asked interview questions that reveal your personality. If you’ve ever had to answer “if you could be any animal, what would you be?” you know that answering personality interview questions in a professional manner that still says something about yourself can be tough.

The good news is that there are no right or wrong answers. Just answer honestly and professionally to demonstrate your soft skills and give the interviewer insight into your compatibility with the company and the position. Before we get into our list of personality interview questions and answers, let’s look at these questions from the employer’s perspective.

Why do employers use personality interview questions?

Questions that reveal your personality help employers learn about your soft skills, work style and work ethic. It’s a way for the interviewer to gauge your fit with the company and how suited you are to the role. When many applicants have similar backgrounds and hard skills, personality interview questions reveal the intangible qualities that can make or break a successful employment relationship.

What does this mean for you?

It means that personality interview questions are your way to stand out from the crowd. Your answers should say something about who you are as a person and as an employee. Especially if you’re participating in a virtual interview where it’s often harder for the interviewer to get a reading on your personality, your answers to personality interview questions can help differentiate yourself from other applicants who may have similar experience and hard skills.

How do you answer personality interview questions?

Even though some of the personality interview questions we identify later in this article may seem like they have nothing to do with the job, remember: everything in the interview process contributes to the impression you make on your potential employer. So, prepare for personality interview questions just as thoroughly as you would for other common interview questions.

Here’s how:

First, identify the soft skills and other traits that you possess that will help you succeed in the role you’re interviewing for. Consider the traits the job description uses to describe their ideal candidate, but don’t forget to research the organization’s values to understand their corporate culture as well as drawing on your past experience or research about the traits that contribute to an individual’s success in the industry and role. And when in doubt, highlight general personality traits like professionalism, punctuality and communication that are always important.

Once you’ve identified the personality traits you want to highlight, find examples from your professional life — or that you can tie to your professional life — to demonstrate these traits. Use your resume to remind yourself of strong examples where you demonstrated these traits.

And remember: interviews go both ways. Use your interview to also evaluate the company. Think about whether your values truly align with the company and if they would be a good fit for your goals.

Let’s get into the top 11 common interview questions that reveal personality and the things you need to know when answering them.

Examples of personality interview questions and how to answer them

1. What motivates you?

The interviewer is looking for an honest answer about what drives you at work and whether your motivators will allow you to fit their company and the demands of the position. Does collaborating with your colleagues invigorate you? Then you will likely fit with collaborative roles and team-based work environments. Or maybe your biggest motivator is seeing projects through from beginning to end – indicating that you would be an asset to a start-up or other lean organization looking for independent workers who can hit the ground running on new projects.

Of course, the financial incentive is probably high on your list, but answering this question effectively means showing that you’ve done your homework and thought about your strengths and weaknesses as a worker — advice that applies to answering every question on this list.

2. What do you do in your spare time?

Another “getting to know you” question, the interviewer is looking for insight into the way that you balance your work with your outside life. Your outside interests can also indicate personality traits — if you play sports, you’re probably competitive; if you like learning new languages, you’re probably inquisitive and pick things up quickly. Think of one or two appropriate interests ahead of the interview that demonstrate the qualities that you want to present to the interviewer.

3. What makes you unique?

No, the fact that Mariah Carey is your second cousin doesn’t count. It’s easier to think of it this way: “what makes you a unique candidate for this position?” Here’s where you get to shine. What’s the one skill or trait that makes you the perfect fit for this role? Use that!

4. Tell me about a stressful situation and how you handled it.

We all experience stressful situations in our live — the COVID-19 pandemic is one we all share. In asking this question, the interviewer is looking for your ability to demonstrate how you understood the situation and yourselfwell enough to successfully get through it. No job is without its stressors, so knowing that you have developed a way to perform under pressure that works for you helps the interviewer understand how you will adapt to the demands of the new position.

5. Is your preference to work on a team or on your own? Why?

In answering this question, you should draw on your knowledge of the requirements of the role to frame your response according to your preferences. You want to demonstrate that you’re adaptable to both team-oriented and independent tasks and work environments, while demonstrating that you have an understanding of the demands of the role.

6. How do you like to be managed?

Draw on past experiences for examples of things that worked and didn’t; but like the previous question, your response should highlight your adaptability.

7. How do you work best?

This question is looking for you to demonstrate self-awareness about your work habits. How do you get in the zone? What do you do when you feel your energy level dipping? Your answer will help give the interviewer a sense of your compatibility with the employer’s work environment and the demands of the job itself.

An especially relevant alternate version of this question is “how productive are you when working from home” or other variations. Have a thoughtful response that acknowledges the current situation while also identifying your specific experience and how you address the challenges of working from home.

8. Tell me about a time when you failed.

We’re entering the tricky personal interview questions portion of this list. And the first one is the big one. No one likes revisiting their failures, especially during a job interview. But this question (and the next two) give you an opportunity to show what you’ve learned. Be brief with details about the failure and focus on how you reacted, what you learned, and how you’ve grown from the experience.

9. What are your pet peeves?

Be mild! Having too many pet peeves or showing too much emotion here can make you come across as difficult to work with. One strategy is to juxtapose your pet peeves with your good qualities. For example, you may be annoyed by people who are always late because punctuality is very important to you. Or perhaps you particularly dislike typos because you pay considerable attention to details.

10. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be and why?

Another common variation of this question is “what are your weaknesses.” Answering a question like this is so tricky because it requires you to identify a negative quality by design and increases the chance that you’ll identify a weakness in an area that is fundamental to success in the position. So, how do you answer this question? Keep it professional. Identify something that you know won’t put you out of the running of the job and emphasize the ways that you are working on improving or how you work around the weakness.

11. If you could be any animal, what would you be?

Our last question represents a long list of offbeat or unusual questions that your interviewer may throw at you. They’re looking for creativity and how well you think on your toes. There is really no wrong answer here, so try to have fun with it and present a thoughtful answer.

Answering interview questions that reveal your personality can be a daunting prospect, but with some thoughtful preparation that considers the desired traits of the role and company that you then link to your best features can make this portion of the interview go smoothly.