Interview Questions to Find Your Ideal Team Player

Skills can be taught, but personality and ability to fit into your company culture is inherently different from candidate-to-candidate. That’s why you need to ask ideal team player interview questions to determine your candidate’s soft skills. Soft skills like being humble, hungry, and smart show you who is an ideal team player. 

Humble individuals prioritize the success of the team over their own ego and are mindful not to let insecurity or arrogance impact their work. 

Hungry individuals have a drive to continuously learn more, do more, and become more. But, these people can sometimes burn out so it is crucial to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

Smart individuals possess emotional intelligence and critical thinking, the ability to understand and effectively interact with others and improve the work environment.

Humble, hungry, and smart employees are assets to your company – and here are the questions you can use to find them.

Interview Questions to See if Your Candidate is Humble

• How do you handle conflicts or disagreements with your team members?
• Can you give an example of when you had to apologize or admit your mistake to a team member?
• Can you tell me about a time when you had to work with someone who was difficult to get along with?
• How do you handle criticism from others, and how do you respond to feedback?
• Can you describe a project where you had to work across different teams?
• How do you contribute to a positive and inclusive team culture?

Questions to use in Interviews to See if a Candidate is Hungry (for Knowledge)

• Can you describe a time when you pursued a new skill or knowledge area outside of your job responsibilities?
• Can you tell me about a time when you took on a new challenge and what you learned from the experience?
• How do you stay current with industry developments and new technology?
• Can you give me an example of a project you initiated or a problem you solved that wasn’t part of your job description?
• Can you tell me about a time when you went above and beyond to help a co-worker or a customer?
• Can you describe a situation where you had to adapt to a change and how you did so?
• Can you tell me about a time when you took the lead on a project and what you learned from that experience?
• Can you describe a time when you sought feedback from your team or manager and how you used that feedback to grow and improve?
• Can you describe a time when you had to push beyond your comfort zone to achieve a goal or complete a project?
• How do you deal with work-related stress?

Interview Questions To See Whether a Candidate is Smart

• Can you give an example of a situation where you had to deal with a difficult person and how you handled it?
• How do you handle conflicts or disagreements with a coworker or team member?
• Can you describe a time when you had to make a tough decision and how you went about making it?
• Can you tell us about a time when you had to listen to multiple perspectives and make a judgement call?
• How would you go about learning your new job responsibilities in your first two weeks?
• Can you describe a situation where you had to balance your own opinions and the opinions of others to arrive at a decision?
• How do you approach a situation where someone on your team is not performing up to standard?
• Can you give an example of a time when you had to change your approach or perspective in order to effectively communicate with someone?
• Can you describe a situation where you had to consider multiple factors in order to arrive at a fair and just solution?
• Can you describe a situation where you had to collaborate with someone who had a different working style than you?
• How do you communicate with team members to ensure everyone is on the same page?
• How do you prioritize and manage your tasks to meet the needs of the team?

Discover Your Ideal Team Player Candidates By Interviewing With Video

By asking about humility, hunger, and emotional intelligence, hiring managers get a well-rounded understanding of how the candidate will fit into their team. 

Open ended questions like these often provoke long and thoughtful responses. But if you are only in round one, or the pre-screening round of interviewing, asking the candidate a few of these questions via a one way video interview will give you an overview of the candidate. After you decide whether they will continue to the next round, you can choose more to dig deeper.

See how interviewstream can help you find your ideal team player – get in touch with a hiring expert today. 

About The Author

Caroline Chessia is the Marketing Operations Specialist at interviewstream. She loves color-coordinated graphs, hiking in the mountains, and every dog she meets—especially the Golden Retrievers.