What kind of personality do you work best with and why?

  
What kind of personality do you work best with and why?

This question is attempting to gauge how well you work with others. It may be, especially in a small business, that the employer has a set kind of personality they want to hire. This could be because of the people they have working there already and won’t want to hire someone who is likely to upset the existing staff.

The best way to answer this question is honestly. However, it is always wise to take the honest answer and tailor it towards the job you have applied for. For example, you may enjoy working as a team and through researching the company, you may have noticed that the employees go to numerous social events together. In this scenario you could tailor your answer as is shown in the example:

"I thoroughly enjoy working as part of a team. My ethos throughout many of my jobs has been to work hard, play hard. During working hours I like to knuckle down to gain a sense of achievement and I feel that interacting socially with team members strengthens bonds and increases the efficiency of the team as a whole." The interviewer would probably expect you to fit in well with this team as you seem to share the work place mentality.

If your research doesn’t uncover any of the current staffs’ personality traits, it might be best to remain a little vague with your answer. Generally, you will be working with people who have a similar set of skills to yourself. Therefore, your experience will be able to help you to work out a kind of stereotype for your industry. If you don’t want to risk saying something wrong with regards to a social aspect then don’t take on this subject. For example, you could use this answer, "I find it easier to work with people who mirror my work ethic. If people try hard and don’t easily give up, it tends to resonate with me and I find it best to work with these people."