36 questions to ask that tell you who someone is beyond their job

Whenever I hear the feared “So tell me about you”, I feel perplexed. I know that I am more than the job title and the degree of education on which my brain instinctively rushes, but it is also extremely clumsy and brutal to suddenly get into my fear of death or my favorite book of all time (Tuesdays with Morrie By Mitch Albom, if you care).

It saddens me that we can spend hours – even years – next to colleagues or peers, knowing every detail of their career trajectory, but nothing they are at the end of the day and that they leave their office. That said, there is no reason to suddenly force a deep and comfortable link with this colleague who has been perfectly comfortable with the maintenance of a shared silence for years. But often there are deeper details that we don’t even know about people closest to us. Think about it: What do you know about the favorite childhood memories of your own parents or the dreams that they let go silently?

To avoid reducing people to their work, we have drawn up a list of questions to ask this request more than just “yes” or “no”. Whether you are sitting in front of someone you have just met or someone you have known for years, here are 36 open questions that allow you to really see the person in front of you.

1. If you could relive any time in your life, what would be?
2. Who is someone who has had a deep influence on you and in what way?
3. If you had free will for a day, how would you spend it?
4. If the world ended, who would you like to spend your last day with?
5. How do you prefer to face when you have a bad day?
6. What is a book, a television show or a film that you think that everyone has to read or watch, and why?
7. If you could donate significant money to any cause, what would be?
8. When do you feel the most like you?
9. What do you secretly want people to ask you most often?
10. What role do you usually play in a group? Are you satisfied with this role?
11. Could you describe yourself while you are under pressure?
12. What do you think you are good?
13. Who is a fictitious character in whom you identify the most, and in what way?
14. When did you feel the most proud of you?
15. What could you don’t guess just looking at yourself?
16. Can you describe the conditions in which you prospel the best?
17. Do you think you were born in the right generation? Otherwise, what generation do you identify the most and why?
18. What kind of energy do you hope that people feel to you after leaving a room?
19. If fear did not take into account your decisions, which you first sucked?
20. What is your opinion on love?
21. Do routines feel more reassuring or limited to you? For what?
22. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you choose to live?
23. What is the best advice you have met?
24. If you could devote a lot of time to learn something new, what would it be?
25. To what extent do you think the perceptions of people of you are accurate?
26. What do you want people to pay attention more?
27. When do you like the most?
28. What is your greatest fear?
29. If you could hold a debate on any subject, what would it be and what side would you represent?
30. When you are in a group, you find yourself talking naturally or to hold a space so that others take the lead?
31. Who is someone you admire and why?
32. What is the compliment you often receive?
33. How would you describe your emotional reflex during difficult times?
34. Is there something you would like to change on yourself and why?
35. What words of songs do you identify the most?
36. Can you describe the dream version of yourself? How much do you think you are similar to them now?