Stuck for conversation around the water cooler? Struggling to inspire teamwork in the office? Looking to learn more about prospective employees?

Get to know you questions are perfect conversation starters. Together with our icebreaker questions and this-that questions, you’ll have everything you need in your toolkit to dispel awkward silences, spark interesting debates, and pave the way for greater team collaboration. 

Sounds good?
‍Here are 120 awesome get to know you questions divided into the following categories:

• Our favorite get to know you questions for work
• Get to know you questions for remote teams
• Fun get to know you questions to ask employees
• “Would you rather” get to know you questions for the workplace
• Get to know you questions for interviews
• Random get to know you questions for any occasion
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Our favorite Get to know you questions for work

Let’s start with our go-to get to know you questions. No matter the context, these ones always work a treat!

1. What would your ideal day at work look like?
2. What’s your favorite part of working here?
3. What’s your least favorite part of working here?
4. What do your usual duties at work involve?
5. What do you do outside work to unwind?
6. How do you usually start the day?
7. What’s one thing you’d change about your usual routine and why?
8. What book(s), if any, are you reading at the moment?
9. What was the first job you ever got?
10. How would you describe yourself in 5 words?
11. What hobbies do you have?
12. Have you ever had any mentors in your professional life? How did they help you?
13. Who in the world – dead or alive – inspires you? And why?
14. What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
15. What’s the best book you’ve ever read?  
16. What’s the most exciting part of your current job role?
17. Where did you work before here?
18. What’s one professional achievement you’re most proud of?
19. Do you have any hidden talents or skills? What are they?
20. What’s one area of work in which you’d like to improve?
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Get to know you questions for remote teams

Remote working is more common than ever. Has your team adopted this style of work too? If so, the following team-building questions should make sure everyone knows, likes, and appreciates each other – regardless of where they are in the world!

21. What’s the best part of working remotely?
22. What’s the hardest part of working remotely?
23. Is there anything we can do to make remote work more enjoyable for you?
24. What social activities would you enjoy doing over a group video call?
25. What’s the biggest distraction when working from home?
26. Where’s the coolest place you’ve ever worked remotely?
27. If you could invent one new piece of technology to make your life easier, what would it be?
28. Which movie best describes your life?
29. Which book would you recommend everyone reads once in their lifetime?
30. What’s your one guilty pleasure? 
31. How would you spend your last 12 months on the planet?
32. Where’s your “happy place”?
33. What’s your favorite country in the world?
34. Where should we host our next remote team retreat?
35. What’s your dream job?
36. What’s one thing holding you back from your dreams?
37. If you could trade places with one celebrity for a week, who would it be and why?
38. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
39. What advice would you give to someone considering remote work?
40. Name 5 capital cities where you’d happily live forever.
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Fun Get to know you questions to ask employees

Why so serious?! Life in the office can get a tad stressful sometimes. These light-hearted get to know you questions will brighten the mood, put a smile on peoples’ faces, and spark some lively conversations to boot. 

41. Okay, it’s 10pm on a Friday night. What are you doing? 
42. If you could travel back to one specific point in time, when would it be? Why? 
43. What’s the first thing you’d do or buy if you won one million dollars?
44. What does your perfect day look like?
45. What’s the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to you?
46. What’s your biggest phobia?
47. What’s one instrument you’ve always wished you could play?
48. If you could swap lives with anyone for a day, who would it be? And why?
49. What’s your favorite time of year? Why?
50. How would your best friend(s) describe you?
51. How would your parents describe you?
52. In a zombie apocalypse, which 3 people would you want with you at all times? 
53. What was your best subject at school?
54. Describe your ideal partner in 5 words.
55. What’s your favorite food?
56. What’s your Achilles heel?
57. What’s an itch you’d like to scratch? An interest or passion you’d like to pursue? 
58. In what store, brand, or restaurant do you spend most of your money?
59. If your life was a famous meme, which one would it be?
60. Which famous TV character do you most associate with?
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“Would you rather” questions for the workplace

There’s a time and place for some get to know you questions. For “would you rather” ones, though, it’s a matter of always and everywhere! Use the following 20 questions at your leisure.

61. Would you rather commute an hour to your dream job or live a minute from a mediocre one?
62. Would you rather have more work than you could ever accomplish or so little that you were bored?
63. Would you rather run a company or manage a team?
64. Would you rather work for a big company or a small one?
65. Would you rather have free post-work drinks or free lunch?
66. Would you rather work in the office or work remotely? Or hybrid?
67. Would you rather have an awful job and an amazing boss, or an amazing job and an awful boss?
68. Would you rather clean the office toilets or eat the oldest thing in the fridge?
69. Would you rather wear a work uniform or your own clothes in the office?
70. Would you rather have a name that everyone mispronounces or a name everyone forgets?
71. Would you rather earn more or work less (for the same salary you’re on now)?
72. Would you rather have a workplace therapy dog or free counseling sessions?
73. Would you rather eat lunch at the desk each day but go home early, or have a break at lunch and go home at the usual time?
74. Would you rather get extra paid annual leave or be awarded a raise?
75. Would you rather drive to work and get stuck in traffic each day or bike to work and arrive super sweaty each day?
76. Would you rather work on a large team or a small one?
77. Would you rather have awesome career prospects but a low starting salary or a sky-high starting salary but minimal room for growth?
78. Would you rather be rich and unhappy or poor and happy?
79. Would you rather be super fit or super wealthy?
80. Would you rather go on a leadership retreat or a team-building retreat?
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Get to know you questions for interviews

Want to learn more about the person applying for your latest job opening? This section’s full of get to know you questions that should help.

81. Who are the greatest role models in your life?
82. When was the last time you worked as part of a team? What did it involve?
83. What’s one unique quality you’d bring to our team? 
84. What made you decide to apply for this job?
85. What motivates you?
86. When did you last show strong leadership qualities? Tell us about it.
87. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
88. If you could take 3 items onto a deserted island, what would they be?
89. What attracted you to this role and company?
90. What are your primary strengths?
91. What would you like to gain from the experience of working for us?
92. Have you ever traveled? If so, where? What did you learn from the experience?
93. Is there a business icon you admire? If so, who? And why?
94. Why should we hire you?
95. What makes you angry?
96. What brings you joy?
97. If you got the job, what do you expect the biggest challenge would be?
98. What are your favorite things to do outside work?
99. What made you decide to leave your previous role?
100. How do you react to pressure and stressful situations? What do you do when things don’t go to plan?
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Random Get to know you questions for any occasion

The best get to know you questions don’t always fit into neat little boxes! In this final section, we’ll run through 20 miscellaneous examples you can pull out on any work-related occasion.

101. What’s your favorite childhood memory?
102. Do you listen to podcasts? If so, which would go in your top 3?
103. What was your least favorite subject at school?
104. If you could change one thing about your childhood, what would it be?
105. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? Why?
106. Where did you go to college/university? What did you like about it?
107. What scares you most in life? Why?
108. What’s your least favorite chore to do around the house?
109. Would you describe yourself as introverted or extroverted? How come?
110. Do you have any family traditions? If so, what’s your favorite?
111. What’s one thing you’d like to do and/or achieve in the next 12 months that you’ve never done before?
112. What was the very first thing you bought with your very first paycheck?
113. Do you commute to work? If so, how do you pass the time?
114. What advice would you give yourself if you could travel back in time to the start of your career?
115. Describe your ideal boss! What would they do? How would they operate?
116. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?
117. Have you ever met anyone famous? If so, who? And what happened?
118. What would your perfect vacation involve? Where would it be? What would you do? Who would go with you?
119. What was the last Netflix show you couldn’t stop watching?
120. What sort of music do you like listening to when you [insert activity here]?

Ask these Get to know you questions at retreats

Get to know you questions and games serve a plethora of purposes at work.

They boost trust and rapport. They help you learn about employee fears, ambitions, backgrounds, strengths, and weaknesses. And they facilitate teamwork too – in part by enabling existing colleagues to learn more about each other, but also by helping new employees ingratiate themselves into the group.

Ultimately, these questions are powerful tools that open the door to new conversations, instill fun into proceedings that might otherwise feel tedious, and both establish and solidify friendships.

For similar reasons, they’re perfect accompaniments to company retreats!

Surf Office is here to help if you’d like to arrange one. Why not meet up with your co-workers offsite and really get to know them? Oh, and don’t forget to check out our ultimate list of team-building activities to use when you’re there!