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Adam Grant-Inspired New Hire Entry Interview

A structured entry interview inspired by Adam Grant's organizational psychology research, capturing new hires' motivations, working style, and early expectations as they join your team. Built for HR and people teams, with an AI follow-up interview that digs into the specific moment or belief shaping how this person wants to work and contribute.

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Sample questions

A preview of what’s in the template. Every question is editable before you launch.

13 questions · ~7 min
Q01
Message

Welcome aboard! This short check-in helps us understand what brought you here and how you like to work, so we can set you up well from day one. About 6 minutes.

Q02
Multiple ChoiceRequired

What was the single biggest reason you decided to join this organization?

  • The mission or purpose of the work
  • The specific role or responsibilities
  • The people or manager I met during interviews
  • Compensation or benefits
  • Growth and career advancement potential
Q03
Opinion ScaleRequired

How excited do you feel about the work you'll be doing here?

Scale: 1 – 7
Min:Not excited at allMax:Extremely excited
Q04
Multiple ChoiceRequired

When collaborating with colleagues on a shared project, which best describes your natural instinct?

  • I look for ways to help others succeed, even if it costs me time
  • I focus first on making sure my own contribution is recognized
  • I aim for a fair, roughly even exchange of effort and credit
  • It really depends on who I'm working with
Q05
MatrixRequired

Based on what you've seen so far, how much do you agree with each statement about this organization?

4 rows × 5 columns
  • People here genuinely help each other without expecting something back
  • It feels safe to admit mistakes or ask 'basic' questions
  • My manager has been clear about what success looks like in my first 90 days
  • This team values new ideas from people who just joined
Columns: Strongly disagree · Disagree · Neutral · Agree · Strongly agree
Q06
RankingRequired

Rank these from most to least important for you personally in your first 90 days here.

  1. Having a mentor or go-to person
  2. Autonomy to figure things out my own way
  3. Fast, honest feedback on my work
  4. Visible recognition for early wins
  5. A sustainable, manageable workload
  6. Understanding how my work connects to the bigger picture
Drag to rank
Q07
Point AllocationRequired

Distribute 100 points across what actually drives you at work — put more points on what matters most.

  • Mastering new skills
  • Sense of purpose or impact
  • Freedom to work my own way
  • Recognition from others
  • Compensation and rewards
  • Relationships with colleagues
Allocate 100 points
Q08
AI Interview

Probe the story behind whichever motivator the respondent weighted most heavily in the point allocation — ask for a specific past moment (a job, project, or mentor) that shaped that priority. Then explore their answer about giving vs. taking vs. matching: ask for a concrete example of it playing out, and if they said 'it depends,' pin down what the deciding factor usually is. Close by surfacing one thing that would make them feel psychologically safe enough to ask for help in week one.

Q09
Short Text

What's one thing you're a little nervous about as you start here?

Q10
Message

Just a few quick optional details to help us tailor onboarding — feel free to skip any of these.

Q11
Multiple Choice

Which best describes your work experience level before this role?

  • Entry-level, first full-time role
  • 1-4 years experience
  • 5-9 years experience
  • 10+ years experience
  • Prefer not to say
Q12
Multiple Choice

What is your primary department or team?

  • Engineering/Product
  • Sales/Business Development
  • Marketing
  • Operations
  • People/HR
  • Finance
  • Other
  • Prefer not to say
Q13
Message

Thanks for sharing all of this! Your responses go directly to your manager and the People team to shape your onboarding plan and make sure your first weeks actually match what matters to you.

What’s included

  • AI follow-ups

    Adaptive probes on open-ended answers that pull out detail a static form would miss.

  • Attention checks

    Built-in safeguards against rushed answers and low-quality respondents.

  • AI-drafted copy

    Wording, ordering, and branching written by the AI — tuned to your research goal.

  • Auto report

    Themes, quotes, and a plain-English summary write themselves once responses come in.

How it compares

We reviewed the closest templates from other survey tools. Here’s what they do well — and where this template goes further.

Why this template

  • Includes an AI follow-up interview that specifically probes the story behind whichever motivator the new hire weighted most heavily in the constant-sum exercise, not just a static follow-up question
  • Combines multiple structured formats (ranking, matrix, constant-sum) with an open-ended short-text question about early nerves, giving both quantifiable and qualitative signal
  • Ends with a transparent chat message telling the respondent their answers go directly to their manager and team, building trust into the flow itself
  • Captures department, experience level, and 90-day priorities in one guided sequence so HR gets both onboarding-relevant demographics and psychological insight from the same interview

SurveyMonkey

Adam Grant Entry Interview Template

SurveyMonkey offers a directly comparable fielding-ready template also inspired by Adam Grant's research on new hire entry interviews. As a static survey template, it relies on fixed question sets rather than any adaptive interviewing, so every respondent gets the same follow-up regardless of their answers. It's a solid, well-known starting point but doesn't dig deeper into individual responses.

What it does well

  • Directly themed around the same Adam Grant entry interview concept, so audience fit is strong
  • Backed by SurveyMonkey's broad template library, distribution tools, and reporting dashboard
  • Likely easy to launch quickly given SurveyMonkey's self-serve editor and reputation for ease of use

Where it falls short

  • No adaptive AI follow-up — every respondent gets the same static question set regardless of their answers
  • No voice AI interview option or guided screen-share tasks
  • No visible per-response quality scoring or transparent prompt methodology

Ready to launch?

Open this template in the editor. Every part is yours to change before the first respondent sees it.

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