Slay All Motivational Interviewing Questions [with Tips]

Nola Jones
Jun 09, 2025 / Updated by Nola Jones to Knowledge

Employers look beyond technical skills to assess what drives a candidate and how they approach challenges. This understanding comes through with motivational interviewing questions. While this type of question is usually used in coaching, interviewers ask it to evoke a person's own reasons for change and commitment. So, to be prepared, this post pulls the top motivational interview questions and some tips to truly showcase your potential with your answers.

Purposes of Motivational Interviews

As said, motivational interviewing (MI) strengthens the candidate’s motivation and commitment to change. Employers want to hear about your "why", and not only your "what". Before heading towards the top 10 examples of motivation interview questions, understand first the key purposes of MI.

  • 1. Engaging. This first stage focuses on building a trusting and respectful relationship between the interviewer and candidate, ensuring the client feels heard and supported.
  • 2. Focusing. Upon establishing engagement, the next stage is to narrow down the conversation to areas of concern and change to identify clear goals.
  • 3. Evoking. It involves drawing out the candidate's own motivations for change. Here, the candidate’s values and concerns will be explored in a non-judgmental way.
  • 4. Planning. After that, the final step is to create a realistic and practical action plan, involving the how, when, and what of change.

10 Examples of Motivational Interview Questions

Rather than persuading, the interviewer uses open-ended and reflective questions here in the motivational interviewing examples to draw out the candidate's internal motivation. Check out the 10 examples of motivational interview questions you can practice.

  • 1. Can you share the things you enjoy about your current situation? And what are the things you don’t?
  • 2. How crucial is it for you to make a change right now?
  • 3. How has your job helped you professionally or personally?
  • 4. Describe a time when you discovered a new process for doing your work. How does it feel?
  • 5. What issues do you have with staying the same?
  • 6. What do you think your life would look like a year from now if you made a change?
  • 7. Who in your life now supports you in making this change?
  • 8. On a scale of 1 to 10, how ready are you to take the first step? Why?
  • 9. How would your relationships be different if you made this change?
  • 10. How does the progress you have made make you feel?

Best Interview Recording Software

Whether you're conducting virtual or in-person interviews, having reliable recording software on your side is crucial to preserving important insights shared during conversations. After the motivational interviewing questions, it’s time to know the ideal software you should use, and it’s none other than AnyRec Screen Recorder. The program is a versatile and friendly tool for capturing everything from video interviews to voice-only ones with excellent quality. It covers multiple recording modes, such as full-screen, region, webcam-only, and audio-only, giving you full control over how you will capture your interviews. Capture interviews with professionalism and ease now.

AnyRec Screen Recorder Package
AnyRec Screen Recorder

Capture full-screen, windows, or custom regions up to 4K resolution.

Set start and stop times for automatic recording, useful for capturing live interviews.

Let you save recordings in MP4, MOV, AVI, etc., for easy sharing.

Get the resolution, frame rate, format, and more settings set to your liking.

Free DownloadFor Windows

Secure Download

Free DownloadFor macOS

Secure Download

Step 1. Fire up AnyRec Screen Recorder on your computer. From the main menu, select "Video Recorder". Choose "Full" if you want to record everything on your screen, or "Custom" to choose the interview window or area.

Choose Recording Mode
Note

Before starting, hop into "Settings" then "Output" to customize video quality by adjusting resolution, frame rate, etc.

Step 2. Make sure the "Microphone" toggle is on so your voice is captured. To capture the internal audio of another person’s voice, enable "System Sound" too. Take a moment to adjust volume levels for both inputs.

Hotkeys

Step 3. When everything’s in place, click the "REC" button to start your recording session. As the interview unfolds, use the annotation tools to highlight important questions or parts.

Edit Screenshot

Step 4. Once the interview ends, click the "Stop" button. A preview will open right away to watch the full recording. Cut out any awkward pauses and make important edits. Click the "Save" button and you’re done.

1.AnyRec Screen Recorder

Useful Tips to Improve Communication Skills in Interviews

Just one last stop for a successful interview, particularly when answering interviewing questions about motivational, is knowing some tips to improve your interview technique skills! The ability to listen actively and respond empathetically can hugely affect the outcome of your interview.

See the listed 7 useful tips below:

Conclusion

As you see, motivational interviewing is a powerful conversation style that builds trust, encourages self-reflection, and supports meaningful change. With the sample motivational interviewing questions, employers can unlock a person’s motivation and help them move to action. To make the most of these interviews, it’s nice to record and review your sessions with AnyRec Screen Recorder. Whether you're conducting an interview for research or training, this tool offers high-quality capture of both audio and video. For anyone serious about improving interview techniques, AnyRec Screen Recorder is the best place to go.

Free DownloadFor Windows

Secure Download

Free DownloadFor macOS

Secure Download

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