Re: How to answer interview question: What is your weakness ?

"Logan Shaw" <lshaw-usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:45d3b836$0$5223$4c368faf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
rossum wrote:
On 13 Feb 2007 13:47:08 -0800, "surf" <surfunbear@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I am trying to figure out some good answers to the question "What is
your weakness ?"
For me as well as for people who give references.

I have interviewed people for jobs, and I often used this question,
usually as a follow up to "What are your strengths?" I was looking
for a reasonably honest answer, anyone who avoided the question or
claimed to have no weaknesses got marked down on that question.

Aha, that's an interesting wrinkle. We've now established that
there are two possible motivations for asking this question:

1. Interviewer is testing job candidate to determine if
they will answer honestly, and wants to find that they
are honest and forthcoming.
2. Interviewer is testing job candidate to determine if
they will answer honestly, and wants to find out that
they are shrewd enough not to give away too much.

These place the job candidate in a difficult position, because
a good answer for #1 is a terrible answer for #2, and vice versa.
Therefore, I suppose we should find the Hegelian synthesis of
these two, which I suggest is this: how well the candidate does
on this question is largely determined by their ability to
judge whether the interviewer values honesty more than shrewdness
or shrewdness more than honesty.

It is probably sensible to treat the motive for the question as 1, and give
a reasonably honest answer (a gushing confessional is likely to be very
off-putting and show a very poor level of judgement). If a company does not
know how to address people's weaknesses it probably has poor management
structure (including the numpty interviewing you) and you would subsequently
find yourself getting poor reviews and no help in addressing your
weaknesses.

If a company really wants you to brazenly evade the answer it either, wants
you for the Sales Dept, or obviously does not value trust highly and is,
again, likely to not value employees highly.

If the question is asked it is also, IMO, reasonable for an interviewee to
follow up their answer with a question about how the company helps people
address their weaknesses (as well as how it recognizes, exploits and
develops their strengths). If a company has no way of addressing people's
weaknesses it has no development opportunity or a culture of improvement by
investment - expect to be replaced in 2-3 years.

--
Stuart


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Am I the only one with doubts about .NET for commercial apps?
    ... Use an Obfuscator. ... is keeping 99% of the honest people honest. ... Windows applications with the .NET platform, but for shareware, I have some ... > So far, I have found only these two weaknesses, but these are BIG ...
    (microsoft.public.dotnet.general)
  • Re: You or I?
    ... Bob G wrote: ... I could walk away from this tomorrow - Gordon Brown ... What he actually said to the interviewer is slightly different: ... "To be honest, you could walk away from all of this tomorrow." ...
    (alt.usage.english)
  • Re: Was it Clarkson, May, or Hammond ?
    ... On 06/09/2011 08:55, Jeff Lawrence wrote: ... Comes across as an utter prick to be honest - what gets me is the interviewer didn't have a go, had it been some politician they are never slow in coming forward are they. ...
    (uk.media.tv.misc)