Do you ask candidates, “What’s your greatest weakness?”
I stopped asking that question back in 1999 when I finally got a clue. I never really knew why I was asking a candidate about his weaknesses in the first place — especially when I am supposed to be using a behavior-based interviewing tool that tricks the interviewee into telling me his greatest weakness with pseudo-science and bad psychology.
What do you do with the answer, anyway? It is difficult to measure the response, and the interviewee is ready with a stupid answer every time I ask the question.
- I don’t like to delegate.
- I work too hard.
- Sometimes I care too much.
Okay, buddy, great.
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Also, here’s some breaking news: I think the question makes the interviewer look like a dork who doesn’t know how to play the game above a 5th grade level.
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So here are my questions.
- As a Recruiting/HR professional, do you ask it?
- What do you want to hear?
- What is your greatest weakness?
I am totally bad at math and I talk too much.
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Stupidest question ever in interviewing. You wrote the stock responses.
And while I’m at it — behavioral-based interviewing. Dorks who want to look like scientists do that. How about being normal? Asking if the person can do the job? All the rest is a way for non-scientists to try to add science to people. As psychologists have shown, the people business isn’t a science.
Agreed. This is the all-time “lame question” winner. Just what truth is the interviewer trying to get at? I have recently been asked this, and my stock answer is that I don’t think in terms of weakness; I am always developing and working to improve every aspect of my professional\personal life. Some days are better than others; some of my talents are stronger than others. I concentrate on people’s strengths. “Staff from strength” is my motto. Getting someone to name a weakness they may or may not believe they have accomplishes nothing. Then again, if it “accomplishes nothing” it fits in with the current state of most HR departments. Disgusting, isn’t it?
I don’t worry much about specific questions to ask. I just try to get at one thing in our conversation- what makes you want THIS job? By staying focused on that in our conversation, I can tell if they spent any time learning about the job, the company, or even me (or the hiring leader).
I could care less what they say their weakness is. Mine is my addiction to sweet iced tea but I highly doubt I’d tell the truth on that one in an interview! lol
I ask, “When I call your manager at job x, what is she going to tell me you do well and what is she going to tell me she wishes you’d do differently?” That one gets interesting responses, presumably because of the specter of the reference check, and it’s interesting to compare it to what the reference does tell me.
I used to ask, “If your manager could fine-tune some aspect of your performance, what would it be?” and other variations of that. About 75% of people would start with a BS answer (“I work too hard” or whatever), and I’d express skepticism and push for a real answer. It was sometimes useful to watch how people handled that.
I’m a big believer in actually being candid in interviews — it’s better to lose the job offer if fit isn’t right, rather than get fired down the road because you BS’d your way into a job you’re not good at.
You forgot “I’m a perfectionist.”
Lazy interviewers do love to ask this question, so as a job seeker you’d be an idiot not to have a stock response lined up. My standard advice over the years has been to say what your actual (work-related) weakness is and how you overcome it.
– Someone who would chronically overschedule herself if it weren’t for a daily checklist and a 15-minute increment schedule
I am guilty of asking this question in years past. But these days, I just want to see if a candidate has prepared to discuss shortcomings as it relates to the qualifications of the position.
1. F to the no
2. Their derisive laughter if I’m dumb enought to ask the question.
3. I suck at home repairs, and I laugh out loud when people step in dog doo.
I admit – I have asked this. I know its dumb, but I have asked it just kind of too make sure they actually thought about how they would answer dumb questions, and prepared. Which, as I write this out, is even lazier and stupider than I feared.
chocolate chip cookies
I despise that question and quit using it about 10 years ago after the canned responses got to me. I will not even bother asking about their weaknesses rather I ask them for a copy of their most recent performance review. They may offer up references but I don’t even use those most of the time because what idot puts down someone who will say something bad about you?
I will ask them to tell me about a time when they failed on a project or task at work. And your right, you can get their weakness revealed through certain behavior based questions.
Bottom line is trust your gut about a candidate. Most strong recruiters have a good handle on the candidate within the first 5-10 minutes of an interaction (and in many cases– even sooner).
Awful question. More awful? The lazy interviewer who asks it and never asks a follow up to get at the truth. Actually, any interviewer who doesn’t ask any follow up to any response to a question that doesn’t ring true or doesn’t tell them what they want to know.
My weaknesses – I am chronically late for anything scheduled before 9am. I am self-deprecating and apologetic far more often than I should be or need to be, and I know it.
Oh! And, I work too hard and I’m a perfectionist.
Jackbuilt
Someone told me how to answer that question is use your answer on what is your strength and make it that you’re working too hard on your strengths and tell them that you’re really working hard on focusing on other area. Your weakness is your reflection of your strength.
While saying that, I agree with Ask A Manager that be candid in the interview and try to make it conversational, but that’s hard to execute since what both parties want to hear is positive stuff. I do think most job seekers are nervous because they’re thinking one slip-up and they’re gone since there are 100 resumes per job opening and not only they have to standout, but be perfect. This also goes the same to the interviewer when they need to be open about their working culture.
BTW, Weaknesses: Durian, being Catholic and can’t curse during Lent, not the most organized person on the planet (although I’m trying
)
I’ve asked it… mostly I don’t even care about the answer, but it is fun to watch the candidate squirm.
My biggest weakness? I suck at confrontation.
Well, because I coach people in interview preparation, I do ask the “weakness” question in our practice sessions – only because it’s asked so often in real interviews.
I agree it’s a stupid question, and the only two reasons for asking it are laziness (The interviewer is using canned interview questions with no real thought about why those particular questions are being used) or self amusement (The interviewer is messing with candidates’ heads, to see how they react to the question).
I suggest having two answers ready.
First, say that your weakness is something sort of funny that is not job-related.
For example: “My greatest weakness is chocolate – I always keep it at my desk. All of my co-workers at my last job have complained about the extra weight my weakness has put on their hips.”
If the interviewer doesn’t just laugh and move on to the next question, be ready to tell about your inablilty to work in some environment that you truly, truly would not work in – one that no one could pay you enough to do and is not related to the job you’re applying for.
For example, if you’re applying for an office job that does not require travel, you might say, “Well, in the past, I have found assignments that take me away from the office to be a distraction. I always felt disconnected from my team, and found that I was not able to really provide the level of customer service I wanted to provide. That’s one of the reasons I’m really attracted to this job, because it’ll allow me to…” (and get the focus back on why you nad this job are a good fit).
I hate this question. I tend to favour the strategy where you list a weakness that has little to do with the duties for the job that you’re interviewing for, then express an interest in improving in that area nonetheless. As a bonus, if I can manage to pick a weakness that, were I to improve it, would allow me to go above and beyond at my job, then so much the better.
Example: interviewing for a techwriting position.
Response re/weakness: I don’t have a lot of experience programming, but am interested in learning more (if you can name a trendy programming language here to prove you’ve done your homework, then good).
See, you don’t actually need to know how to program to be a tech writer (that’s what programmers are for), but if you DID know how to program, then you’re going to be that much more efficient when you’re working with the programmers because you’ll actually know how to talk to them.
Does that make sense? Is it to cagey? I’m no HR expert, but I like that approach.
I agree it’s a stupid question, but I don’t think it’s the stupidest question ever. Then again, I’ve been asked “If you were a breakfast cereal, what breakfast cereal would you be?” I thought it was a joke. It was not. I’m not sure what bothers me more about these kinds of questions – how ridiculous they are (and make the interviewer/company look), or that the interviewer actually believes they are somehow getting valuable hiring information from the answer. Probably the latter.
I can be impatient, and I talk too much.
Questions can be behavior based without being pseudo-science. I would guess that most of the questions I ask are considered behavior based even though there is no voodoo science about it. I am just asking the candidate about what they’ve done. I tell them about situations here and ask them if they’ve ever encountered something similar. Seems pretty easy.
I really hate hypothetical or pageant questions. Those are completely useless.
I was asked this question years ago (I work in university career counseling), and I told them I was “not naturally gifted in organization.”
I got the job. Probably for several reasons:
1) I answered the question honestly
2) I also told them how I combat this particular issue
3) I knocked all the other questions out of the park
I use the “impatient” response too… then elaborate a bit to make it sound like I am results-oriented.
Thankfully I don’t hear it much anymore, though I am guilty of using it myself before I had a clue. I stopped using it after I selected a few “morans” that had canned responses for it.
@Frank Roche- I am gonna have to disagree with you on the latter part of your comment. A ton of research effort has gone into measuring the effectiveness of different personnel selection tools: I am an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist, so I have read most of that work. If you must interview, then a structured, scored, and validated behavioral-based interview is the way to go. Anything else is a sure way to select people you like, rather than people that can do the job.
My advice, enough with the interviews already. They mostly don’t tell you what you think they tell you. Psychologists have developed plenty of instruments that can do a better job at selecting candidates than the average interviewer (and everyone thinks they are above average).
1. I don’t ask it.
2. I want to hear that I don’t have to interview any more. (I don’t!)
3. Malt-easers
My weakness – puppy kisses and PRHR blogs.
I once was interviewed by a certain prominent non-profit that has recently been in the news for really bad executive compensation decisions in the Charlotte area. It was an intense, behavior based interview and I felt really bad when I didn’t get the job until I realized that they were on to something. My behavior just didn’t fit in with a place that took money intended for poor people and used it to pay rich people.
I usually tell the truth on this one. I have a horrible memory, compounded with the fact that superiors often expect you to remember things that happened a month or two ago. (Really guys??)
It’s made me an exceptionally organized person since, if you’re organized, you don’t HAVE to remember anything. All you have to do is access the system.
I really hate that question, by the way, because it sets the “I am the judge and jury” tone of the interview. A good interview is one where prospect and company are mutually evaluating each other to see if they are a good fit. It’s annoying that you can be asked what your weakness is, but try asking the HR rep what the weakness of their company is.
The higher up a company food chain, the less you’re willing to acknowledge any imperfections in company culture or systems. (Which makes sense on a psychological level because the higher up you are, the more responsible you are for that culture and those methodologies. We aren’t wired to think that way.)
It’s a terrible question in the interview, but it’s also a good one to ask once you’ve got the person onboard and you want to know what he/she needs to work on.
Nonetheless, I’m telling people to prepare for it, because chances are someone will ask it.
I also tell people to absolutely not BS their way through it. The following answers are all BS:
* “I’m a perfectionist.”
* “I get frustrated when others don’t work as hard as I do.”
* “Willowy blondes” (or “Chocolate chip cookies”, or whatever)
They don’t answer what the interviewer is asking, and you, as the interviewee, know it. Trying to pull a BS answer is disrespectful.
Happy RAoA Day! Your blog rocks all the Punks who read it!
– Michael
1. I was asked several times this question… I tried to be honest every time. I don’t ask it.
I prefer the candidate to tell me their goals accomplishments and about the times they did not achieve the goal and the reasons. this way helps me a lot to understand more about the person, their experience and fits into an organization.
I will go with Onion Rings; they can be poisoned and I don’t mind.. :p
the true is that I’m very impatient, I want people to do things as I say and I really like to being the Boss.
but you can make happy with some onion rings… simple as that..
I never ask that question.
As an interviewee, I always have to bit my tongue so I won’t answer the quesiton: “I like to sleep with married men”
As a Recruiting/HR professional, do you ask it? NO
What do you want to hear? Since I don’t ask it, I DO get a perverse thrill out of the very-prepared applicants who manage to throw in their “weakness” when summarizing their experience or closing the interview by telling me they ‘work too hard…”. When they do this, I know they have been told “be prepared to be asked this..” and they think they have such a good answer, they are determined to let me know.
What is your greatest weakness? MY greatness weakness… chips, salsa and margaritas on the rocks.
I asked this question when I first started interviewing…because I didn’t know any better. Then some creep-o said “My weakness is your pretty blue eyes”. DONE.
My weakness is surfing the internet when I get bored with my projects and responding to blogs. I would hire me.
In general I agree this is a stupid/unfair question to ask – but I’ve been amazed by some of the responses I get that immediately have turned me off to the candidate. There are certain basic traits that I look for as vetoes (ability to organize, etc.) and when I’ve had multiple people tell me things that are immediately a NO WAY JOSE. Of course I dive in deeper to make sure they aren’t being overly critical of themselves, but it seems that some of the basic questions that you guys with much more hiring experience pan can still have value from time to time.
@Sarah: Oops! That was totally me, sorry about that =)
1. Gave up asking that question after I asked it the first time and got the stock “I work to hard” response.
2. I want to know if the candidate wants to:
a. Sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career.
b. Sell anything bought or processed.
c. Buy anything sold or processed.
d. Process anything sold, bought, or processed.
e. Repair anything sold, bought, or processed.
3. Quoting obscure references (ala the above reference to “Say Anything.”)
I used to ask that question until I (like every other smart manager in the world) figured out it was a waste of time and got me nothing useful for the hiring process. Now I ask the candidate to talk about a time they worked on an unsuccessful project, how they communicated to their manager about the problem, and what they’ve learned to do differently as a result. Yes, some have a canned answer for that one, too, but at least it’s focused on their actual job skills.
I love the idea someone else mentioned above about asking for a copy of their most recent annual appraisal…I didn’t even think about that.
I hate being asked this question, but I was finally asked this question in an applicable context recently in the form of “When looking at the job req which of the position descriptions are you the weakest at and why.”
Not as ridiculous as the old standby, but still direct way of gauging potential weaknesses, with getting (semi) specific answers.
OK – I’ll bite. Tell us more about the cons of behavioral interviewing, and what works better. I’m just a poor hiring manager who’s been trained this way!
Since I am presently in the job market, I am prepared to answer this question; however, I do not think it serves a purpose. Don’t those who do interviewing know that most candidates rehearsed this one? Or they will take the ‘weakness’ and spin it to a ‘positive’?
I’d rather know more about the candidate and their strengths. What do they do well? What do they like to do? What don’t they like to do?
Oh, and my greatest weakness…I don’t like to delegate, I work too hard, and I care too much! Sorry @Laurie, I couldn’t resist.
@Laurie – I second @Michael – Your blog rocks all the Punks who read it!
@Lisa Thanks.
@Cathy No, you tell me why you would use behavior-based interviewing techniques!
@Vespoa We are the worst judges of our own character. I wouldn’t ask a candidate to assess himself/herself on strengths and weaknesses. I would call references and ask questions related to competencies and aptitude.
@Denise Glad the blog gave you a new perspective — but remember that performance appraisals are imperfect tools, too.
@HRputer You have lots of questions, yo.
@Anonymous Some people don’t know how to interview. It doesn’t mean they can’t do the job.
@Sarah I would hire you, too.
@rool I’m with you. Top shelf tequila on the rocks with salt.
@Rampancy I like to sleep with married men, too. My husband!!
@SilentLeo I love onion rings. Mmmmm!
@Michael Thank yoU!
@Andy Exactly.
@Hayden I applaud your honesty & your comment!
@teresa thank you & I love puppy kisses, too. Mmmmm, puppy breath!
@guajardoforesight I’m going to disagree with you. Behavior-based interviews are garbage. Seriously.
@Geoff Thank you.
@Lance Give me an example of a time you did not succeed at cooking bacon. Why? What did you learn? How would you do it differently, next time?
@Renee You’re right. It’s not the stupidest question ever.
@ian makes total sense.
@Jennifer That’s awesome insight. Thank you!
@Julie LOL, you suck at confrontation but you like to see people squirm? You are in HR!
@Tracy YOU HAVE NO WEAKNESSES IMHO!!
@Jackbuilt We are kindred spirits.
@Mark I’m with you.
@Erica We’ve all asked it. The first step in recovery is admitting our mistakes.
@hrPuf I suck at home repairs, too. I married for my deficiencies.
@Mary Ellen LOL, I totally forgot the ‘perfectionist’ line. Good call!
@ASK You are so sensible. This is why you’re awesome.
@HRRIngLeader Sweet iced tea? I just discovered it when I moved to Raleigh. It’s too much for me.
@Madness Totally disgusting x200.
@Frank Thank you. If the people business were science, nerds would be much more successful at navigating the corporate world.
As a Recruiting/HR professional, do you ask it?
** NO. Carvin’s rules makes an interesting point on this… ask what they like most and least about their jobs. Most people don’t enjoy stuff at which they suck. http://www.nobscot.com/about/hiring_the_best.cfm
What do you want to hear?
**Enough dialogue about the job and the candidate that the canned interview questions never get asked anyway.
What is your greatest weakness?
**An inability to stop eating sour gummy worms until the bag is empty. I’ve never been able to see the 3-d image in those pictures that you stare at until your eyes go out of focus either.
* As a Recruiting/HR professional, do you ask it?
* What do you want to hear?
* What is your greatest weakness?
1. I haven’t done recruiting in a while, but I do not ask it. I got a lot of “sometimes I work too hard” and “I’m a perfectionist, etc.” I prefer to ask questions about the job, their ability to work in the particular environment with real questions about things they have actually encountered in the workplace.
2. I don’t want to hear anything. It’s a stupid question. I wholly agree.
3. My greatest weakness is that I am very particular and sometimes I create a standard that is unreasonable for others. I have high expectations of myself and others. It’s not always fair to the other people. I recognize it and make sure I realize that everyone doesn’t have the same drivers that I do in life.
The only thing that I see coming out of this is finding out what the person is working on. The only real answer is “I’m not so good at X, but I’m working on it by doing Y.”
So if that’s what you want to know, ask. “What are you not so good at, and how are you improving it?”
Oh, get this. I met a girl who works in HR at Lego Systems. She told me that they put her in a room with legos and told her to build something creative to explain why they want to work at Lego.
My response? I’m not a good one for this, and I do consider myself pretty creative….. I’d be like, “you want me to do what?”
great question – in a sense I love asking it…
Mainly because I still look for the candidate that is honest and say the truth.
It happens.
But, I must admit, I ask it only for my own weak and human curiousity.
Instead I have a favorite angle to things; the surprise question where there are not ultimate truth: “How is your desk arranged at work – how would your fellow coworkers describe it?” – “When you work with someone truely (dis)organised – what would you like to ask them?” “What advice would you give a friend if he was to do your job or be at this interview… and WHHHYYYYYY??”
I am baffled at the honesty people put in to it, when they have delivered the rehearsed punchline and then asked to describe a situation where this/that quality either saved the day or made it into the day you just never planned for….
FOr me – the question “weaknesses – reveal your self” – a waiting move; When asked my self I say that every strength I mentioned earlier can – if overexaggerated or underex. – be a weakness.
SO dear fellow HR’ers…: Do not be ashamed. It is not admitting to a crime if we once in a while ask the question because we ran dry of those smart, intelligent and reveal-me-all questions.
It just happens – so why not enjoy it
I’ve been asked this interview questions before. I was prepared for it as well, as it was a question mentioned in those books you can use to practice your interviewing skills. This is how I respond – “I have learned that not everyone executes the same quality of work that I do. There are employees that produce “A” work on a consistent basis, and those that producs “B or C” type work. It has been challenging to work with others that have a lower standard of work than you do, but I find that it is possible with lots of effective communcation.” Does that sound canned, or what?
As a recruiter, I never use this lame interview question!
@Christina It’s totally lame. Thank you for not using it!
@Steen Very existential but you have *not* convinced me.
@Mona I would roll my eyes so far into the back of my head that they’d need to call an ambulance. Give. Me. A. Break. Legos!
@Andy Or how about (to Frank’s point) just have a conversation?
@Scott Oh that’s an awesome answer. I don’t like sour gummy bears or worms, though. Yuck!
Sure, @Laurie, you want to have a conversation. I’ve been saying for years to think of the interview as your first day of your new job, and you’re just having a meeting with your boss. Just as a meeting with your boss isn’t an interrogation, neither is the interview.
That said, it’s still a good question to ask to get a feeling for how self-aware the candidate is. Typically, I’ll ask something more like “What is something you’re looking to learn about?” or “I have to finalize the budget numbers for this quarter; what sorts of things should I allocate for your develompent?”
Everyone thinks that references are the way to go. Whose to say that a great candidate left a job because their old boss was a whack job? Why do you trust someone you never met and not the person sitting across from you at the table? Doesn’t it say something that the boss is losing another employee? Yet this is the opinion we rely on the most.
Most people leave jobs because they don’t like their managers. There is a real imbalance here; we lose out on great people because of them, or get stuck with losers who get someone else to tell a great story.
Actually psychology is a science. Behaviors and cognitions are measurable, theories are proven or not through experimentation and data is collected. All the basics of scientific study are present. And this science has taught us that the most accurate predictor of future behaviors are past behaviors.
Behavioral Interviews and interviews in general are an imperfect way to route out candidates imperfections. Not that asking about a weakness is behavioral based. I don’t usually ask it unless I am curious to see how they would answer that or any other stock/crap questions…
@stacy I agree that past performance is a good predictor of future but it fails at certain points – when people get promoted or move into new positions – when people move into new organizational structures, when people just get burned out… Past performance under a given management style in a given environment may not play out the same in a different structure/environment.
@Laurie re references – how often do you get something other then dates of employment and if you do how often is it meaningful. The only accurate information I have ever been able to consistently get from a reference is if they show up to work on time. I do agree that you should make your interviews as technical/skill based as possible but there is more to a job then just general knowledge. If someone needs more structure than I can provide, or is so “independent” that they aren’t going to ask questions, they aren’t going to work out and I am going to try and ask as many questions as I can to avoid that pain.
@Corey Unfortunately, I’m just a pundit. I have no answers.
@Stacy Psychology is soft-science. Some of it’s measurable and fits into scientific methods of research. Some psychology is redonk. (Hello, Freud?)
@Andy I like to ask, “If you could be a fruit, what would you be?” If they say banana, they’re outta there. Where’s the self-awareness and creativity? No second interview!!
Laurie: Not sure if you’re saying that asking about training needs is a silly question or not. Sounds like that’s what you’re saying.
If I’ve got a candidate who is blissfully unaware of his need for self-improvement, it’ll come out when I ask what training they want.
What may be a difference for you and me is that I’m talking about dealing with techies specifically. Any techie who isn’t working at moving forward is by default going to be falling behind. You may have different expectations for non-techies.
@Laurie Oh no you did-uh! Psychological science is as legitimate a science as just about any other. The biggest difference between psychology and say physics is the degree of error in measurement. Psychologists have to deal with significantly more error, thus our conclusions tend to be filled with caveats.
If you have any doubts, I recommend any article from the Journal of Applied Psychology or Personnel Psychology.
Having said that, old school psychiatry was WAY off base. And we still have too many quacks that get the lion’s share of the attention (thank you very much “Dr.” Phil). Thankfully, Organizational science is relatively quack free.
@Andy No I don’t think it’s silly, but I do generally scoff at the whole recruiting process. I just wanted to write about bananas, but you do make a good point about technical training.
@guajardoforesight Oh yes I did. Snap. I think there are scientific applications of psychology, and I do believe in the benefits of analysis, cognitive behavioral therapy, etc. Human behavior can be measured & examined in some regards, but in others, it’s a crap shoot. The psychology of work is a little more solid than the psychology of addiction.
@ Laurie My new mission is to change your mind! My fellow I/O Psychologists would flay me if I didn’t try.
@guajardoforesight You’ll have to forgive me but I hold my uneducated opinions pretty tightly. Facts? What are facts? I have my certainty!
@ Laurie I guess you will be the immovable object to my irresistible force. *flex*
Oh good lord, @guajardoforesight. I’m blogging about this on Tuesday. Just wait.
Old Salty likes this question.
http://oldsaltyheadhunter.com/?p=120
So this is what inspired it all! Hilarious…
@Old I love old salty!
@Eva Yup, isn’t that funny?
This question was common on the circuit back when I was a coop student (American read: interviewing for internships), so I learned how incredibly lame it was well before I was on the other side of the interview table. Dodged that bullet!
It was actually kind of a key moment when I learned that this question was BS. Someone asked it and I gave an honest answer – niave girl that I am. Something to the effect of when the going gets stressful I can be a real bitch. The shocked look on his face said it all. But he reinforced it by responding, “wow, that was honest.”
Let’s call it a learning experience.
On that topic though, I will say that I find it hard to get much good info from interviews. Probably largely to do with my own skill, but I really doubt them as a primary selection tool.
Oh and my stock response now is parallel parking. Because it’s true. And I would NEVER take a job that required me to be able to parallel park.
I’m impatient, I talk too much, and I apologize…. a lot. For the first two, that’s part of the reason why I’m attracted to this job because I get to talk to people when I deliver the pizzas. Also, it’s a fast paced environment so there’s no room for becoming impatient. Now, for the over apologizing, I plan on doing whatever job I get hired to do correctly so hopefully there won’t be too many apologies in order.