The Dumbest Interview Question • Hacker News Board

Re: The Dumbest Interview Question

#11

Post by nihilocrat » Tue, Dec 23, 2008, 5:33 PM UTC

ConradHex wrote: post #9

mikeryan wrote: post #8

Has anyone actually been asked this? When I first entered the workforce and started interviewing I remember prepping for this question (and its corresponding strengths one) and had nice prepped answers. To date no one has every asked me this - and when hiring I've never asked it.

I've been asked it maybe half of my interviews. If you're going for an interview, be ready for this one. I've had at least one interviewer be very persistent about it. There should be an equivalent question for interviewees to ask - how about "what is your company's greatest weakness?" Or "what would be the worst part about working here?"

Being on the other end of the table sometimes, no one has asked this question, but they really should. It is actually a much better question than asking the interviewee "What is your greatest weakness?".

I think the sorts of questions an interviewee asks is more revealing than any sort of digging you might do with the standard bullshit interview questions.

Re: The Dumbest Interview Question

#12

Post by jmtame » Tue, Dec 23, 2008, 5:41 PM UTC

Sorry, don't have many. Why don't you tell me about some of yours?

Re: The Dumbest Interview Question

#13

Post by jwesley » Tue, Dec 23, 2008, 5:48 PM UTC

This is a great interview question. The point isn't the actual answer, but the way an interviewee responds. It's a mind game to see how the person will react. Will they deny weakness? Will they confess a horrendous flaw? It reveals a lot of character. Plus it is just plain fun to ask people ridiculous questions with no correct answer.

Re: The Dumbest Interview Question

#14

Post by brk » Tue, Dec 23, 2008, 5:51 PM UTC

thisisnotmyname wrote: post #4

andreyf wrote: post #2

You see, this stupid question is designed to be rightly answered by someone who has carefully crafted an answer that turn some apparent weakness into a perceived strength. Wrong. That's precisely the kind of answer it's meant to weed out. The question is supposed to show your ability for reflection on your faults (because everybody has them), and let you explain how you are going about working on them. If you take it…

I totally agree - and in fact I think this is one of the best interview questions. In my experience, the people who identify and actively work on their weaknesses are the most likely to succeed. That said, I might rephrase the question to be something like "What new things would you like to learn, and how are you going about learning them?"

The problem is that the "weakness" question has become so predictably overused and coached that everyone has a "weakness as a strength" answer readily prepared.

I've found that textbook interview questions don't do anything other than badge the interviewer as unimaginative and 1 dimensional.

IME, the best interviews are conversations and not interviews at all.

Re: The Dumbest Interview Question

#15

Post by russell » Tue, Dec 23, 2008, 5:52 PM UTC

ConradHex wrote: post #9

mikeryan wrote: post #8

Has anyone actually been asked this? When I first entered the workforce and started interviewing I remember prepping for this question (and its corresponding strengths one) and had nice prepped answers. To date no one has every asked me this - and when hiring I've never asked it.

I've been asked it maybe half of my interviews. If you're going for an interview, be ready for this one. I've had at least one interviewer be very persistent about it. There should be an equivalent question for interviewees to ask - how about "what is your company's greatest weakness?" Or "what would be the worst part about working here?"

I always ask that question of the interviewer in the form of "What aspect of your job is causing you the most pain?" It almost always gets a frank discussion of the problems the group is facing. I also ask about funding, profitability and business model.

Re: The Dumbest Interview Question

#16

Post by russell » Tue, Dec 23, 2008, 5:58 PM UTC

I always answer that I am not very good at direct sales, that's why I became a programmer. It's even the truth.

Re: The Dumbest Interview Question

#17

Post by swilliams » Tue, Dec 23, 2008, 6:12 PM UTC

andreyf wrote: post #2

You see, this stupid question is designed to be rightly answered by someone who has carefully crafted an answer that turn some apparent weakness into a perceived strength. Wrong. That's precisely the kind of answer it's meant to weed out. The question is supposed to show your ability for reflection on your faults (because everybody has them), and let you explain how you are going about working on them. If you take it…

I've asked something like this while giving an interview before: "What's your greatest weakness? And don't do the thing where you turn it around to a strength."

That just really seemed to confuse people. They weren't very good candidates though.

Re: The Dumbest Interview Question

#18

Post by mattmichielsen » Tue, Dec 23, 2008, 6:52 PM UTC

jwesley wrote: post #13

This is a great interview question. The point isn't the actual answer, but the way an interviewee responds. It's a mind game to see how the person will react. Will they deny weakness? Will they confess a horrendous flaw? It reveals a lot of character. Plus it is just plain fun to ask people ridiculous questions with no correct answer.

One of my previous coworkers and I were interviewing a guy together, and I believe his was one of the most ridiculous questions ever:

"If you could get rid of one of the United States completely, which would it be and why?"

Re: The Dumbest Interview Question

#19

Post by copenja » Tue, Dec 23, 2008, 6:54 PM UTC

andreyf wrote: post #2

You see, this stupid question is designed to be rightly answered by someone who has carefully crafted an answer that turn some apparent weakness into a perceived strength. Wrong. That's precisely the kind of answer it's meant to weed out. The question is supposed to show your ability for reflection on your faults (because everybody has them), and let you explain how you are going about working on them. If you take it…

Weeding people out based on whether they give a "correct" answer to this question seems kinda ridiculous.

With the exception of someone admitting to a horrendous fault (anger problem), I don't see how this answer could dictate a hire or no hire.

If your interviewing someone with great credentials, great references, and then they answer this question with "sometimes I work too hard"... your not going to hire him?

What this question does is force the candidate to make a snap decision: Is this particular interviewer hoping I express an honest weakness or is he seeing if a can turn a weakness into a strength?

Guess wrong and your out?

Re: The Dumbest Interview Question

#20

Post by IsaacSchlueter » Tue, Dec 23, 2008, 7:22 PM UTC

bayareaguy wrote: post #3

I always respond to this one by saying "my greatest weakness is that I don't know my greatest weakness".

The only time I was asked that question, I responded with "That's kind of a weird question, don't you think? I mean, it's not really in my interest to answer it honestly." The interviewer agreed, and we chatted about interviewing technique for a little while. He admitted that he only asked to see what people say, and that mine was probably the best answer he'd heard.

Got an offer the next day.