Just thought of this and I’m of two minds, so I thought I’d ask the collective.
One of the usual questions in interviews is, “What are your weaknesses?”
What if the interviewee were to respond, “We’re here to talk about how we can benefit each other, not how we can’t. Now …”
Now does this response come over as positive, negative, defensive, or a mixture? It does show that the interviewee is evaluating the company.
“But I’m your potential employer and I asked you a direct question. Will you debate or weasel out of everything I ask of you?”
That would probably be my reaction as the employer. But I’m tired and grumpy, it could depend on the day.
That responce exactly seems quite smarmy and I can only imagine it coming over as defensive and maybe a little aggressive. If you can think of a nicer way to word this, I can see it coming across as intelligent and positive, however im struggling to word it like that.
I have interviewed literally hundreds of people. If I got that answer, I would push the delete button in my head and try to wrap up the interview as quickly as I could. You’ve told me everything I need to know.
On the other hand, this question is pretty much begging the interviewee to weasel or lie - it’s definitely not one that rewards a straight answer. “My attention to detail is often poor, so I occasionally make really stupid mistakes.” Even if the interviewer will admit that some people are better at detail work than others, and that this can be compensated for by, say, an aptitude for creative thinking and innovation, the above answer will lose you a job.
Better to phrase it in terms of either what you do that’s good (“I can get carried away pursuing big ideas and sometimes overlook the smaller details”) or in terms of how you’re overcoming the problem (“I used to struggle with details, but I recognized that and developed work habits that helped me solve this problem”)
Or, if you’ve decided that you’d hate the job and want to crash and burn gloriously, my all time favourite answer to the question, “What is your greatest weakness?” is:
“Two words: little boys.”
What exactly about that response turns you off?
I don’t think an interview is only about how we can benefit each other – for me, as the interviewer, it is also about learning what it would be like to work together. This answer would make me envision a work situation where the other person attempts to avoid issues by changing the topic, which is never something I am looking for in an employee.
Myself, I don’t like to ask that exact question because it can make people nervous, or lie, so I usually frame it more along the lines of “tell me about a time you realized you needed to overcome a professional weakness, and what steps did you take?” What I am interested in is if the applicant is able to honestly evaluate his/her own performance and take initiative to improve.
never mind… misread the OP
It’s not the interviewee’s place to define what “we’re here to talk about.” That’s the interviewer’s job. I agree with hitting the delete button.
My I glom on with a second one to evaluate? My answer would be…
“One of the things I would like to get more experience with is XYZ. That’s part of the reason this position is attractive to me.” Evading? Seems too much like I am using the position to serve myself and not them???
It’s a real example because I suck at public speaking and the position would include training smaller groups of colleagues. I could benefit from easing into more public speaking through this less threatening kind of exposure. But it seems self-serving to be using their position for that.
No, I don’t think that’s a bad answer or approach at all. Your prospective employer knows that you’re taking the position to serve yourself; it’s not a charity. From my perspective as an interviewer, if a candidate appeared to have a strong motivation to take the job because the job benefitted the candidate, that was great - it meant that the person would be highly motivated, because the position suited his or her needs in a specific way.
That reminds me of an interview I had about 18 years ago. I had just gone through a series of crash courses in mainframe programming, and was looking for a job. I had read up about interviewing, but I was totally unprepared when the interviewer asked “So tell me about your biggest personal weakness”. I started to turn it around by saying, “Well, I definitely need more PC skills, because most of my training has been in mainframe programming…” He interrupted me and said “No, I’m not asking about technical skills, I want to hear about *personal * weaknesses you have as a human being”. I just started stuttering and stammering, not really saying anything, and the guy gave up and finally said “Being able to examine yourself and identify weakness is a part of maturity.” and then he moved on to other stuff.
It’s not that I couldn’t think of any weaknesses. What was running through my mind at the time was "What kinds of things do people confess to this guy???"
But the rest of the interview went well, and they offered me a postion.
My answer: “Well, I have a weakness in the area of admitting my weaknesses to people in positions of power!”
I am SO not cut out for corporate America. 
I hate those types of questions. It forces the applicant to answer in some sort of cute suck-uppy way, “Oh, I am a workaholic. I just can’t turn it off at 5pm” or “I’m a perfectionist. I’ll keep going over and over until it’s right.”
There’s no good answer to something like that. I like how my boss interviews…it’s more of a long, get to know you conversation, and people will let stuff slip that can make the decision for you right then and there.
The response in the OP comes off as confrontational, which is bad.
Of course the question itself (as stated) is total bull, but not unusual for interview gamesmanship. One trick is to answer the question by citing some “weakness” that actually is a strength and makes you look good - like how your drive to succeed sometimes makes you sacrifice personal and vacation time in order to get projects completed on schedule.
It’s supercillious, confrontational and evasive. Essentially, you’re telling the interviewer that his question doesn’t deserve a response. You’re being dismissive and superior.
The “what are your weaknesses” question is probably the stupidest query that ever gets asked in job interviews, There’s never really a good answer. You either have to be honest iand hurt yourself) or make up bullshit smarmy “weaknesses” that are really strengths (“I’m a workaholic. I’m a perfectionist”). Whoever first thought of putting this question onto an interview form should be shipped to Guantanamo, but you still have to be deferential and at least pretend to take the question seriously. Belittling the question is belittling the interviewer. Personal impressions in these interviews always count for more than the text of the bulshit answers anyway. Never be disrespectful.
The best answers I have heard to that question are ones that made the employer think in the back of their heads “Oh, well that’s an easily fixable weakness that we can cure” which aren’t really weaknesses but things a new employee would learn on the job or during orientation.
Answers like “I don’t fully understand how your facility operates, I’m not familiar with the biomedical manufacturing industry, I’ve never worked for this type of company before, I’ve never used that specialized XYZ software before” etc.
It’s a bullshit response. It’s designed to convey interest in the job while not providing any actual information.
My response to that response would be something along the lines of “well, before we can see if we would actually be a benefit to each other, I need to know that you can handle this position.”
The correct response to the question is to provide a truthfull response that is either really positive or irrelevant to the job at hand, without sounding like bullshit. Whatever you do, you don’t want to sound flippant. Start with your actual weaknesses (everyone has them). Then, try to put a positive spin on it. For example, I have a short temper. I can’t tell an interviewer that. I might say “I have difficulty expressing myself when people don’t live up to my expectations”. And of course, you want to follow up with a statement of what you are doing to improve this “challenge area”.
Well, it’s fortunate for you that you’re a housewife (according to your MySpace page). It’s not a “corporate America” thing. It’s a having someone work for you thing.
Well, I spent 3 years waitressing, 8 years working retail (7 as management) and another 6 running a small college, so I’m no stranger to the interview process from either end of the table. But I’ve never been asked or asked this question - I can only assume, like mandatory pantyhose and heels, that it’s either a white-collar corporate thing or only exists in sitcoms.
Neither. I’ve been asked varients, and I don’t think I’m doing the white-collar corporate thing (and I know I’m not in a sitcom). But it isn’t a universal question, either, mostly because while an honest answer might be useful, the likelihood of actually getting a useful answer is slim to none. (IMO and Experience).
My objection to the response the OP asks about is that in many of the interviews I am involved with (as interviewee) the interviewer asks everyone the exact same 10 or 20 questions. They tell you so up front, so you know you may be asked questions which seem pointless to ask you. But attempts to dodge the question are likely to be blocked, while the original question gets re-asked. Even honest attempts to answer similar questions may be blocked in favor of a response purely to the original intended question.