**What do you anticipate will be the hardest part of this job? **
I’m not sure how to answer this one. On one hand, I can tell the interviewer what I know he thinks is the hardest part of the job, but then he might think that I will have a hard time with what he believes is the most difficult part of the job. It’s possible that he’s looking for candidates who don’t struggle in an area where most of his employees have problems.
On the other hand, I can list some other aspect of the job, but then the interviewer might think that I will have trouble with something that no one else has trouble with.
I think you could give a pretty meaningful generic answer like, “Getting used to the new environment which seems totally (partially) different than my current job, but over time, it will become very manageable.” It shows that change could be difficult at first, but not insurmountable and eventually easy to deal with.
I got asked what the hardest part of my job was, once. I was able to reply without even thinking about it: “Reviews.” I’m a technical writer, and I think the interviewer (my now boss, incidentally) thought that I’d respond with some variation on “getting started” or “starting a new project.” Nope. Reviews are, by far, the hardest part of my job.
Then I explained why they’re so difficult (because I have to rely on others for the review, and we’re all busy so it’s hard to fit extra work into any timelines. And, as a tech writer, the stuff I write isn’t all that engaging - no matter how hard I try to make it as simple and easy-to-follow as possible - so there’s not a lot of excitement about reading it). I also expounded on the steps I take to try to make reviews as easy on my reviewers as possible - sending small, bite-sized chunks instead of 40 or 50 pages, setting a deadline that realistic (not too far in the future to forget, but not so close that they’ll never be able to work it in).
So, go with the answer that you feel is right for you, then follow it up with an explanation of how you’ll mitigate it or turn it into a positive.
What do you anticipate will be the hardest part of this job?
The question is designed along the lines of “What is your biggest weakness?” If you point out some aspect of the job that you think you may struggle with you are inadvertantly pointing out an area of weakness in your skill set.
My answer to “what’s your biggest weakness” type questions: “Delegating, because I have trouble having others to do something that I know I can do well myself.”
Gosh - I don’t see this as the same as silly interview questions like “What’s your biggest weakness?”
I see this as “make a case to me that you ‘get’ the job.”
I am interviewing folks for an Admin position right now - I ask a variant of this question. If they give me a bullshit interview response - see ya. If they say “oh, it’s the people relationship skills” because this position is in HR and so they think they need to show they are a people person - see ya. If they say “setting up an approach to process a high volume of HR admin changes (note: this is explicitly stated in the job description) in a consistent, reliable way, over time is hard - and here’s what I’ve learned about how to do it…”
This person researched the job and can speak to my specific concerns. I’m listening.
I was asked something similar when interviewing for my current position. I think I gave some vague answer about getting used to a new environment in a different (but similar) industry.
After getting the job, I was told I’d impressed them by saying what I’d do to get over the difficulty. I can’t remember what I said. It was probably something along the lines of reading all I could on the industry, making sure to ask questions and listen to the answers when I was stuck, being open to others’ ideas, etc.
There were a number of questions in the interview where they didn’t care so much about what my specific example was so much as that I expressed a plan to deal with or overcome the issues.
However, I don’t think that would have worked if I’d have answered “showing up on time and sober.”
“Ramping up - learning the key players and systems needed to get the job done.” Implication - once you meet everyone, learn the systems, you will be awesome!
At one level, this question requires pure speculation. You would only have a general description of the job - I suppose you could address something from there, but fundamentally, you don’t yet know what the job will really entail, yah?
Underneath the text of the job description is the reality of the job - pressure level, culture, personalities of co-workers, subordinates, and leadership, mis-match between expectations and ability to deliver due to externals, etc. etc. etc. Any of those could turn out to be “the hardest part of the job”.
