The Dumbest Interview Question
There are many dumb interview questions. Programming, itself, has a wide range of extra potential for stupidity. But the question that irks me the most is universal to just about every field:
What is your greatest weakness?
Well, my greatest weakness is a complete and utter intolerance for inane questions. 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. Maybe I work too hard. Maybe I care too much. Maybe sometimes I am too passionate. Blah, blah, blah. What have we learned about each other? Well, first, we’ve learned that you somehow believe in this stupid question. Secondly, we’ve learned that I’ve read a website on how to give a trite, non-committal answer that conveys absolutely no information. Do you honestly believe that I’m a perfectionist?
It’s a game. You are asking me a question to see if I’ve learned how to properly not answer it. What a joke. This question is just a vapid mating ritual, void of any real information. We are like a pair of insects. You shake your little antennae and I gotta make sure I do the proper mating dance or you’re just going to eat me.
Why are we playing this game? Is it just to make sure we are all “in” on the game? Is this the business world’s equivalent of a modem handshake? You just want to make sure I haven’t been living under a rock? Maybe we can replace this waste of time with some secret hand signals or something. You tap your foot three times, and I respond with two eye brow raises. It’ll save the time and communicate the same information. We both know the ritual.
On second thought, my greatest weakness is that I don’t have the fortitude of my principles to tell you straight-away that this question is asinine and I feel the need to give a long detailed explanation of why such inanity has no value.
Now that we’ve established that you can ask the standard questions and I’ve prepared carefully crafted (and likely untrue) responses, can we move on? Or do I need to keep dancing?
In the Negative?
Some people might argue that the question (and others like it) are valuable in the “negative” direction. In other words, bad answers help you eliminate bad people. I guess. I haven’t spent many years asking these types of questions to know how often you receive horrible answers. I wonder how many times, honestly, that a candidate would have gotten a job except he named his greatest weakness as clubbing baby seals.
My suspicion is that anyone incapable of getting the basic interview rituals correct had red flags all over the place.
December 22nd, 2008 at 3:18 pm
You are my new idol:
“I don’t have the fortitude of my principles to tell you straight-away that this question is asinine”.
Vic
December 22nd, 2008 at 3:19 pm
You are my new idol:
“I don’t have the fortitude of my principles to tell you straight-away that this question is asinine”
December 22nd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
There is a very sad trend where one gets asked the same standard questions over and over again. Conducting a good interview is an art and a lot of people have no clue…so they check online and ask the same things…greatest weakeness, strengths… or sometimes what would your mate tell me about you…
December 22nd, 2008 at 4:40 pm
You’d be amazed how much of a hole people dig themselves into when given a chance. There are people out there that are complete misfits when it comes to working in a team. They might make great lone wolf programmers, but absolutely cannot work with anybody else except themselves.
One very “experienced” programmer that I interviewed had very solid skills but had no references. That alone raised a flag for me. Since he had no references, I decided to turn the final interview into a role play session with him. I posed several questions to him as if he was his own reference.
I appreciated the candor of his responses. However, I could not believe some of the responses that he provided (sorry, I don’t have a transcript, nor can I paraphrase them here in order to protect the identities)
I recommended that we not hire the candidate, I got over-ruled by my boss, and we paid the price for the next year, while this guy caused a lot of trouble in the team with his uncooperative and arrogant attitude, goofed off in the name of architecting the product and moved on as his “act” started unraveling.
While the question, as you have posed it, is kind of silly, there are questions that can be asked in an interview that does reveal the character of a person to an extent. If those characteristics are a match with the culture of your company, then go ahead and hire them. If not, don’t hire them period. You will pay a very high price for the “convenience” hire.
It is better to hire hard and manage easy than the other way around. There are a lot of pretenders out there. It is not easy to know who you are hiring unless you ask a lot of hard questions and run some tests (programming) as part of the interview.
December 22nd, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Well, I don’t normally ask this question, but if I did, I’d be looking for more than trite answers. If someone asks it, I’d suggest being honest about what you see as your biggest weakness. Try something like “I think my debugging skills could be improved” or “I should understand searching algorithms better”.
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:02 pm
After reading your rant, it is clear this sort of question is designed for people like you. People who think that they, and everything they do is perfect and cannot be improved upon. Perhaps in a few years, with a little hindsight and experience, you might realise how naive your little diatribe is.
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Thankfully I do have the fortitude of my principles to tell Amazed that he’s asinine.
December 23rd, 2008 at 1:24 am
Amazed, I think you’re missing the point. I hardly think that the author believes he’s perfect. The point is, the question is useless. If I truly had a weakness that would hurt my chances of being hired (e.g., “I’m very unreliable and don’t work well with others”), would I really answer it truthfully?
My response to this question is “kryptonite”.
December 23rd, 2008 at 3:48 am
I’ve came to the conclusion that sometimes (especially when the interviewer is HR) they give this type of questions just to test how independent you can be. They often don’t want too independently thinking people – but rather someone who learns the rules, however absurd they are, and acts along.
December 23rd, 2008 at 4:55 am
I’ve had the opportunity to interview people several times. I must say that lots of times I’ve asked them to name their three greatest strengths and three biggest weaknesses.
Not for the answer alone – I really could not care less – but too see if they have prepared any bit for the interview. As you point out, this is a quite common question at interviews and you sure should be expecting it and have something prepared in reply.
If I catch them off-handed, it usually points me into the direction that they are not very eager to work for us or take things too easy. Both of which are not a good sign if you’re applying for a job.
December 23rd, 2008 at 7:45 am
- What’s your greatest weakness ?
- I have two, I have an aversion to kryptonite but it doesn’t normally affect my work, and two, you really don’t want me to work overtime during a full moon. Seriously.
From: http://joblesscorner.net/2008/04/15/20-worst-job-interview-questions-ever/
December 23rd, 2008 at 9:42 am
> Well, my greatest weakness is a complete and utter intolerance for inane > questions.
December 23rd, 2008 at 10:08 am
Well, I agree that this isn’t a great question. However, it does filter out people who are so socially inept as to think that they are supposed to tell you about some deep horrendous thing. There are people out there who will do that, and you probably don’t want to work for them. Maybe an honest version of this question would be “are you so stupid as to actually tell me your greatest weakness, because if you are, I definitely don’t want to hire you.” but that would be even more ineffectual than this question. Certainly people who care enough about their career to read about how to handle interviews at all won’t be phased at all by this question, and that is, in general, who one wants to hire….
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:11 am
Right there with you, bro!
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:36 am
My greatest weakness may be my right ankle. It’s really weak. It doesn’t really affect my programming, but it might come up if you want me to play basketball.
I think that would work.
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:46 am
Actually, I have never been asked this question, but I think the reverse “test” toward the interviewer would be true.
If I was asked such, I would probably stop and think, boy do I really want to work for such a shallow company? I wonder if these people can think for themselves. I should probably just leave now.
I mean, it highlights several problems in the company: #1 HR could not be bothered to take the time to come up with valid questions. #2. HR never bothered to come up with questions relevant to the position, rather than the person. #3. The department manager never bothered to clarify with HR that such questions are not relevant to the position. #4. Upper management never took the time to review the interview questions and confirm that the questions are relevant.
All in all, it speaks of a company with major procedural and communication problems, or at least a company that is new and clueless. This would be a red flag that maybe I should look somewhere else.
Of course, I have never been in a position where I desperately need the job, and that would change things.
December 23rd, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I actually think it’s a fair question.
The question is testing whether the applicant can answer a question they’re not supposed to answer. Depending on their public exposure, they’ll likely find themselves in this scenario. Let’s say the new hire is up on stage at a conference and somebody asks a question about a pending deal or ship date that, for whatever reason, they aren’t supposed to talk about. You want to know they’ll handle it.
The question itself is stupid because everybody knows it’s coming–that might be a useful test in itself, because it shows if someone even Googled “interview questions” before coming–but still, what it’s intending to test is useful. It’s only totally irrelevant if you’re going to work buried in a cubicle somewhere, totally removed from company operation, in which case you’re probably working for too large of a company anyway.
For some context, we’re a six-person company and very rarely hire off interviews (or hire anyone, for that matter). Still, we do a lot of interviews for internships and things.
December 23rd, 2008 at 2:37 pm
The question is “Can you give a tactical and correct answer to a difficult and annoying question?”
You failed.
December 23rd, 2008 at 4:16 pm
you should have just said “bullets.”
December 23rd, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Experience has taught me that there are many aspects of my profession. Wisdom has taught me that programming is not the only one that matters. Humility has taught me that I am not equally strong in all of them. Confidence gives me the ability to be honest with myself about this. Maturity allows me to be open with others about it.
One may answer this question without saying anything meaningful, but that says more about the responder than the interviewer.
It is not a bad question that can potentially draw out a candidate’s experience, wisdom, humility, confidence, and maturity all at once.
December 23rd, 2008 at 4:28 pm
The point of the question is for you to to actually describe a weakness, that is to show if you’re full of shit and will do some lame as shit with “something that’s a weakness but really isn’t.” It’s about how insightful you are, and how confident you are, and as someone else said, how mature you are.
I usually don’t ask this question when I interview, but given this blog maybe I should start.
December 23rd, 2008 at 10:50 pm
this reminds me of the paradoxical question:
“Will your answer to my question be no?”
you can’t win with either response so do the mating dance or move on to the next interview.
December 28th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
actually, from what I see, some characteristics can be revealed just by asking ‘inane’ questions.
For example: Your answer might mean you cannot tolerate amateurish arrogance.. Or you are just a prick. (i think it’s the former, though)
My point is these kind of questions are some kind of bait that will reveal something, and the interviewer is bound to see it (well, smart interviewers).
February 9th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I have been asked this question many times in interviews. I used to go the “strength-as-a-weakness fake-out” route but in the last interview I did, I candidly described some areas I thought I could improve in and how I planned to do so. Who knows what the interviewer was looking for but I got the gig…