Greatest Weakness as an Interview Question

The questions you ask a potential job seeker may seem designed to ferret out truths.

But in reality, they’re designed to test job applicants on their preparedness and poise. Consider the prompt “Tell me about a time you failed in your job, and how you handled it.”

While on the surface, this prompt gets at a candidate’s capabilities when it comes to “thinking quick” and “failing up,” the chances are not great you’re going to hear about their mightiest snafu at work. They’re not going to bring up the time they REALLY messed things up.

Instead, they’ll most likely present a story they’ve rehearsed and memorized — one that is true, but not necessarily candid.

Does this make their answer less useful? Not at all, if you consider that one of the reasons you are interviewing is to find out how the candidate communicates and performs under pressure. Additionally, as an interviewer, how will you follow this question up in order to create a meaningful & insightful dialogue?

As a recruiter, I work with investor groups, hiring managers and job seekers, and this type of interview question can produce frankly useful feedback, although not always for the reasons you’d assume.

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