Monday, December 02, 2013

What's your biggest weakness?

Interviewer: What is your biggest weakness?
Candidate: I'm too honest.
Interviewer: I don't think that's a weakness.
Candidate: I don't care what you think.

For the most part, i don't like most interview questions. Interview quizzes are terrible. A good question i heard in an interview was this:

What are your favorite tools?

This question draws out anecdotes and situations. The tools show diversity of activity, passion for the job, and can be genuinely informative. It can start a conversation. You don't really want a monologue. It can get you close to what should really happen in an interview. If the interviewer isn't competent, then the interviewer can't tell if the candidate is competent. The best interviews happen between two competent people. At the end of the interview, interviewers must ask themself this question: "Would I like to hang out with this person." Studies show that many companies have pockets of really good employees.
I said that i don't like most interview questions. I come away thinking, "How could they be so stupid?" (And, "do i really want to work there?") But for a long time, i wondered what the interviewer should ask. I give them (and myself) a bit of a break now.

It takes about two weeks to come up with a really good extemporaneous comment. -- Mark Twain

Sam was a pretty smart dude. If it took him two weeks, then we all deserve a break.