i actually liked it, especially the delegating part. you have mid-manager written all over you. if i were Michael Scott, I’d hire you in a Scranton minute.
What’s a “Rudeboi,” anyway?
someone that grew up in a wealthy toronto suburb.
I stumble at this question every single time. It is difficult to answer it without a generic cliché, after all, it is a generic question. But the honest answer, even if mitigated, could easily work against you. In my mind, the given weakness should ultimately be interpreted as one’s strength. Perhaps one can reason with “I have a hard time delegating work because I like to be in control of the projects that I am ultimately responsible for.” With the follow up that “when necessary, I delegate the assignments with clearly set goals and tasks, and continue to be involved in execution of every step.” Still sounds like an a-hole with poor team work skills.
I always find it’s a question begging for a 40 year old man joke, a la 3’s suggestion. Go with your putting, and if they don’t do the country club laugh, you probably didn’t want to work there anyway.
well, you can bring up a weakness that you’ve been struggling with for some time and then talk about the progress you’ve made in recent years. For example: “I’ve often had trouble delegating authority because I am a little bit of a perfectionist and like to have a lot of control over the quality of what I produce. However, over time I have learned how to let people contribute their best qualities to projects that I supervise, so that I can focus on the parts that I do best. It really boils down to good communication up front and developing trust and rapport with your team members” (this is remarkably similar to answers that I have given. It states self awareness, but also finishes on an upwards trajectory that leaves the interviewer on a positive note)
Double post deleted
“well, you can bring up a weakness that you’ve been struggling with for some time and then talk about the progress you’ve made in recent years.” Save that for therapy and group sessions.
Wow Turkish ur on roll today …
My strategy is to go with the truth… Say that my weakness is I don’t have as much experience as others… Something they know already (from looking at my resume, and the type of job I’d apply for), but good filler in an awkward moment, and maybe even can take some of the negative out of it if I present it in the right way. The greens thing is pretty classic though…
I hate these stock standard HR questions. They waste everyone’s time!
My answer to this question has always been that I get p*ssed at people that don’t love their work. I can’t stand meeting people in my profession that obviously aren’t motivated by their jobs and only do what I do b/c they don’t have the balls to go find something else. The reason I can’t stand it is that there are a million smart people out there that would give their right arms to work buyside front office. As a rule, everyone I work with is very well educated and could essentially go and do anything they want. Perhaps unsurprisingly, with this answer, you are very unlikely to be asked “so how do you deal with this problem?” - since the implication would be that they employ such people.
I deal with it the way many postal workers deal with it. And I want to work at a place where there are lots of people like me.
Kryptonite On a serious note, would a personal weakness be acceptable instead of one the conventional ones out there (I work too hard, etc…)? For example, I’m thinking about saying at my next interview: Im very undisciplined when it comes to sleeping (i think its a waste of time) and I can never force myself to go to bed early, yet I *ALWAYS* regret it the next morning and never learn. Or is that too personal and totally irrelevant?
Etienne Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > My answer to this question has always been that I > get p*ssed at people that don’t love their work. > I can’t stand meeting people in my profession that > obviously aren’t motivated by their jobs and only > do what I do b/c they don’t have the balls to go > find something else. The reason I can’t stand it > is that there are a million smart people out there > that would give their right arms to work buyside > front office. As a rule, everyone I work with is > very well educated and could essentially go and do > anything they want. > > Perhaps unsurprisingly, with this answer, you are > very unlikely to be asked “so how do you deal with > this problem?” - since the implication would be > that they employ such people. I think this is a good one as long as you don’t come across as sounding arrogant. I might use something like this at some point
Perhaps unsurprisingly, with this answer, you are > very unlikely to be asked “so how do you deal with > this problem?” - since the implication would be > that they employ such people. that seems like a very likely question …they may want to know how you would deal with difficult people / situations . Lets face it we have all worked somewhere wherein there were a few people that you just want to kick the crap out of …
Post office, dude!
Etienne Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > My answer to this question has always been that I > get p*ssed at people that don’t love their work. > I can’t stand meeting people in my profession that > obviously aren’t motivated by their jobs and only > do what I do b/c they don’t have the balls to go > find something else. The reason I can’t stand it > is that there are a million smart people out there > that would give their right arms to work buyside > front office. As a rule, everyone I work with is > very well educated and could essentially go and do > anything they want. > > Perhaps unsurprisingly, with this answer, you are > very unlikely to be asked “so how do you deal with > this problem?” - since the implication would be > that they employ such people. And with that response, I now know that Etienne is not the kind of person with whom I’d want to have a beer.
I bet you’d want to have a beer with me…granted, I would have probably had around 8 already.
Yeah, you seem like you’d be a good beer-drinking partner, Turkish.