Page 59 - 301 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview, Second Edition

THE RULES OF THE GAME

Or:

Can you tell me about your greatest weakness?

A good way to create a space for your questions is to respond by
saying:

That’s a fair question and I’m glad to answer it. After I do, I hope I can
ask you to tell me about the company’s greatest weakness.

And then answer the question and when you are done, pause, giving
the interviewer the space to answer your question. Don’t force it. If
the interviewer prefers to go on with the next question, go with the
flow.

(By the way, some candidates think the way to answer the “great-
est weakness” question is by framing a positive attribute as a weak-
ness: “Oh, I’m too motivated. I work too hard and way too many
hours.” Don’t do it. It’s a trick question. Most interviewers expect
the finesse. Here’s a better approach: mention a genuine weakness
that you have had in the past and since remedied: “I used to be too
impulsive and impatient to wait for buy-in from my colleagues. But
I saw how my impatience degraded the product. Now I make sure
to work by consensus and obtain all the appropriate buy-ins before
making a decision.”)

THE PREEMPTIVE QUESTION

If you really want to assert yourself and take complete control of
the interview, there is a compelling question that will transform the
interview. This question is best used if your interviewer is the actual
hiring manager, or the person with hiring authority. It is less useful
with screeners. The question is:

By what criteria will you select the person for this job?

This marvelous question, recommended by Irv Zuckerman in his
book Hire Power, lets the candidate effectively seize control of the
interview in a way that many interviewers find reassuring. Here’s
a typical exchange (with comments) between an interviewer and a
candidate:

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