Oh...and one last question

I haven’t had the luck or CV excellence to go to many interviews since I moved up to Cape Town. Truth be told, things are a bit laid back here and so in the absence of a job I’ve had to make ends meat by pursuing other inane part time work like data capturing, promoting, waitressing and writing internet content. But I digress.

Today I had the fortune of being selected for interview by what seems like a very nice company. I don’t think I had all the technical skills they were looking for so I’m not sure if I’m expecting them to call. Nevertheless, it was a pleasant interview with the exception of one part. That last question: “So Jennifer, what are your weaknesses”. Well readers, let’s just say that I have many more than I’d like to reveal in an interview. But what really is the best answer to that question?

Should you try to talk your way around it and and somehow try to bring in more about your strengths? Something like, “Well, good grief, I am very hard on myself. But you know sometimes being hard on yourself means you end up working much harder than usual” or, “Wow, I’ve never been asked that. Well obviously everyone has a weakness for being part of a team. I’m really love that and I guess a weakness would be that I hate when all the members of a team don’t get along.” But all of that just sounds vacuous, hollow and basically full of shit.

So is it time for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Should you say that you are a neat freak, a smoker (gasp), a vapid narcissist who only works so that they can tell everyone what a great job they have, money hungry, easily distracted by well written blogs on Thought Leader, or simply only working because you have to. I’m not sure if they’ll buy that either.

Or do you just lie blatantly? “Well, I’d have to say I have a weakness for hard work. There is nothing better than leaving work late and feeling like you have contributed?” Some elements of this may be true, but surely there is more than that?

So basically, as an interview newbie I’m not really sure. What level of honesty are they looking for when they ask you that question? Are they looking for you to laugh it off and say something cutesy like “chocolate” or “wine” (perhaps not a suitable reply in all interviews). And why do they ask that?

Surely the other questions leading up to the end of the interview have revealed your level of skill, flexibility, knowledge, positive qualities and perhaps some of your answers have already been disappointing or inappropriate. The decisions are surely made before the answer to that question.

All it does it make you wonder what is wrong with you. Possibly, the thing I fail to articulate there is the reason that I’ve not been so successful so far … Who knows!