Posted on 06/10/2011 11:37:53 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
There are a couple questions that everyone dreads in an interview.
"What is your greatest weakness?" "Where do you see yourself in five years?" and "Tell me about yourself." It's the default question (and the first) in most interviews, and to many candidates, it can feel like a trap.
So we spoke with executive headhunters and career coaches about how best to answer this question. "They want to gauge how the person thinks," says Eileen Finn, president of executive search firm Eileen Finn & Associates in New York.
Even though there is no one right answer, focusing on the past, the negative, or the too personal can hurt your chances of making it through.
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(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
“I could, but then I’d have to kill you.”
I don’t always drink beer but when I do.....
“What’s your greatest weakness, Senator Clinton?” “I care too much.” Terrible, but actually quite effective.
I hate that website and the article doesn’t answer the question it poses in any way, shape or form.
In your chair.
I’d rather tell you about you.
Let’s see, yesterday at 4:07 you left for home and arrived at 5:32.
For dinner you had spaghetti and watched reruns of the Simpsons until 6:30.
You spent the rest of the evening reading (I couldn’t see what) and then you went to bed at 10:12.
I'm assuming the best response isn't "I refuse to answer on the grounds that I might incriminate myself."
Sometimes this question is given by a well-prepared interviewer, but in my experience (on “both sides” of the interview), this question is usually asked by an UNprepared interviewer. S/He (the interviewer) hasn’t even read the applicant’s resume carefully and is killing time as S/He BEGINS to read it while the applicant answers.
Same goes for other cliched questions: Sometimes there’s a good, prepared interviewer asking it, but not usually.
A variation on the theme, meant to make the UNprepared interviewer SOUND prepared by implication, is, “Tell me something about yourself that’s not apparent from your resume.” I really hate these (although I had an answer ready). Dude? The reason stuff IS or IS NOT on my resume is because of what’s important to this job. Jeesh.
Before or after the double homicide?
I’ve always found it best to open with a particular quote from Winger, Bill Murray’s caracter, in the movie ‘Stripes’:
“Chicks dig me, because I rarely wear underwear and when I do it’s usually something unusual...”
That always breaks the ice and eases any tension in the room...
First guy: "We don't have enough time. I have too many skills to list them all."
That was his entire answer.
“Well, I’m a jolly kind of guy to have around when I remember to take my meds, and my Parole Officer says that the survivors of that little thing with the fire axe have pretty much laughed the whole thing off by now. Do you think the ankle bracelet spoils the hang of this suit?”
As an oft-unprepared interviewer, all I have to say about your spurious accusation is... Okay, you got me...
RE: “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
In your chair.
________________________________________________________________________
Next question — “And where do you expect me to be if you are in my chair?”
At least he didn’t lack self confidence...
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