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Comment by GBKS | Hacker News Reader

I actually like the question. I answer it honestly, and I always like to get honest answers to it when I interview people. After all, if you lie about your weaknesses, you might also lie about your strengths, and the interviewer might trust you less.

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Worse than lying, a huge number of people aren't even aware of their weaknesses, which is probably a big red flag. People shouldn't think they are self-reflective if the only reflection they do is to bask in their own awesomeness.

Being asked to rule yourself out of a job that you are interviewing for (or else deflect the question with some bullshit humblebrag) is far from an ideal gauge of self-awareness.

If you think admitting you are not perfect would "rule you out" of a job it sounds like you haven't really interacted with real humans much (i.e. no sane person thinks that someone talking about something they struggle with when specifically asked is a disqualification). If an employer decides to not offer you a job based on your answer (assuming it isn't something along the lines of "I embezzle massively from every employer"), that is unlikely to be a place you really want to work anyways, in the long run.

The problem is that any answer to the question will hurt you. It's just a question of minimizing the harm. There's also a competitive aspect to it where if you don't lie, someone else will.

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