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Comment by cjoh | Hacker News Reader

I ask this question in interviews all the time. It helps me filter for people who are liars. I ask it, and if they say "I work too hard" or "I'm a perfectionist" then I don't hire them because they're at best delusional and at worst liars.

And you know who else I don't hire? 20 somethings who proceed to say that the question is stupid. That's a tell-tale sign of young man's disease-- an ego that hasn't caught up with one's ability to relate to people without alienating them.

Of course it is an idiotic question-- one's weaknesses change on a semi-regular basis from environment to environment. But the question has some justifiably good qualities-- namely, you can catch bullshit artists fairly well.

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That's all well and good, but when you look at it from the interviewee's perspective he/she has to determine, based on what little knowledge they have of the interviewer, whether or not they want to hear the bullshit answer or your preferred, realistic version of the answer. Right now, it is probably a safer bet to stick to the bullshit answer until more interviewers like yourself swing the tide back over. In the meantime, however, you could be missing out on great applicants that have just been programmed to give you the bullshit answer by the sitting majority.

Personally, I wouldn't want to work for a company that expects a bullshit answer here. I'll give them the real answer, if they then don't hire me because they expected bullshit, that's fine.

This only applies if you're not hungry, or getting booted out of your apartment in a month.

I agree-- if I get a non-bullshit answer (which happens, rarely) then all the better. I mean, it is a tremendous strength to be able to acknowledge your flaws to an employer and be open and transparent about them.

A ton of excellent developers work way to hard and are obsesive compulsive about perfection. This is so common as to warrant whole chapters about "the best is the enemy of the good" and so on.

And.. it is a weakness.. a big weakness. it is no bullshit.

But there's a difference between the common weakness ("I focus on trivial details at the expense of the big picture") and the common bullshit response ("I work too hard"). I don't ask this kind of interview question, but I imagine one could tell the difference between those two responses.

I agree. The problem with "I'm a perfectionist" is that:

1. It's a common stock answer, so giving it signifies a lack of imagination.

2. Taken at face value, it's a real weakness (good; honest), but it's one that can cause problems for the business (bad). It's a crippling trait which might prevent a person from meeting deadlines, and that's not something you want to indicate during an interview.

You want to answer the "biggest weakness" question with a genuine weakness (not "I work too hard") but one that can't, in any way, result in missed deadlines or upset clients/co-workers. This means that most people need to "lie" to the extent of selecting their #3 or #4 biggest weakness. The actual biggest weakness, for most of us, won't get the job.

You just stated that you want your staff to tell you what you would like to hear, even if that's a lie.

I would like to think I'm a reasonably truthful person, and back when I was interviewing for a job, I always replied with the "work too hard" line. In part because I I sometimes do work too hard (don't we all?) but mostly because... how to say it? because the question is silly.

To be honest, I don't think this question will unmask any liar -- you may be missing on good job candidates if you keep using this as some type of polygraph test.

Oh, and I'm in my 40's by the way.

Apparently a lot of people agree with this comment. What's interesting is that catching bullshit is the easiest thing to do in a job interview. A good interviewer never has that problem. The hard part is finding out if the person is the best candidate for the job.

Also, a job interview goes both ways: a stupid question may alienate a potentially good candidate. It's a better idea to focus on positive questions: the ones that help you learn what you want while at the same time selling yourself/your company to the candidate.

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