6 min read
"What is your biggest weakness?"
If this classic overused job interview question makes you roll your eyes, you're not alone. Many successful people don't ask this when evaluating potential future employees, because it rarely accomplishes what the interviewer actually wants—to figure out whether the candidate is going to be a good fit for their company or not.
However, in order to understand the type of questions that experienced interviewers do actually prefer, we must first consider the true purpose of a job interview.
What are successful people looking for when interviewing potential hires?
Specific hard skills and soft skills—practically all employers are looking for both, but they are not valued equally. Hard skills, such as speaking seven languages or proficiently using a myriad of software tools, can be incredibly impressive. But they can also be taught. More importantly, they are easy to measure and determine—by looking at a person's CV or portfolio, or by having them complete a task that tests their competence, for example. This is why candidates lacking crucial hard skills generally do not even reach the interview stage.
On the other hand, those who do reach that stage may have proven their hard skills, but not their soft skills, such as creativity, collaboration, leadership, adaptation, etc. These abilities are difficult to quantify and cannot easily be taught. This is why 92% of employers say that soft skills matter as much or more than hard skills.
Considering that the ultimate goal of the interview is to quickly and accurately figure out whether the interviewee is going to perform well in the role that they are applying for, most employers will naturally be focusing on soft skills at this stage. It is therefore no surprise that many of the accomplished veterans of the corporate world choose to ask uncommon questions that they believe will best reveal a candidate's soft skills, or lack thereof.
Three examples of successful people and their favorite interview questions
"Tell me about a time you strongly disagreed with your manager. What did you do to convince him or her that you were right? What ultimately happened?"
This question is the favorite of not one but three experienced individuals. Furthermore, each of them values the question and the takeaways from its potential answers differently, which is further evidence that it is a question with true depth.
Cristina Cordova, currently the COO of Linear, says this question shows her how far someone will go in order to do what they believe is right, how they convince others to get on the same page, and how they handle situations that don't work out the way they were hoping for.
Erica Galos Alioto, the former senior vice president of Yelp, also shared that she finds the question to be useful and telling. She claims that it allows her to see how candidates deal with conflict in a work environment—do they openly address it and value the difference in opinion while trying to resolve it? Or are they unable to see the other person's perspective? Either way, Erica says their approach tells her a lot about their communication skills.
Former Airbnb VP of Engineering Michael Curtis also enjoys this question because he believes it discourages meaningless answers while also showing a great deal about the interviewee's personality.
"What is your favorite quotation?"
This is the interview question preferred by Karen Davis, formerly a senior vice president at Hasbro. According to her, the question is useful for figuring out who the applicants really are and what their true passion and purpose is.
In this case, she is not looking for a specific "right answer", but instead is interested in candidates who have an answer, because she believes it to be a sign that they have been looking for sources of inspiration.
"What are you better at than almost anyone else? What’s your superpower and how will you leverage that to make an impact at this company?"
Roli Saxena, current CEO of NextRoll, says that by asking this question she encourages the candidate to show the level of their self-awareness and how prepared they are. She adds that if they can tailor their response to the goals of the company and how they can add value, it becomes clear that they've done their homework on both themselves and the team they want to join.
Would you have an easy time answering these questions? Whether you're a jobseeker looking to prepare yourself for future interviews or somebody aspiring to successfully be self-employed, being confident in your ability to talk about your strengths and weaknesses is bound to help your financial progress.