9/16    Related to the evaluation question below, how do you answer the
        interview question "what are your weaknesses"? I've gotten that
        from two different guys at the same company before and it was kinda
        painful because they really, really pushed deep on that question.
        \_ Do like they did on The Simpsons. "I'm a workaholic."
        \_ "My weakness is I refuse to work with doofuses who ask
           lame-ass questions like 'what are your weaknesses'?"
        \_ "I survived UC Berkeley where we kill the weak and eat their still
            beating hearts!  I have no weaknesses, little man!  What pathetic
            'school' did *you* go to?"  It doesn't really matter what you say.
            You're dealing with some doofus and every answer can be turned
            into the wrong answer.  You can say something like, "well my
            girlfriend sometimes gets upset that I'm such a take-charge
            gung-ho kinda guy when we make plans but she always has fun!"
            All answers are stupid, just try to avoid giving an axe-murderer
            answer.
            \_ These were the two highest-ranking tech godfathers at this co.
               If you had said that "take charge" answer they'd scoff and
               make you give a *real* weakness. Oh well, fuck 'em I guess.
               One of them spent about half the interview on that question,
               and the rest questioning my "passion for engineering" and why
               I'm an engineer etc... unfortunately rather close to home tho.
               \_ I'm 28 and a software engineer, and I want to work with
                  "good" people more than get a salary.  The fact that they're
                  asking these meta-questions might suggest that they're
                  concerned with what your life goals and attitudes are,
                  have you figured it out.  It's just a job, but you
                  spend half your life at work, so I can see why.
                  \_ No, it means the interviewers are lazy and/or
                     inexperienced.  However, your answer is correct.  -John
               \_ I've had the exact same thing happen to me when I gave some
                  clever variation on the 'work too hard' line.  So I told him
                  I'm smart and have low tolerance for people who are
                  intentionally stupid.  Not stupid people, but people who
                  play dumb for political or other reasons.  I got an offer,
                  but I don't think that had anything to do with it.  I think
                  he was just filling time and feeling self important.
                  \_ yeah. btw i needed *3* weaknesses. well, it actually
                     taught me how to be better prepared for interviews.
                     it's all about attitude.
                     \_ 3?  That's fucking crazy.  "Gee, I'm not that flawed".
                     \_ a more specific question would have been
                        "tell me 3 things your co-workers hate about you"
        \_ the standard answer is: "I work too hard...". not inspiring or
           original, but it works. if yer just outta skewl, mention that
           you spent all yer time in the computer lab. don't mention the
           B.O. problem.
        \_ a good manager (read, the kind of manageryou want to work with)
           knows that different people are happier doing different things.
           Questions like this aren't ment to be ducked.  What they are trying
           to get at is "What sort of stuff do you do poorly?  What sort of
           stuff do you just not enjoy doing?"  Yeah saying something like
           "I goof off half the day and get everything done late" is stupid
           but a real answer like "when I'm working on a project with a bad
           debugging environment my productivity drops really bad" would,
           say let them know you might do better at being a server coding
           person that working with some proprierty scripting system that
           doesn't have real tools.  They want people, not pretend workaholics
           who will leave in disgust six months later because they treated
           management as roadblocks to be worked around, and somehow, gee,
           that made work a nightmare.
           \_ This is probably true but I've never had the pleasure of working
              with a "good" manager. Then again, I'm in civil engineering, not
              coding. The consensus among those I've talked to is that the
              weakness question is the interviewer getting in an early stab at
              establishing pecking order. They, after all, will never have to
              answer such a ridiculous question of themselves from you. If you
              want the job, have your canned answer ready and don't be worried
              that it's not exactly honest. They're not looking for honesty.
              They're looking for you to subvert your ego for the "team". You
              may, however, want to consider whether this is the sort of
              situation where you'd like to work, if you have a choice in the
              matter. In the current times, nobody in my business really has
              much choice.
              \_ I had a good manager once.  I can barely remember what it was
                 like....  Maybe we had the same one since I think there's only
                 about 3 out there.