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But IMO the question is not about gathering information about the job (there are other questions for that) but information about how much effort the candidate put into preparing for the interview. One aspect of assessing good future employees is there attention to detail and preparedness. I note the question has a different function from when it first started to be used and was not widely expected, which was originally to see how someone would react when out of their comfort zone (back in the day you didn't mention weaknesses).
Nowadays, I've heard all sorts of alternatives for the latter function ("tell me how you would run my department" / "tell me how you'll get promoted over me in the next 18 months" / tell me why our competitors products (or services) are better than ours" and so on).
On there own, all such questions are pointless, of course. The assessment has to be) an holistic judgement of the candidtate. I've gained jobs where I fluffed such questions. Going back to the original point, though, the only time I did criticise a current employer in an interview (constructively, I thought), I didn't get shortlisted...
On 29 Feb 2012, at 23:36, Gene Kim-Eng wrote:
> I hate that question. Anyone who isn't still living in the 1950's knows that whatever answer you get is going to be a canned response from some job search website. The closest thing I ever ask is what the candidate thinks is his/her experience that is most relevant to the position and what areas where additional training might be required once on the job. I want information that is actually going to mean something.
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> Gene Kim-Eng
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> On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 7:43 PM, Phil Snow Leopard <philstokes03 -at- googlemail -dot- com> wrote:
> That's why you still get all those stupid questions about strengths and weaknesses.
Phil Stokes
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