Actually the question is not that weird. Essentially he is asking what is your weakness. (A very standard question). What you need is to pitch your weakness as a strength. That is, for eg, i can get stuck sometimes on the details of a problem and not seem to make much progress on solving the problem because i am busy with the small details. But in my experience, this has been a unique strength because i can find holes in the design when others are just thinking about how to implement the design. Instead of wasting time writing code for a design that is not complete or has a flaw, i am able to identify the issues and save the much more increased cost of going back to fix the design after coding has started.
The worst part of me would probably be my âawkwardâ or âgeekyâ social skills.
This âbad partâ of me is the reason behind my early life curiosity towards anything and everything related to engineering, (from my spring loaded toy cars to motorcycles and sportâs cars).
That same curiosity provided my affinity or talent in my engineering degree.
That degree nurtured my admiration and understanding of the scientific methodology of exact sciences.
Exact sciences like CS, allowing me to pick up on todayâs âdigital infrastructureâ with such natural ease.
mmm, to be honest, it sounds like a book⌠Try to come up with a way of describing your weakness that makes it relateable (ideally you want the interviewer to think they also have that weakness or at least make them feel superior!
For eg. when you started talking about early life, you didnât give any real example, try finding one , like a specific toy(s) and describe what you mean by curiosity in that respect.
or you could go into more detail when you say âtalen in my eng. degreeâ , what did you mean by talent? Good marks? Give us an example so we can relate to you.
So, how many âpopularâ kids did you know in highschool?
That part has to go as reference to âproblematicâ personal topics are frowned upon when addressing a possible employer.(not only from an interviewerâs perspective, but also from a legal standpoint)
As i understand it, talent is the aptitude towards specific skills without obvious effort.
All I did in college was write down teachers class (lecture, engineering formulas, the works) so effectively memorizing everything I needed to ânailâ down any tests may occur. Thereâs not much homework when you perform that way
So you see if i take my time to justify everything i claim here Iâll just probably gonna miss my one minute mark .
One of my attributes Iâm not most proud of, would probably be my soft skills.
The deficit of social interaction is the reason behind my natural curiosity towards anything and everything mechanical, (from spring loaded toy cars to motorcycles and sportâs cars).
That same curiosity is what lead me to interact with said artifacts by taking them apart and putting them back together, in such a way that would not raise any issues with their functionality or usability.
Those early interactions provided the aptitude for my engineering degree.
That degree nurtured my admiration and understanding of the scientific methodology of exact sciences.
Exact sciences like Computer Science, allowing me to pick up on todayâs digital infrastructure with such natural ease.
Define, Measure, Quantify, Manage and Improve where known principles to me, long before ITIL standards (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) came to my knowledge.
So, in essence, my deficit on soft skills is my aptitude in software engineering.
Protip: donât emphasise that you have no social skills in an interview situation, you are trying to get hired and the people hiring you generally have to consider whether they want to work with you. Corollary to that is that, if done carefully, it may be ok to state it in a self-deprecating, jokey way, as doing that then implies the opposite.
âI donât think about what Iâm worst at. That would take me a very long time to figure out, so I canât answer your question. The closest answer I can give you is that I wouldnât want to sell it, because I believe the worst parts of ourselves are essential because they keep us growing. If a weak point interferes with my goals along the way, I improve it until it no longer does.â
Silly answer? I guess so. But I really do believe itâs a silly and cheap question. Something along the lines of âTell us why we shouldnât hire youâ. To which, again, my answer would be âI wonâtâ. haha.
I personally feel like the whole thing of pitching your weakness as a strength would be a bit of a cliche. It would be expected, it would be common. Those, I believe, are not the things you want your interview or answers to be like. A long time ago, it might have been smart to do that, but now-a-days I feel like if I was an interviewer, itâd make me a bit nauseous to hear that cliche. Thatâs just my opinion.
The amount of silly and cheap request I had from employers over the years are far greater than the ones Iâm willing to admit. But overall weâre on the same page here
Glad to read that the interview went well! Over the course of several interviews for my current job that type of question never came up and it was a detail that helped me decide to take that job over another. Its one of those things thatâs almost cliche and basically did you research/prepare for this question or not. Most times the answer sounds super scripted and I donât think adds any value to the process (but some possible awkwardness). Just my opinion, but I think it really is a silly question.
What if I said
"I do not like being told what I already know. I donât fancy repetitions that much. I often see it as a waste of my time. This is not to say that Iâm not patient or accommodating. I donât just like it when people state the obvious to me "
I have a feeling that response isnât too good. Thereâs a touch of pride, attitude and impatience