Yes, you can be brilliant all you want, but if you can't apply those skills to the real world, then they don't do much good, do they?

I don't mind "hard worker" as a quality worth calling out (it's rare enough) but I would rather see it phrased as "strong work ethic" or something about "initiative" and "follow-through."

Interviewers: From your point of view, which is the better answer to the "What are your biggest weaknesses" question:
a. I'm a bit of a perfectionist.
b. Sometimes I care too much.
c. I punch people at random.

A. B suggests emotional drama, possible eventual burnout, that kind of thing.

Ew, people put GPAs on resumes? Sounds kinda tacky to me, like putting your salary requirement up front.

Speaking of GPAs, I hate when I'm asked for mine, as if something I did fifteen years ago, when I was a kid, reflects on my current ability to do a job. Of course, I had a crap GPA; maybe if it was better I'd be braying about it in an interview, or stamping it all over my resume. If only I had known GPA would matter, I would have gotten a crap education at a cheap college where I could ace all my classes with little effort.

"What are your biggest weaknesses?"

"I take too much on myself; not just the work itself, which I find I can usually budget time for, but the stress that comes with being obsessed with the work turning out perfectly. This isn't something that affects people around me, and it's definitely something I've taken steps to mitigate, but I've had jobs where I cared too much about every task, and I made myself miserable over items of little consequence. Often I channel this malaise into random punch-ups and verbal abuse."

Well, HJ, I care more about internships and design experience, but I know my VP looks at a combination of strength-of-school and GPA (only for college seniors or recent graduates). In a technical field, a GPA can mean a lot (I'm not speaking about humanities or arts majors).

That's why I wanted to tell this kid to put his in-major GPA on his resume. His combined GPA was OK, but if you're trying to sell yourself to an engineering firm, at least try to make the case that your C+ in freshman Chemistry is not worth consideration.

Yeah, I guess it all depends on what you studied, what the job is, and how long you've been out of college. The rules must be totally different for engineering, and I can imagine a lot of situations where college work might have something to do with the job at hand. I've never actually seen this be the case, but I can imagine it, especially with more technical stuff.

"My biggest weakness is a lack of humility about my own perfection, which is understandable, of course."

Sometimes I care too much.

this is actually a red flag for me - this or any version of it. That's because I'm in nonprofits, where self-sacrifice 'for the mission' can become a crippling career issue for people. Dedication is high, but so is burnout. I have people who won't go home, won't take their vacation, won't stop feeling like they should give more and more. The problem is manifold - they run out of energy and get cranky and/or sick and/or bitter that their many sacrifices aren't appreciated enough, and they can develop a martyr complex. I really wish people could remember that work is work, and it has an appropriate place in your life, but is not your entire life. I include myself in the above.

At this point I think the only thing safe to say to an interviewer who is clumsy and dull enough to even ask the "weakness" question is to admit relative inexperience in some job area (software, type of client, type of campaign, whatever), and then state what you're going to do to learn it (I got a book on it, I have a colleague who's offered me to tutor, I will take the class at my expense..).

Sometimes I care too much.
It sometimes baffles me that I have this problem quite a bit with many of the staff in my team - they simply work too hard and keep putting in long (unpaid) hours and working extra hard - I have to keep saying things like "for god's sake, go home and talk to your wife/husband/partner, will you". I actually had to formally and officially give the work/life balance speech at a staff meeting a few months ago, because I was regularly getting e-mails at ungodly hours of the night and on weekends. Of course, this is somewhat balanced by those who are the archetypical public servants who you have to poke to see if they're still breathing but, overall, I wish most of my staff would take it a bit easier.

How does this relate to interviews, I hear you ask? Well, now that you've asked, I've come up with a link - we have trouble recruiting staff, because those doing the evaluations/interviews expect candidates to work as hard as them and to have the same high standards of work, so almost nobody measures up to their standards. Part of the problem is that they will have to deal with any shortcomings of new staff, of course and the problem of making permanent hires that are then impossible to get rid of without such a long, involved and demoralising experience that it's usually easier to manage around underperformance than to directly address it, but that's another subject altogether...

I forgot to add that the candidate didn't bring hard copies of his resume (I had to pull it from the online system), and I think he showed up 15 minutes late (although it could have been another interviewer who held him up). So yeah, when I say "excellent candidate", I mean he was personable and seemed well-qualified.

dg - you're completely right on the mark.

Ok, on that weakness question, why is it even asked? What value do you get from it? I understood Miko's answer, but for a technical support or programming job - what are you looking for? I never ask this question myself.

I've never been asked that question, lysdexic. Like Miko said, it's a sign of a poor interviewer, or a poor interviewing process.

"What are your biggest weaknesses?"

"Right now, my suit and my shoes. I'm sure they'll improve when I'm working for you."

"What are your biggest weaknesses?"

Definitely triceps. I've been working with a resistance band, though, and seeing some improvement.