{"id":3730,"date":"2012-06-19T12:58:27","date_gmt":"2012-06-19T12:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/?p=3730"},"modified":"2012-06-19T12:58:27","modified_gmt":"2012-06-19T12:58:27","slug":"tell-me-your-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/2012\/06\/tell-me-your-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Rude VC: Before I hire you, tell me about your problems"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve noticed a typical recruiting occurence in the States sadly creeping into hiring processes in Europe, even among startups. I\u2019m referring to the dreaded question during a job interview of: \u201cWhat are your weaknesses?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTell me about your weaknesses\u201d is an interview question with which I\u2019ve always struggled. Without a doubt, it is far less pleasant to answer than questions like \u201cTell me about your strengths\u201d or even \u201cWhat is your greatest failure?\u201d<\/p>\n

The failure question is actually not all that difficult. The key is to recount an incident of failure, ideally with business implications, package it into a concise story, and polish it off with a moral of the lessons you learned during the ordeal.<\/p>\n

But answering the \u201cTell me your weaknesses\u201d question, at least in a sincere manner, is trickier.<\/p>\n

What gives recruiters the right to probe into my psyche and perform a psychiatrical examination during a job interview ? Isn’t this supposed to be a professional encounter about my qualifications for a prospective job posting, not a therapy session ? Especially during a down economy with high unemployment and bleak prospects in Europe, I almost wonder if the interviewer is embarking on a bit of a power trip.<\/p>\n

There was one job interview I had in France several years back with a person whom I found increasingly irritating during the process. When my counterpart asked me, \u201cWhat is your greatest weakness?\u201d I responded with, \u201cJ\u2019ai du mal \u00e0 supporter les cons<\/em>\u201d (I don\u2019t suffer fools very well). Needless to say, I wasn\u2019t<\/span> offered that job.<\/p>\n

Unless you aspire to join the ranks of a large French group, typically found on the CAC40, with an imposing corporate culture whose core tenet snuffs out any thread of creativity, rebelliousness, or originality in order to keep all company robots<\/del> employees marching in the same direction, I submit that the weakness question is inappropriate.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re recruiting for your startup, particularly of the fast-growing high-tech variety which interests many readers of this blog, this question has no place in a job interview. On the contrary, as an entrepreneur, you need to favor practicality over behavioral interview theory. You should try to hire a diverse set of energetic people that will bring fresh and original thinking to your business. Often great genius is accompanied by a flip side of personality quirks which could be construed as weaknesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

And in the meantime, for seekers of jobs in startups, if you encounter the weakness question you could seize the opportunity to demonstrate your personality with a bit of humor, responding to \u201cWhat is your greatest weakness?\u201d with answers like:<\/p>\n

\u201cMy greatest weakness? Excessive humility!\u201d<\/p>\n

or<\/p>\n

\u201cHow much time do we have\u2026 shall we conf call in my wife for this?\u201d<\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve noticed a typical recruiting occurence in the States sadly creeping into hiring processes in Europe, even among startups. I\u2019m referring to the dreaded question during a job interview of: \u201cWhat are your weaknesses?\u201d \u201cTell me about your weaknesses\u201d is an interview question with which I\u2019ve always struggled. Without a doubt, it is far less<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":64784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10564],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tech-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}