The MOST Dreaded Question You’ll Face in Your Next HR Interview…And How To Answer it!

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  1. by Alan Collins - http://successinhr.com “Frankly, I consider myself a Superman for this job. And so my only weakness is kryptonite.”That’s what an HR director candidate once said to our panel of interviewers at PepsiCo.He was just joking to ease the tension and I could empathize.He was facing an intimidating five-person panel of HR executives for a job he desperately wanted and had never met any of us.And to be fair, he was also responding to a question we asked him. A question many consider to be the single most dreaded interview question on the planet…which is…“Tell us about your biggest weakness?’When we heard his “kryptonite” answer to this question, we chuckled a bit. But when he had nothing else to say, all of us just silently stared at him like he had just admitted to being a serial killer. He was clearly stumped by the question.Sadly, the rest of his interview went downhill from there and he didn’t get the job.I believe that one question completely threw him off his game. It stymied him. He wasn’t prepared for it.But that’s no excuse — he should have been.Let’s face it. We all have strengths and weaknesses as HR professionals.Superman knows that kryptonite is his weakness and so he avoids it at all costs. However, you don’t have the luxury to avoid the “weakness question” if it’s asked in your next interview. And some variation of it is going to come up at some point in the interview process.So how do you talk about weaknesses when you’re trying to sell yourself?First, here’s what not to do: Don’t try to offer up a strength and position it as a weakness — “I’m a perfectionist,” or “I’m a workaholic,” or “I can’t leave the job at the office.” That’s weak. Just about everyone knows about this tired old tactic. It’s what most career coaches and interview textbooks tell you to do. You can probably get away with it with rookie interviewers. But savvy, experienced hiring managers and recruiters will immediately see right through this as disingenuous bull. And they’ll smoke you out quickly as a phony trying to evade the question. So, what should you do instead?Well, let me warn you upfront that my approach to this is unconventional. But I believe it’s the right one.When I’m interviewing you, I’m not your enemy. So don’t treat me like one by trying to snow me with crap.If you’re a good fit for the HR role I’m interviewing for, I want to find that out and hire you … and if you’re not a good fit, I want to find that out too so that I don’t put you in a job that you’ll struggle with and even risk getting fired from. It’s not good for me. And it’s definitely not good for you and your HR career — and that’s what is MOST important.Assuming you want to land a position where you’ll thrive, this should be your goal too — and honesty is more likely to get us both there.With that in mind, it means you should come clean about weaknesses.And guess what, I’m not going to be shocked to discover you have some — we all do.The question is just how your weaknesses fit with this particular position, something we should both be interested in. Here’s part one of formulating your answer: Think seriously about your weak points or an areas that you’ve been working on developmentally. What have you struggled with in the past? What have past managers encouraged you to do differently? If you could wave a magic wand and add something to your list of strengths, what would it be? And here’s part two: What are you doing about it?Your answer in the interview should consist of BOTH parts.It might sound something like this:“A few years ago, I found that I wasn’t as naturally organized as I wanted to be. Without a system to keep track of my major HR priorities, I’d lose some momentum on them and fall behind. So now I make ”to do” lists on my smartphone religiously and check them every morning and every afternoon to make sure that absolutely nothing is slipping through the cracks and that all my priorities stay on track. I carry my phone with me everywhere, because I know that without that current priority list, I won’t be as organized as I need to be.” Or this: “I used to become frustrated and impatient when the work of other people negatively impacted my own HR projects and initiatives. Now I’ve come to understand that everyone has a unique contribution to make and I make an extra effort to help my colleagues with problems they may encounter in order to expedite our overall progress. I’ve learned that this more cooperative approach will deliver a much better end result in the long run for both my own project and the organization.” I like these two examples because each one takes a developmental area you’ve been working on — disorganization in the first, impatience with people in the second — areas that normally would raise a huge red flag, and instead shows how you are neutralizing them as an issue. Now, occasionally your interviewer might follow up with (as I sometimes do), “That’s a great description of how you overcame a weakness. Tell me about one you’re still struggling with.”If this happens, you should still use the two-part formula — follow up the weakness with what you’re doing to work on it. It’s okay that you’re not perfect yet. No one is. The question is just how it will impact the job. I know this absolutely flies in the face of a lot of the advice out there about not showing any real weaknesses.But I think that plays to the wrong goal.If you’re desperate and your goal is to land anything in HR fast!…then you’ll reject what I’ve recommended. And that’s fine. However, if you want to succeed massively in HR, your goal shouldn’t be to just land any old HR job.It should be to get the right job for you.One that you’ll absolutely excel and thrive in.One that excites you, consumes you and one can’t wait to jump out of bed and get to each day.And most importantly, one that will set your up the rest of your career in HR for success. Not failure.That means landing the right job for you. And this approach helps you do that.So do your homework. Take stock of your weaknesses. Prepare in advance for this question. Use the “two-part” strategy above for answering it.You might even want to run your answer by a few of your trusted colleagues to make sure it sounds reasonable.Then go into your interviews with confidence.And you’ll handle the “kryptonite” question just fine. Onward!
by Alan Collins – http://successinhr.com

“Frankly, I consider myself a Superman for this job. And so my only weakness is kryptonite.”That’s what an HR director candidate once said to our panel of interviewers at PepsiCo.He was just joking to ease the tension and I could empathize.He was facing an intimidating five-person panel of HR executives for a job he desperately wanted and had never met any of us.And to be fair, he was also responding to a question we asked him. A question many consider to be the single most dreaded interview question on the planet…which is…“Tell us about your biggest weakness?’When we heard his “kryptonite” answer to this question, we chuckled a bit. But when he had nothing else to say, all of us just silently stared at him like he had just admitted to being a serial killer.

He was clearly stumped by the question.Sadly, the rest of his interview went downhill from there and he didn’t get the job.I believe that one question completely threw him off his game. It stymied him. He wasn’t prepared for it.But that’s no excuse — he should have been.Let’s face it. We all have strengths and weaknesses as HR professionals.Superman knows that kryptonite is his weakness and so he avoids it at all costs.

However, you don’t have the luxury to avoid the “weakness question” if it’s asked in your next interview. And some variation of it is going to come up at some point in the interview process.So how do you talk about weaknesses when you’re trying to sell yourself?First, here’s what not to do: Don’t try to offer up a strength and position it as a weakness — “I’m a perfectionist,” or “I’m a workaholic,” or “I can’t leave the job at the office.”

That’s weak.

Just about everyone knows about this tired old tactic. It’s what most career coaches and interview textbooks tell you to do. You can probably get away with it with rookie interviewers. But savvy, experienced hiring managers and recruiters will immediately see right through this as disingenuous bull. And they’ll smoke you out quickly as a phony trying to evade the question.

So, what should you do instead?Well, let me warn you upfront that my approach to this is unconventional. But I believe it’s the right one.When I’m interviewing you, I’m not your enemy. So don’t treat me like one by trying to snow me with crap.If you’re a good fit for the HR role I’m interviewing for, I want to find that out and hire you … and if you’re not a good fit, I want to find that out too so that I don’t put you in a job that you’ll struggle with and even risk getting fired from.

It’s not good for me. And it’s definitely not good for you and your HR career — and that’s what is MOST important.Assuming you want to land a position where you’ll thrive, this should be your goal too — and honesty is more likely to get us both there.With that in mind, it means you should come clean about weaknesses.And guess what, I’m not going to be shocked to discover you have some — we all do.The question is just how your weaknesses fit with this particular position, something we should both be interested in.

Here’s part one of formulating your answer: Think seriously about your weak points or an areas that you’ve been working on developmentally. What have you struggled with in the past? What have past managers encouraged you to do differently? If you could wave a magic wand and add something to your list of strengths, what would it be?

And here’s part two: What are you doing about it?Your answer in the interview should consist of BOTH parts.It might sound something like this:“A few years ago, I found that I wasn’t as naturally organized as I wanted to be. Without a system to keep track of my major HR priorities, I’d lose some momentum on them and fall behind. So now I make ”to do” lists on my smartphone religiously and check them every morning and every afternoon to make sure that absolutely nothing is slipping through the cracks and that all my priorities stay on track. I carry my phone with me everywhere, because I know that without that current priority list, I won’t be as organized as I need to be.”

Or this: “I used to become frustrated and impatient when the work of other people negatively impacted my own HR projects and initiatives. Now I’ve come to understand that everyone has a unique contribution to make and I make an extra effort to help my colleagues with problems they may encounter in order to expedite our overall progress. I’ve learned that this more cooperative approach will deliver a much better end result in the long run for both my own project and the organization.”

I like these two examples because each one takes a developmental area you’ve been working on — disorganization in the first, impatience with people in the second — areas that normally would raise a huge red flag, and instead shows how you are neutralizing them as an issue.

Now, occasionally your interviewer might follow up with (as I sometimes do), “That’s a great description of how you overcame a weakness. Tell me about one you’re still struggling with.”If this happens, you should still use the two-part formula — follow up the weakness with what you’re doing to work on it.

It’s okay that you’re not perfect yet. No one is. The question is just how it will impact the job.

I know this absolutely flies in the face of a lot of the advice out there about not showing any real weaknesses.But I think that plays to the wrong goal.If you’re desperate and your goal is to land anything in HR fast!…then you’ll reject what I’ve recommended.

And that’s fine.

However, if you want to succeed massively in HR, your goal shouldn’t be to just land any old HR job.It should be to get the right job for you.One that you’ll absolutely excel and thrive in.One that excites you, consumes you and one can’t wait to jump out of bed and get to each day.And most importantly, one that will set your up the rest of your career in HR for success. Not failure.That means landing the right job for you.

And this approach helps you do that.So do your homework. Take stock of your weaknesses. Prepare in advance for this question. Use the “two-part” strategy above for answering it.You might even want to run your answer by a few of your trusted colleagues to make sure it sounds reasonable.Then go into your interviews with confidence.And you’ll handle the “kryptonite” question just fine.

Onward!

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