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Liz Ryan
- Liz, I know you hate the question “What’s your greatest weakness?” but I always ask job-seekers that question. I think it’s really important. Great! If it works for you, you should do it.
- But you’re going to keep advising job-seekers to answer that question with a non-answer like ‘I don’t think about my weaknesses’ – right?
Listen, if you don’t like the answer that you hear from a job-seeker to any question that you ask at a job interview, then don’t hire them. A job interview is a matching exercise. You’re right — I don’t like that question at all. But you have to be you.
- I try to hire people very thoughtfully and logically. I think it’s important to do that. I think that a careful interview process is critical. I don’t understand why the simple question “What’s your greatest weakness?” annoys you. Can you tell me what bothers you about the question “What’s your greatest weakness?”
Sure! It’s an insulting question, for starters. Are you ready to tell the job applicant what your greatest weaknesses are?
- Frankly, no. Why should I? I’m the one making the hiring decision.
That’s one reason I hate that question. It comes from an unequal place. It cements the false idea that only one person in the room is making a decision. In truth, everybody in the room has a decision to make. The job-seeker sitting in front of you may not want to work for you. If you keep asking that question, more and more of them may feel that way.
- But the question is valid! Everyone is working on improving something in their life, right?
Are they? I couldn’t tell you. I don’t believe that we come to this planet with weaknesses.
- You don’t? You don’t believe in lifelong learning?
I do believe in learning, but not from the standpoint that we are defective and need to correct deficiencies. I think that people are born with everything they need to do their life’s work. We keep learning throughout life, but that learning has nothing to do with weaknesses.
It is. It’s a religion without God in it, but it has all the other
characteristics of religious belief. You don’t have evidence for it. You
just believe it to be true. You question anyone — me, for instance —
who doesn’t share your belief. You believe so strongly that people must
have weaknesses or deficiencies and that personal growth is a matter of
fixing defects that you can’t imagine any other belief system.
- Well, honestly I don’t care what you think. I’m going to keep asking that question, and anyone who doesn’t want to share a weakness with me won’t get hired in my department.
Ah! That’s wonderful.
- What?
Earlier you said that you try to be rational and thoughtful in your recruiting. Just during this short conversation you’ve devolved to the logical system “My way or the highway!”
- Well, that’s how I feel.
That is fear, my friend. That is what people say when other people question their strongly-held beliefs. They put their fingers in their ears and say “I don’t care what you think! This is the way I want it! I’m the boss!”
SILENCE.
- I just don’t like all the changes I’m seeing. It used to mean something, to be the boss.
It still means something. It means a lot. It’s a sacred responsibility.
- Sacred? I wouldn’t go that far.
It’s weighing on you — the responsibility. What if you let go of the belief that there are certain interview questions you absolutely have to ask, and let your next job interview unfold like a regular human conversation?
- I guess I wouldn’t feel that that process was very scientific.
You’d be right. It would be a human conversation. You’d learn a lot. You’d have to let your guard down. You’d have to soften and be human. What could you learn from that experience?
- Why do I have to learn something?
- Liz, I know you hate the question “What’s your greatest weakness?” but I always ask job-seekers that question. I think it’s really important. Great! If it works for you, you should do it.
- But you’re going to keep advising job-seekers to answer that question with a non-answer like ‘I don’t think about my weaknesses’ – right?
Listen, if you don’t like the answer that you hear from a job-seeker to any question that you ask at a job interview, then don’t hire them. A job interview is a matching exercise. You’re right — I don’t like that question at all. But you have to be you.
- I try to hire people very thoughtfully and logically. I think it’s important to do that. I think that a careful interview process is critical. I don’t understand why the simple question “What’s your greatest weakness?” annoys you. Can you tell me what bothers you about the question “What’s your greatest weakness?”
Sure! It’s an insulting question, for starters. Are you ready to tell the job applicant what your greatest weaknesses are?
- Frankly, no. Why should I? I’m the one making the hiring decision.
That’s one reason I hate that question. It comes from an unequal place. It cements the false idea that only one person in the room is making a decision. In truth, everybody in the room has a decision to make. The job-seeker sitting in front of you may not want to work for you. If you keep asking that question, more and more of them may feel that way.
- But the question is valid! Everyone is working on improving something in their life, right?
Are they? I couldn’t tell you. I don’t believe that we come to this planet with weaknesses.
- You don’t? You don’t believe in lifelong learning?
I do believe in learning, but not from the standpoint that we are defective and need to correct deficiencies. I think that people are born with everything they need to do their life’s work. We keep learning throughout life, but that learning has nothing to do with weaknesses.
- But isn’t learning just another way of saying ‘Fixing what we don’t do well?’
No, it’s not. You are an
adherent of a belief system that you don’t see. You don’t see it,
because you’ve believed it for so long that you think it’s just the way
things are. This belief that you have about people and their defects and
the need to improve weaknesses — it’s a religious belief. It’s not
based on anything, but you learned it as a child and now you are
committed to it.
- A religion? Please.
- Well, honestly I don’t care what you think. I’m going to keep asking that question, and anyone who doesn’t want to share a weakness with me won’t get hired in my department.
Ah! That’s wonderful.
- What?
Earlier you said that you try to be rational and thoughtful in your recruiting. Just during this short conversation you’ve devolved to the logical system “My way or the highway!”
- Well, that’s how I feel.
That is fear, my friend. That is what people say when other people question their strongly-held beliefs. They put their fingers in their ears and say “I don’t care what you think! This is the way I want it! I’m the boss!”
SILENCE.
- I just don’t like all the changes I’m seeing. It used to mean something, to be the boss.
It still means something. It means a lot. It’s a sacred responsibility.
- Sacred? I wouldn’t go that far.
It’s weighing on you — the responsibility. What if you let go of the belief that there are certain interview questions you absolutely have to ask, and let your next job interview unfold like a regular human conversation?
- I guess I wouldn’t feel that that process was very scientific.
You’d be right. It would be a human conversation. You’d learn a lot. You’d have to let your guard down. You’d have to soften and be human. What could you learn from that experience?
- Why do I have to learn something?
Earlier you said that all of us have something to learn. What are you thinking about that topic now?
- I have to think about it.
Bravo! That’s a great answer. Change is hard.
- I like the old interview format.
Then I applaud you for trying something new. Lifelong learning, right?
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