Yeti is being interviewed for a higher position in his company today. He's been with the company for 5 years and 3 years ago he applied for the same position but at that time he only got the workload of the position and not the title or the raise. Which really sucked.
This time around two supervisors, H*** and J*** approached him and asked him to apply for the position since either way they would give him the workload again. H*** told Yeti to be prepared for the interview today and that one of the questions being asked was for Yeti to list Yeti's 5 weaknesses and his 5 strengths.
Well, last night Yeti went on a little tangent about how ridiculous he thought that question was. It was a question with no right or wrong answer equivalent to 'guess how many fingers I'm holding up'. Especially since he'd done the work before.
Did they want him to be brutally honest or to just say what they wanted to hear. Yeti started his list:
Yeti's 5 weaknesses:
- He can not list 10 things right off the top of my head
- He probably drinks too much
- He suffers from a superiority complex
- He's not always nice to his wife
- He can get lost in his own thoughts when others are speaking
So after he listed those down, I had to stop him and remind him that work was looking for his weaknesses as related to work. If he went on that tangent during his interveiw, he might as well point out J***'s faults too and state what everyone knew by saying to J***, "and J***, you are a pill-popper!" to which J*** would reply, "and Aaron, you are fired!"
So Yeti and I agreed that was not the best approach. I told him it was just a necessary hoop he'd have to jump through for a position they planned to give him anyway.
He resorted to just listing the generic things which would suffice.
Yeit's revised list:
- He can not list 10 things right off the top of my head
- He hasn't been able to learn everything he's wanted to
- Sometimes he is impatient
- He does not fully understand the internal dynamics of their corporation
- He is too pessimistic
We didn't even get to his 5 good traits. Let's just cross our fingers and hope Yeti sticks to being generic.
SO What are your 10 things?
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Comments: 25
1) I can't list 10 things
2) heck, I can't even count that high
3) I never admit to weakness
10) see, I told you I can't count that high!
~~~
That's exactly the way Yeti was feeling
Weaknesses(as they pertained to my job)
1. I do not speak Japanese
2. I do not speak Chinese
3. I need a calculator to do most math problems
4. I do not like restocking merchandise, yet will still do it
5. I do not yet have my MBA(not a requirement for the job though).
Strengths:
1. I do speak 5 languages fluently; English, French, Spanish, Nynorsk and Bokmal and am learning Danish
2. I was a double major in Fashion Merchandising and Marketing and a double minor in French and Spanish.
3. I will be starting my MBA soon(I finally start this January, so I didn't totally lie :) )
4. I graduated with honors and as a result was accepted into your internship which I completed with honors.
5. I make my job fun, regardless of what it is. If I like coming to work, I'll do a better job.
=D
Weakness:
1. I have not completed my computer cert classes.
2. I have trouble at times to come up with innovated ideas.
3 Not being able to speak Spanish
4. Impatient with some users (fixing their computer issues)
5. Worry
Strenghts:
1. Dependable
2. Willing to tackle new projects
3 Study for computer classes
4. Going the extra mile for users.
5. Learning other skills on the job
=)
Strengths:
1. I am compassionate
2. I am dependable
3. I have a strong desire to learn new skills
4. I am patient
5. I am self motivated
Weakness:
1. I can be overly sympathetic
2. I have a math phobia
3. I tend to be an independent thinker
4. I can be impulsive
5. I do not work well in isolation
1. I am very resourceful without the help of others.
2. I don't follow trends or the in thing to fit in.
3. I listen carefully.
4. My family
5. I bow to no one and take no crap regardless of who someone thinks they are.
Weaknesses
1. I'm not a people person
2. I'm tactless
3. I don't care about people's personal problems
4. My family.
5. I don't trust easily or give many chances.
they're awesome
Strengths:
1) I'm smart enough to be a college professor, and did hold an adjunct position at a university for three years.
2) I have high expectations for myself and high standards for my performance.
3) People feel comfortable talking to me about things they need help figuring out, and I am usually able to help them with that process.
4) In a team setting at work, I'm good at tailoring my performance to fit whatever the team most needs from me, even if that need does not make use of my strongest areas of skill or talent.
5) Stress is normally a motivator for me, rather than a deterrent. Because of this, I am able to work as well under pressure as I do without it.
Weaknesses:
1) I'm a perfectionist when it comes to my work, and sometimes that makes it take longer for me to get things done when I am not given a deadline.
2) I have difficulty not applying the same mental energy to my convenience store/fast food position that I did to my teaching job (see strength number one) even though it is terribly difficult for my boss to deal with the fallout when I do that.
3) I expect as much of my co-workers as I expect of myself and have a tendency to become annoyed when those expectations are not met despite pre-existing evidence that they won't be.
4) People feel comfortable telling me things about themselves which are best kept private. That sometimes makes me a lightning rod for gossip. My uninterested attitude or lack of response to gossip can be annoying and frustrating to co-workers.
5) When working on a project, I sometimes get too caught up in what I am doing and forget to take mandatory breaks.
1.Has figured out what we want to hear so will fabricate, conceal and whatever else is necessary to get job.
2.Will spend most of those long hours at work without breaks illegally downloading stuff from the internet or taking cigarette breaks.
3.Perfectionist? No, OCD more likely and will spend so much time arranging desk and writing lists that nothing will ever get done.
4.Willing to work overtime and weekends because they have no social life or friends because no one can get along with them.
5.Utilizing resources available means they will take any office supplies home that they are able to and will sell them on Ebay.
6.Able to work under pressure because they are on a long list of psychoactive drugs and really are not aware of much of anything.
Oh, and I'm not kidding about the mandatory break thing - I've been written up for it at two jobs. Those two employers claimed they could get into trouble if employees didn't take breaks... but my current employer doesn't permit any actual breaks and sometimes schedules shifts that are ten hours long.
I have a habit of coming up with mock answers to questions that I think are dumb (not at work, of course, but I get all kinds of stuff like that online.) Two of my earliest posts in this account are made up of exactly that kind of silliness. :P
I'd love a bowl of your mean chili one day!!! =)