"Tell me about one of your weaknesses..."<p>At this point, hand the interviewer a card you had pre-prepared, which reads "My over-preparation sometimes comes across as arrogance".
I'm so glad to work in a field with technical interviews. I can't imagine having to deal with coming up with a clever new spin on "tell me about your work history" or "what's your greatest weakness" to stand out from the crowd--though I've resolved never to take the latter question seriously.
Nobody asked me the two later questions. The one about problems with coworkers would have been a lot of fun. I have plenty of juicy anecdotes.<p>I have an objection to <i>The hiring manager doesn't need you to walk him through your resume chronologically—he can read what's on the page, after all.</i><p>Most interviewers I've met actually have <i>not</i> read the cv further than the absolute minimum to match keywords, and are not interested in reading the printed cv, that appears to be a write-only piece of paper... they take notes on it.<p>The interviewers who did read the CV beforehand are also the ones that direct the conversation themselves and always ask in chronological order anyway.<p>It seems that they do that because they're seeking to make up a <i>narrative</i>, a logical evolution of the career, so Ramit's advice stands after all.
Why do people hate the greatest weakness question? I have never minded receiving it, and I often ask people the same.<p>Most of us write code; it's a technical occupation, and none of us are great at everything. Are you super amazing and proficient with 100% of the technologies you'll ever need to interact with? Can you not talk competently about how you have been trying to get better at something? Are you not capable of admitting a weakness without crippling insecurity?<p>Since you know this will be asked, are you so disorganized that you can't think in advance to come up with an honest answer?<p>The only way to answer "too honestly" is to admit incompetence with the basic skills I'm hiring for, or reveal massive personality problems. You score an "A" if you talk about how you're trying to improve.<p>More commonly, applicants reveal themselves as someone willing to lie to my face with a bullshit answer. I've never hired someone like that and never will.<p>Edit:
Also would <i>never</i> hire someone who was offended by this question. I think another commenter's suggestion that the applicant ask what the worst thing about working at a company is fair, and vital information. Of course, when I've asked this as an applicant I never received anything but bullshit in response.
The main point I would take from that kind of advices is that all answers, no matter how fancy, should sound like <i>you</i>, and not like you're just reciting some self-help book on passing the job interviews.
I would answer all three of these very, very differently.<p>I would spin my work history to fit whatever (true) narrative I am telling about my life at the moment. Currently that narrative is how much my family responsibilities impact my ability to work.<p>I see the greatest weakness question as a negotiating opportunity for me to present whatever I most want to be accommodated on. Currently that would be my family responsibilities, though normally it is how important it is for my ability to focus and be sane that I have some social time.<p>The conflict question I would immediately respond to with the time that I wound up being the person that both a very competent lead developer and some grumpy sysadmins would talk to. In the end, even though what they were doing was not what I was supposed to be doing, I was appointed by my manager to be the official go between between them. Not exactly fun, and not something I want to repeat, but the story reflects well on me.
Best way to answer these questions is to not let them come up at all. Focus the interview on what you can offer the company by proactively asking them what roles they need you for, where you will fit in the company, what challenges they currently have, etc. Spend the interview talking about how you're going to help out the company and not on answering the checklist they quickly downloaded off the web as they have no idea what to even talk to you about.
"Why this works: This question is a minefield that traps most candidates. If you answer too honestly—"I'm irritable in the morning and bad at time management"—you're an instant no-hire."<p>I love this question. To me, the above reads as "we don't value honesty as much as you do"
I find that usually asking people to tell a little bit about themselves reveals a lot already what you would get from these questions. Knowing that the candidate is prepared to handle such questions is a strong signal in itself. I generally prefer candidates who have thought about what they want to say to such questions.