The Most Common-- and Annoying--Interview Question
By BNET Contributors | February 10, 2011

By Alana Horowitz, Business Insider

What is your biggest weakness?

It’s an age-old question you never know how to prepare for before the big interview. Chances are, it might not come up, but if it does, you need to be ready.

You have to provide an answer that’s honest without making you look incompetent. Not an easy task, explains Harvard Business Review, but not impossible either.

If you’re lobbed the question, follow these simple tips:

1. Have an answer ready. Suggest a quality that can be improved, or one that will not affect your job too much– like how you went to a great school in California, but no one out East seems to have heard of it. And don’t be like Michael Scott from NBC’s The Office: “I work too hard, I care too much and sometimes I can be too invested in my job.” No one’s buying that.

2. Get a second opinion. Ask your most critical friends for feedback to make sure it sounds reasonable.

3. Change the topic - and quickly. End your answer by posing a question to the interviewer, so that the attention is deflected away from your answer.

MY THOUGHTS

No,no! I wouldn't recommend No. 3. Some of us, hardcore interviewers, will not see that as a good sign. As the interviewer, I prefer that you be honest. No one is perfect. People who answer "none" are just plain ego trippers. Those who say "I don't know" may be lacking in maturity. Either way won't help you land that job.