wgchere,
very clever answer. Never heard that one before. However ...
epoisses,
I've heard of interviewers doing that sort of thing. They can sense a reheased answer from a mile away. If they feel that their question is being dodged they will ask you to eloborate (as you have just shown) or they will ask for your second worst weakness ... then third ... then fourth ... until you've run out of scripted answers and finally have to give a heartfelt answer. I never had this happen to me personally, but it was brought up in an interviewing book I once read.
This thread has me all hot under the collar about that interview question now. The more I think about it, the more I hate the interview question. It's a lose/lose situation. Either you are honest and show a part of you that you would rather not reveal or you use the textbook answer and risk coming off as being sneaky or as if you have something to hide. I just don't understand the reason for asking the question in the first place. Every interviewer has to know that they are going to get a less than honest answer to that question. For us engineering types, it's not really that relevant to our potential performance on the job in question. It really only proves how well you can weasel out of a tricky question. Which, in my opinion, is not a desirable trait to have in an engineer anyways. If I were in charge, I wouldn't want engineers on my team who are good at bs. I'd want honest workers who are willing to stick their necks out from time to time and accept the responsiblity of their own shortcomings. I suppose that's why I answer the question honestly. Hopefully it doesn't backfire on me someday and keep me from getting a job that I really want or need.
