Job Discussion Forums

[basiltherat]

question at interview for a job:

""what do you feel are your greatest strengths and weaknesses as a teacher ?""

eerrrr ... excuse me but, if I knew what my greatest weaknesses were, wouldn't I , as a professional, have done something about them ?

and what about this one:

""what are ur views on the humanistic approach to language teaching ?""

Excuse me ??

does any one else find these types of questions to be pretty dumb ? Are there anymore such dumb questions you've been asked at an interview ? Experiences ?
rgrds
basil

[Shonai Ben]

If I were asked these stupid questions I would get up and leave.

[basiltherat]

or ..... slam the phone down as i did. wat morons. who do they think they are??
basil

[dmb]

I"m guilty. I have tasked those questions. Sorry

[Lynn]

What are your weaknessess is a standard interview question. I

've been asked some pretty stupid questions at interviews, though. When I was applying to be a nanny there was a question on the application, "What would you do if the child spilled his/her milk?"

[BethMac]

I've been asked the greatest strength and greatest weakness question on many an interview. I've always found it to be a rather dumb question as well.

[Glenski]

Being asked your strengths and weaknesses is pretty standard. How you answer is important, not dumb.

Stating your strengths is an obvious thing, so I won't cover it here.
Being able to describe your weaknesses and turn it around to show how you handle them is what the employer wants to hear. Everybody has weaknesses, so

[shmooj]

[guest of Japan]

[phis]

Schmooj has got it right. (Again)

Nobody is looking for a straight answer to the strength/ weaknesses question. It's more about self-awareness and acknowledging that your not perfect - but can work on it! And, yes, to find out what your reactions are likely to be in situations that aren't entirely to your liking.

And other 'curved ball' questions, to see what your reaction will be? - A time-honoured interview technique - with sometimes surprising, and often hilarious, results.

[Laura C]

At the end of my JET interview, they threw at me:

1) Your preferred cities are Tokyo, Kobe and Nagoya. Can you point to them on this map of Japan?

2) Do you know who the Japanese prime minister is?

3) Have you watched any Japanese films? Can you name any? Any directors?

Now I know they are trying to find out the depth of the my knowledge/interest in Japan, but these questions were just batted at me, no preambles, nothing. And at the very end of the interview when I thought I was safe! My other JET friends say they got weird (different) questions at the end of their interview too -- we thought it was just the panel's way of assessing interviewees' reaction to the odd.

Luckily I am usually OK in interviews, so, though I didn't know the answers (I did remember where Tokyo was on the map though; go me!), I was able to be calm and laugh and say something along the lines of That's a difficult one, you've got me there, etc etc.

Clever tactic of JET I always thought...clearly if you stood there flapping your mouth like a goldfish they might deduce Here is a person who can't think on her feet...

L

[dreadnought]

I was a DoS for several years and I ALWAYS asked the 'strengths and weaknesses' question, even though I knew it was a bit dumb. The problem was that I never really liked asking those 'so, how would you teach the present perfect to a group of intermediate teenagers?' questions either, so it was easier to fall back on the more general stuff.

To be honest, I was working in Eastern Europe and most interviews were less of a grilling of the teacher and more me begging them to take the job. Most of the time I was like a cheap salesman, trying to convince these folks with fancy job offers from Spain and Italy that, in fact, Lithuania was a surprisingly warm place, and yes, feel free to bring along your sunglasses and speedos. Grey? no, no, no. You've got it all wrong. That's the Soviet Union you're thinking about. Will you live in a tower block? Possibly, possibly, but it will be a nice tower block. Washing machine? Kind of. More of a bath tub, though you can call it a 'washing machine' if you want. Have you seen the women here? I'll send some pictures...

I'm glad I don't do that stuff anymore.

[shmooj]

Speaking of throwing curves, how's this?

Immigration Lilongwe airport Malawi and I have this conversation:

"What do you do?"
"I'm a student."
"What are you studying?"
"Architecture."
"Tell me one famous 20th century architect."
pause...
"Le Corbusier."
"And where are you going?"
"Blantyre."
"Blantyre Scotland or Blantyre Malawi?"
pause...
"errrr Malawi?"

by that point I was so bemused I was unsure where I was in fact going.

Others had reported strange questioning at immigration there under the former dictator too.

[basiltherat]

Glenski
I don't agree. If theyd wanted me to tell them how i had dealt with a weakness i had, then why didnt they ask me just that. i would have answered them. in fact i think thats a good interview question. the mere fact that they did not ask me this, was the reason i answered as i did.
I would not answer with my age if someone asked me what my name was. would you ?
Interview questions should be answered appropriately.

as for the humanistic question, besides getting bemused at the earlier question and obviously not in the best of moods to answer another one, i would have liked to have been asked how i adapt my teaching to cater for different students' learning styles and characters. while longer, i think this is a more sensible way to ask rather than using high and mighty words which would most likely only be written rather than spoken. give me a break, interviewer ! i just dont have time for this.

PS i do not regretting slamming the phone down at all. i would not want to work for an organisation which cannot, in my view, ask sensible questions or ask them in a more appropriate tone than they did. anyway, i feel its their loss; not mine.
feel free to comment.
rgrds
basil

[Glenski]