We recently asked you what your most hated interview questions were. Here we share our tips on how to answer them.

1. What’s a weakness of yours that has been mentioned by your colleagues?

In this question, the interviewer could be trying to achieve one of a number of things. Yes, they might genuinely want to know what your weaknesses are, but they are probably also trying to put you on the spot, by veering away from your research about their company and the role.

Be warned: you probably won’t get any points for being overly honest. When faced with this question, never confess to being bad at any of the key prerequisites for the job. Instead, feel free to discuss a weakness of yours which isn’t essential to the role.

Whatever the weakness, it is a good idea to continue on to explain how you have improved on it and are making sure it doesn’t interfere with work. For instance, you might say that you worry a lot about doing everything to a high enough standard. This shows that you are conscientious, but before the interviewer begins to think you are neurotic or under-confident, go on to explain that because you are aware of this flaw, you have found strategies to address it – for instance you ask colleagues and your manager for feedback on projects, so as to gauge whether there really is anything you should be worrying about. If the feedback is good, you tell yourself not to worry. If there is room for improvement, you act on it, rather than dwelling on it.

Some people try to answer this question by picking a ‘fake flaw’ something that could also be seen as a positive. For instance: “some people say I am a bit of a perfectionist, as I like things to be done to the best of standards at all times.” Beware of coming across as too cheesy; after all nobody is perfect.

Think about this question before the interview and take the opportunity to think honestly about your strengths and weaknesses. Choosing something real, but non-essential to the role, and that you have genuinely tried to improve on, will show the employer you are a real person who can be honest and think on their feet.

Stay tuned for more answers to your most hated questions later this week.

By Anjie Cai, contributor

As a Chinese student, “being a scientist” has always been at the pinnacle of the professional pyramid. Pursing a scientific career is an indicator of one’s intelligence, ability and devotion. There is also the stereotype that scientists are shy, isolated and absorbed into their own world.  When it comes to the playground of job hunting, being unsociable doesn’t sound like a competitive trait. Therefore, I am very interested in knowing more about how sociable scientists are in their job hunt and how it affects where they get their career information from.

For the last two years, I’ve been running my own small scale investigation, by carrying out a survey at the Naturejobs Career Expo.  Things haven’t changed much over the two years – except for the fancier freebies (Naturejobs jelly beans, for starters). Science students are friendly and helpful as always, and 59 participants filled out my questionnaire.

Far from home

In terms of demographic, more than half of the students who responded were international. International students were particularly worried about promotion opportunity, salary, and work permits. They felt that friends, supervisors, and colleagues offer the most helpful advice in dealing with those concerns, whilst they felt that the information provided by careers services – although useful – is quite general and doesn’t necessarily apply to them. All in all, it is clear that international students preferred to draw on their own networks for the most useful advice.

Help wanted

When asked to rate how important different sources were in their job search, participants chose web searches, supervisors and people they met at scientific events as the top three. More than half of the participants received career advice from people they met at scientific event, and from speakers.

The findings reflect the fact that most scientists love to discuss their own research and that they are willing to give advice to people who show the same interest and passion. Our participants felt that it was rewarding to have a chat with speakers and fellow attendants and that due to the technical nature of scientific subjects, career information from science community is more helpful than that from family members. They felt that being sociable and proactive gives scientists a head start in the competitive job market, and many science students were aware of the importance of good communication in their career.

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All that networking clearly pays off too – nearly half of respondents said they have been offered a job, placement or internship by a contact.

But despite this networking success, it seems many of the scientists we spoke to didn’t appreciate their own talents.  When asked about the “areas you are most concerned about in job your search,” networking skills was the top of the list. How to make contacts in the science community and how to make the most of science events were both areas the scientists wanted to improve upon.  And one third of participants wanted to improve their salary negotiation skills. It seems that scientists find communication a challenge, but are perhaps better at it than they think, or don’t realise that even finding opportunities through casual contacts falls under the banner of the dreaded ‘networking’.

How does this tally with your own experiences? What’s your most reliable source when it comes to looking for a job? And which parts of the job hunt are you most concerned about?