Here’s a bit of dialogue from the interview of a successful professional who was looking to advance his career. In particular, here’s what happened when he was asked to describe his strengths and weaknesses: INTERVIEWER: Describe your strengths for this position. CANDIDATE: In general, my work for the last ten years in budgeting, forecasting, problem solving, conflict managing, and innovating new programs has led to a 37 percent increase in my unit’s productivity, with a relatively flat expense trail. After this response, the candidate was asked to elaborate, and he explained details of this summary. Then the interview moved on: INTERVIEWER: How would you describe your greatest weaknesses for this position? CANDIDATE: Well, I guess I’d have to say I can’t think of any weaknesses. I’ve worked so hard, I think the outcomes speak for themselves. How well did this interviewer do? How would you rate his response to the “strengths” question? How about to the “weaknesses” question? What might he have done differently? By the way, he did not get the position.