Do you really think covering up your weaknesses will make them go away? The interviewer knows more about the company and position and is in a position to assess if your weaknesses will affect your success at the company. It is in your interest not to be in a position where you are unlikely to succeed given your weaknesses. Alternatively, the interviewer may realize that you are more suited to another position, possibly even a better position.

Your weaknesses will be discovered later on by your employer so there is little reason to hide or cover them up. Be honest and explain your any weaknesses that may be relevant to the job. You do not need to share non-relevant weaknesses such as your addiction to chocolate or anime unless you think it may affect your job.

The question has no general right or wrong answer. It depends on the company. It is entirely possible the company thinks you might be more suited to another position.

What is wrong with answering the question? If you don't answer the interviewer will just conclude that you must have served jail time or something and throw away your application. Your interviewer is probably human and understands that families have problems. If you were part of the problem that would concern them, if you are part of the solution that would look favourably to you.

If it is not the truth it is a terrible answer. If I was interviewing you and would dig deeper to understand if no closer relation could take care of the aunt. My intent would be to learn if this is going to be a long term commitment that may impact your work. You would have to demonstrate that it would not.

You cannot answer the question "why should I employ you?" if you know nothing about the company. You must do research before the interview so you can answer something relevant like "I know that you were awarded a contract to deliver a health management system to the gov't. My parents work in the the health industry and I have learned a lot from them about the healthcare systems and I have a personal interest in this area. I am sure my interest combined with the information my parents have shared with me already will give me a head-start in working with your firm on these contracts."

If you had done your homework on the company, you will definatley have questions. You should try to learn as much about the company and the position as possible for you to understand if you are compatible with the position. You don't want to learn these things after you are employed. For example you might ask "What are the main criteria that you are looking for in a candidate? What are some of the significant challenges the person who is given this job are likely to face? How would the person who is given this position be evaluated?

Respond in the appropriate culture way. If your interviewer is a Malay lady you would not take the lead in a handshake unless she initiates it. If your are interviewing in a Japanese company you had better learn their customs. It would be rude and uncultured to just sit down and ignore greeting formalities.

A Muslim lady is not supposed to have physical contact with men outside her immediate family, many people believe that includes handshakes. Some women do not care about this and will shake hands with a man. It is best to respect a Muslim lady and let her offer her hand first instead of sticking your hand out and making her feel awkward if she doesn't wish to shake your hand. Some Muslim women may shake a males hand but they first put a piece of fabric between the hands to avoid real contact.

If your interviewer says such thing it could be taken in either a positive or negative way. You should see clarification from the interviewer and say "I am very excited and I sometimes speak fast when I am excited. Would it be better if I speak slower?". If your interviewer is having a hard time following you at such speed they may want you to slow down.

They are probably looking through the resume because the applicant is not offering anything useful or pertinent in their response to the question.

It sounds a bit arrogant or naive the way you wrote your statement "These skills can be applied in this position". Chances are very good you know very little about the position being offered. I would suggest saying "I believe these skills may be essential in the position you are trying to fill". It may appear to be a small change from your previous statement but often these little things can appear as an "arrogant" attitude to the interviewer.

Yes you should highlight what you think are required or useful for the job, but don't be arrogant. Even if the job posting indicated a certain set of requirements, that posting may not actually be precise. It is always better to say "I think I would be ideal for this position because...." than to say " I know I am best for this position because....".

1) Few companies promote people based only on the amount of time they have been employed. promotions are usually based at least in principal on performance and contribution to the company. A better question would be to ask "what type of promotions could be possible in this position and what would it take in terms of contribution or performance to obtain such promotion and what is the typical amount of time it takes a person to reach such promotion?

2) Once you are employed and contributing to the company, most companies will not be concerned about your degree unless required by laws or regulatory agencies. Promotions seldom happen just because of the amount of extra courses or study you take.

As an applicant for a job, your highest priorities in the interview should be to

- determine in as much detail as possible the job responsibilities and the opportunities the position could offeer you.
- convey to the interviewer the ways in which you are ideally suited to the position.

The questions you mentioned are certainly beneficial in moving towards the goal of learning more about the job but as you have stated the questions it may be taken in a negative or arrogant way by the interviewer who may think that you believe promotion is based on factors other than performance and contribution.

When the interviewer asks that type of question they may be trying to determine:

1) do you have plans to further your study?
2) do you intend to work for a company until such time as you can start your own?
3) do you have some intention to work in some area, field or industry that may or may not be in the interest of the company who is looking to recruit someone.
4) do you see yourself leaving work and becoming a full time parent.
5) do you see yourself happy doing pretty much the same job or do you have aspirations to have a continually changing job.
6) do you see yourself always being in a technical position or are you open to managment, sales or other positions.

Sadly, I find that few Malaysians will answer in a meaningful way the open question "Where do you see yourself in X years?". If I ask a closed question like "Do you have intention to further your study?" I will sometimes find the candidate remarking about their plans to get a Masters, PhD when they earlier failed to indicate that in the question 'Where do you see yourself in 5 years time.

There are several reasons I have asked as an interviewer about a persons family, they include:

1) I do not want to employ somone who has close family or friends that work for our competitors.
2) It is important for me to know if the candidate has lots of emotional baggage or other problems with their family. The candidate will have to demonstrate that those problems will not affect their job performance.
3) A candidate who has family that are fishermen and taxi-drivers will not provide the same rich environment for an IT professional that a family of people involved in IT will provide. All other things being equal, the son of an Oracle DBA will be given preference to the son of a farmer.

I do agree that disclosing your previous salary could have some negative impacts. But like most things in life, disclosing your salary could in some situations be positive for the applicant. Let's say your previous salary was 5000RM/month and the interviewer is looking to fill a position they value at only 2000RM/month. That is a huge disconnect that is surely not to be resolved if the position is later offered at 2000RM/month. On the other hand, if the previous salary of 5000RM/month was know to the interviewer they might undertake to learn why the person was paid a lot more than they expected and they may be able to find a more suitable position or make a more appropriate offer. Ideally the candidate would be able to communicate their value, capabilities, skills and knowledge without disclosing their previous salary but few candidates can actually communicate well in an interview and more knowledge is gained by the interviewer "interrogating" applicants.

When I have had "interviews", I sell myself proactively leaving very few questions for my interviewers except "when can you start?".

How many interviewees actually have the slightest idea about what the person sitting at the other side of the table interviewing you actually does? Typically those people involved in recruiting are more removed from day-to-day technical work and spend a lot of time interfacing with customers and management. It is my experience that while most people would want these people's paychecks, they seldom want the responsibility or accountability that comes with these positions.

Saying you want your interviewers job or his bosses job may appear on the surface to show a strong drive or ambition but unless the applicant is able to demonstrate a sound understanding about what they are actually saying and understand what would be involved in meeting their goal they are instead showing just how ignorant and/or arrogant they are.

The best you could ask for is an annual performance review to be included in the offer letter. Increments and Bonuses are not usually hard and fast policies but rather subjective and based on company, department or individual performance.

Your response may have a very mild positive aspect (e.g. showing your motivation) but in most cases unless you can answer the following questions convincingly you will just be showing your ignorance to the interviewer.

1) Please tell me what you think this position (the interviewers job) involves?
2) What skills do you feel you will need to develop in order to perform this job?
3) What are some of the challenges you would expect this job (interviewers job) would entail?
4) Or more simply. What do you think you will be sitting in my postion/place?

An ignorant/arrogant person may think it is a great goal to become a manager but in most situations when they realize what that job actually involves and the challenges, issues that they must face they quickly realize that that is not what they want to do. Someone who aspires to be something that which they know very little of is an arrogant/ignorant person. Most managers want someone with realistic goals and aspirations that are based on a reasonable understanding.

For example, it is very easy for me to say that I might want to be Prime Minister in 20 years but it is completley ignorant for me to say that when I know very little about what PM job actually involves besides some press-conferences and opening ceremonies, etc.