You’re going to hear the question “What’s your greatest weakness?” on a job interview before long, if you haven’t already.
It’s an unspeakably rude question for one person to ask another. We don’t hear the impoliteness in this question on a job interview, because we’ve been trained to think it’s normal for recruiters and hiring managers to ask job-seekers very personal things.
They ask you what you were earning before, at your last job. That’s obviously none of anyone’s business, but they ask it anyway. You should have seen the screechy, outraged email messages I got from recruiters all over the world when I wrote to advise job-seekers not to spill the beans about their past salaries.
If people don’t get you, they don’t deserve you. In your career and in life in general, stay away from anyone who says “You need me. You’re nothing without me.”
Sadly, lots of fearful and insecure people play that card in their professional lives. They use the tired old script, “You need me.” They say things like this:
“If a candidate told me that he wouldn’t give up his past salary information, the interview would be over.”
Heck yes! Get it over with. Who has time to waste with a person who believes that only they control your access to a job — a job you’re qualified to do and one where you could help an organization in dramatic ways?
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