There are likely few people in your private life who have license to ask you “What are your failings?”, because we have been raised to respect social boundaries. Your spouse or partner, perhaps your parents, and a few good friends have earned the right to ask you “So, how are you feeling about life? Anything you’d like to change in your path?” Yet HR people and hiring managers think nothing of asking the intimate question “What are your weaknesses?” and their comfort with that invasive question comes from two sources. One is the fact that the question “What’s your greatest weakness?” is such a time-honored piece of the corporate and institutional canon that we no longer hear the presumption in it. We expect it. It is part of the script. To read more, click .