Research has shown that interview questions such as "What do you consider to be your greatest strengths and weaknesses?" and "In terms of your career, what do you see yourself doing five years from now?":

 

1. are valid predictors of job performance, but only if given to all job candidates in a structured interview format.

 

2. have good construct validity because they indicate important characteristics of job candidates, such as goal-setting ability and level of self-awareness.

 

3. can provide valid information to skilled interviewers who have a good intuitive ability to interpret individuals' answers to understand "the whole person."

 

4. are useless because organizations cannot describe the type of answers that would be considered "good" versus "poor."

 

5. are nearly useless, because job candidates can give prepared answers that sound good but are difficult or impossible to verify.