I identify my weaknessess and actively work on them, but I would never answer this question honestly, because I can't assume that the questioner is someone as enlightened as you.
because I can't assume that the questioner is someone as enlightened as you
But if they aren't, I don't really want to work for them. My being genuinely philosophical is often off-putting to people as overly smart-ass-ish or academic. I realize the dark side to this is that it limits my selection of jobs, but it makes for good conversation when I find a job I like.
you are assuming all great companies that you want to work for, have only excellent people.... wrong. Even good companies, have bozos inside. You don't know yet who are you dealing with.
If the guy is asking this question, there is a great chance that he is a bozo. Yes. I have been asked this question before, and during the conversation I could tell the guy asking was not a good engineer.
The problem is that the "weakness" question has become so predictably overused and coached that everyone has a "weakness as a strength" answer readily prepared.
I've found that textbook interview questions don't do anything other than badge the interviewer as unimaginative and 1 dimensional.
IME, the best interviews are conversations and not interviews at all.
That said, I might rephrase the question to be something like "What new things would you like to learn, and how are you going about learning them?"