The problem I have with this question - other than I don't think it's a very good question to "immediately disqualify" someone on based on their answer - is that "the right answer" is formulaic. There is one answer that always works 100% of the time:
Let's say you asked a senior candidate that question and they said, "Well, I'm an ambitious person with lofty career goals. I really want to get into project management. My biggest risk here is that I join, you don't recognize my contributions and promote me, and I end up leaving to join another group who does."
That's all that has to be said. The "right" answer here is to reflect this back and show that the risk is mine (speaking as the candidate) - "I'm taking the risk here because you are the unknown."
In that case you can determine that the candidate is arrogant and wouldn't be a good fit for company culture and disqualify. The risk for the company is that if you feel underappreciated, you'll leave us high and dry rather than communicating with us.
I follow it up until the upfront and candid and then not telling people they screwed up the answer. Why not say horseshit to their face? Just because someone has been coached on stupid HR questions doesn't mean you don't give them a chance to work through it and give you a real answer. If your going to play games and interview outside the box then let them know the rules of the game. In my opinion.
To be clear, I actually do call horseshit to their face. I have said to several candidates "no, but REALLY what would the risk be," and explain why I ask this question, exactly as I do in my post.
Some people just won't adjust their answers, no matter what.
And now I'm making a blog post about it, so if you're interviewing with me, you can just google me and know that I'm going to ask you this.
fair enough if you can't prep for an interview(check your blog) and/or adjust to a potential bosses style(when they explain it to you) probably not a good fit.
A good company will consider about growing with its employees. So maybe managers also need to think about what if the candidate says"what will be my biggest risk in work for you, and what steps will you take to mitigate it?"
Some people do ask that question. I love when that happens. And I answer as I did in the section "what to do if you don't know what to do." I explain, for example, that I can't see a clear path for advancement for them, and ask them to brainstorm with me. Or I tell them that I'm not sure what we can teach them. And then I let them decide.
This isn't supposed to be a trap. It's supposed to be an honest conversation between two adults about how a working relationship is going to work. I have as much responsibility to the applicant as they have to me.
I think an honest conversation like you said is good and a working relationship will be helpful.
PS: Maybe what you can "teach" your employees is not so important, but some other things do, like opportunities，other brilliant colleagues that you can offer. They can figure out how to be better themselves :)
The self-improving employee is my favorite kind! I do like to be as useful as I can be, though. The highest leverage thing I can do as a manager is help to make the people who work for me more effective.
I asked that question and the answer was that as employee #7 at a startup, I was taking a big risk that we could be out of money before launching, and it was everybody's job to mitigate that risk by shipping great code. We launched, got more funding, and have revenue, so that risk is paying off so far.
Let's say you asked a senior candidate that question and they said, "Well, I'm an ambitious person with lofty career goals. I really want to get into project management. My biggest risk here is that I join, you don't recognize my contributions and promote me, and I end up leaving to join another group who does."
That's all that has to be said. The "right" answer here is to reflect this back and show that the risk is mine (speaking as the candidate) - "I'm taking the risk here because you are the unknown."