What is Your Weakness?
By: June Coffey
Tags: Interviewing, Interview Preparation, Interview Tips, Recruitment, Interview

What is behind the question, ways to answer this dreaded question, and my 3 weaknesses

Photo by Daniel Mingook Kim on Unsplash

I am sure we have all been there. Sitting in an interview room thinking that the interview is actually going relatively well and feeling pretty good about the whole thing. Then they drop the dreaded question, “so tell me what is your weakness?”

You answer something like I am a perfectionist, thinking, that has got to be the right answer. They pause, then ask, “no really, what is your greatest weakness?”

Your mind goes blank. And you think to yourself, interviewing is your greatest weakness! It has got to be!

I hate the weakness question as much as anyone else. Why do managers ask about weaknesses? What I have learned is they are not really asking about your weakness.

What most people are interested in when they ask questions about weaknesses in an interview are the following:

1. Are you prepared?

This is one of the most commonly asked questions in an interview. If the candidate draws a blank, they are either overly nervous or not prepared. Be prepared and have answers.

2. Do you give something truthful?

This question is a good judge of character. Perfectionist, workaholic, and overly high standards are probably the way most people would answer. If these are your actual weaknesses, you need to be able to back it up. Give examples to make it your own. If these are not, please do not choose them just to have an answer. Sitting there staring blankly at your interviewers is better than lying.

3. What are you doing to improve upon it?

Do not just give your weakness, talk about what you are doing to improve upon your weakness. The manager is looking for someone who self reflects then does something about it.

Here are tips to answer the weaknesses question:

1. Pick something that is not pertinent to the role itself.

If the job is an accountant, you cannot be bad with numbers. If the job is Java developer, you cannot be bad at Java development.

Outside of that, you can really pick anything. In fact, you can even pick something that is part of the job description but a nice to have, and if you do not have as much experience in it, use that as a weakness.

Simply say, I do not have as much experience in [blank] but this is what I am doing to improve upon it…

2. Be honest

It has to be your weaknesses, not something that sounds good. An interview is really a time where your potential future employer is trying to get to know you, so allow them to get to know you.

3. Talk about what you are doing to improve upon it.

All managers are looking for employees who are looking to constantly improve. So take the opportunity to let this aspect of you shine through, but letting your audience know that you do know what your weaknesses are and how you are working on them.

This is also a way you can minimize your weakness or turn it into a positive. Just do not go overboard with the positive or you will come across as not authentic.

4. Prepare 3 weaknesses.

Just in case, you want to look like you are prepared, and you want to have a choice in the interview.

Lastly, here are my 3 weaknesses to give you an example:

1. Small talk

I am terrible at small talk so networking events are one of my least favorite things in the world. I would rather try to kill myself with a butter knife level of dislike! If you want to go deep on a subject, I am all ears. I run out of small talk after weather and how was your drive…

Unfortunately, it is part of my job. Knowing this, I target networking events that I know something about and am learning to ask enough questions to my audience so I can turn small talk into actual conversations.

And I stay away from all sharp objects at those events just in case…

2. Recovering from setbacks

One of my clients develops software to access personalities, they use it to see if the person would be a good fit for their company and for their clients.

I was asked to take this test so I can see the user experience and I think they were trying to figure out if they want to work with me. I scored high on all areas except this one, the ability to recover form setbacks.

I took this test over 10 years ago and I still am recovering! This is definitely one of my weaknesses.

Knowing that, I have learned to not react in the moment when I get any criticism and I continuously look at areas I can improve to avoid setbacks.

3. Writing

English is not my first language and all throughout High School I did not finish a single assigned novel. I still do not know what happened in Odyssey.

I know my writing is one of my weaknesses. My plan is to write more, every day in fact in hopes that by the end of a year, I will have improved.

I hope this helps you answer the very dreaded weaknesses question in your next interview. Good luck!!!