"What's Your Greatest Weakness?"

A lot of people fear this question, and admittedly, it does sound a bit scary. Who wants to let their interviewer know what their greatest weakness is?

But fear not, we got you covered. Today we’re going to discuss how to best answer this question, including what not to say.

What do they want to know when asking you this question?

Of course, interviewers know that no one is perfect, everyone has their shortcomings. But they also know that candidates won't reveal their true “no-go” shortcomings in an interview. Or who would say something like “I’m struggling with being on time, I tend to always run a bit late, and sometimes struggle with deadlines” when applying for a project manager job, even if it’s true.

So why would they even ask that question? Well, it’s quite simple: they want to know about your willingness to self-reflect and how you deal with your own imperfections.

The worst answer: "I don’t know"

OK, the absolute worst answer would probably be “I don’t have any” but no one’s going to say that. So why is “I don’t know” or “I can’t think of any” such a bad answer?

It makes you look like you are unaware of yourself or simply not willing to look at your shortcomings.

Second-worst answer: "I’m really impatient with people sometimes..."

I usually call this a “fake weakness”. Why? Because it’s just too obvious that the candidate is trying to indirectly look good. “I’m really impatient with people sometimes” will of course be explained as “I’m so impatient because I want to get things done on time”, a quality which every employer is looking for. Any interviewer with some experience will see through that immediately. We’ve heard it too many times!

OK, so HOW?

First, choose a weakness that is real, but one that won’t directly impact your performance in the job you’re applying for (if that were the case, you might be applying for the wrong job).

Next, provide an honest self-review on how this weakness impacted you at work, maybe even share an example (note: stories are a MUST when articulating your strengths, but for weaknesses a simple example will do).

Lastly, explain how you’re dealing with that weakness: what are you doing to avoid this from impacting your performance or the environment.

In short: weakness + self-review + mitigation

Note: the biggest growth in your career will always come from strengthening your strengths, not from correcting your weaknesses. A person who's bad at numbers won't be try to become a financial analyst, but e.g. as a communication specialist, he/she might just need to make sure that whenever there are calculations needed (won't happen too often), someone does a cross-check. That's the idea.

Examples

"I sometimes get excited too easily when we’re brainstorming about new ideas at work, and in the moment, I volunteer to do too much. As a result, I’ve not been able to meet some deadlines in the past. So I started thinking about how to avoid that. While I want to keep my enthusiasm that gives me energy to deliver great work, before going to any of these brainstorming meetings, I put a sticky note on my notepad to remind me not to volunteer immediately, and limit extra assignments to one at a time, in line with what my manager supports."

"I used to overthink my new ideas before sharing them with the team, because I am quite competitive and have a drive to succeed. So I usually spent quite some time trying to make my ideas “bullet-proof” first, then share them with others. One of my senior colleagues once gave me some feedback saying I should be more open to ideas from others, working things out in isolation wouldn’t be in the best interest of the company. I realized that part of my perfectionism was fear of being criticized, so I started working on that. Today, my approach is that I share new ideas with one person first, take in their feedback, and then share it with the rest of the team so we can brainstorm on it together. It’s still a bit of a challenge for me but as I’m doing so, I see how I contribute to the team spirit, which is quite rewarding, too."

"One of my biggest challenges was giving tough feedback. A few years ago, after being promoted to people management, I joined a project that the boss was leading. The project was already about 30% complete when I joined, but I immediately saw some flaws. I did speak up, but was too nice. There were some external consultants involved who had already been hired and were driving the direction very hard, so I didn’t want to ruin it. Unfortunately in the end, the project was not successful, mostly due to things I had seen coming but wasn’t bold enough to say. Even though I joined later, I owned a big piece of that failure, especially for not strongly bringing in my expertise. So I’ve learned that sometimes it’s more important to raise concerns and push back than making sure people agree with you. I’m working on this and practice pushing back and disagreeing whenever I feel it’s the right thing to do, as I believe it serves the overall success of the company."

>>> questions? hello@career-factory.co <<<

>>> LIKE our Facebook page to get more tips like this <<<