“ Tell me about your greatest weaknesses, ” trips up many speculate interviewees, and it ’ s no wonder : How do you tell an interviewer about your shortcomings without sounding like you ’ five hundred be hopeless on the speculate ?
It ’ second crafty, but it can be done .
Table of Contents
How to approach the weakness question
ultimately, you want to discuss your weaknesses in a subcontract interview in a way that helps you gain ground quite than lose it. Keep in take care that what hiring managers actually want to know is how you handle adversity on the job.
To start, think about the limitations that have challenged you at work. It ’ s a good practice to make a list of your know shortcomings, and one way to gather material is from past performance evaluations and notes from supervisors about areas for improvement .
You besides want to make sure to research the employer and the open placement. Thoroughly review the caper posting before the interview so you don ’ t identify something as a lack that ’ mho all-important to the job. Reread the job description so you know what attributes and abilities are critical to the operation of the job. Those hard or soft skills shouldn ’ thymine be on your helplessness number. Everything else is bazaar bet on .
Examples of weaknesses on the job
Do any of these weaknesses ring a chime ? note that these aren ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate good choices for your suffice if the job requires specific skills in these areas .
- Inexperience with specific software or a non-essential skill
- Tendency to take on too much responsibility
- Nervousness about public speaking
- Hesitancy about delegating tasks
- Discomfort taking big risks
- Impatience with bureaucracies
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What to avoid in your answer
Your first reaction may be to say, “ I have no weaknesses, and nothing will keep me from doing a big job. ” But no one ’ south perfect, and hiring managers know that. If you respond to this motion with an enthusiastic defense, the interviewer will credibly write you off as person with a lack of self-awareness or person who is cocksure or ineffective to understand and learn from their mistakes.
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Hiring managers are besides wise to responses that attempt to frame a positive trait as weaknesses in a job interview. authoritative examples include “ I ’ m a perfectionist, ” “ I ’ molarity competitive, ” and “ I merely work excessively hard. ” Interviewers are on to these stock answers, but they can however be effective if you add details relevant to the job to show you ’ ve put real think into it .
For case, you could say something like, “ I hold myself to very high standards and sometimes put excessively a lot pressure on myself. I ’ ve learned to recognize when I ’ thousand starting to do this, such as spending a little besides much meter on bigger projects like quarterly reports, and I ’ molarity normally able to keep myself in discipline. ”
Put your weaknesses in a positive light
once you ’ ve established your failing, craft a reaction to put it in the most plus light. How do you do that ? hera are three suggestions :
- Emphasize the positive, avoiding negative words like failure or inept.
- Talk about how you’ve transformed your weakness into a strength.
- Show how you recognize where you need to improve and take steps to better yourself.
What are ways you can improve yourself to address a weakness ?
- Take a class or get training.
- Discover tools, such as apps, to track your time, schedule breaks or collaborate more smoothly.
- Work with a mentor.
- Engage in volunteer work to build a skill.
- Join professional groups or industry associations.
Sample responses to ‘What are your weaknesses?’
The question gives you the opportunity to set yourself apart. How then ? You can show the hire director you recognize the areas where you need to upgrade yourself and how you ‘re taking steps to address them. here ’ s a sample distribution answer that takes this approach :
- “Although I always met my deadlines, I used to have a problem with procrastination, and I’d end up working really long days as a deadline approached. I decided that I needed to deal with the issue, so I took classes on project management and time management. I learned how to organize my days and attack bigger projects in manageable chunks. Now, I put together a plan as soon as I get a new assignment, and I often beat my deadlines.”
Another exemplar illustrates how to use the requirements of the job to drive your answer. Let ’ s say you ’ re not a firm writer, and you ’ re applying for a job as a graphic couturier. The job description emphasizes the need for production design skills and specific software experience but doesn ’ t mention anything about content creation. In this scenario, you could answer the question about weaknesses in an interview like this :
- “I’ve always been on the design side of things and haven’t had much experience with content development, so I’d say that’s a weakness for me. However, I’m a quick learner, and I believe I could improve my writing skills if I ever needed to for my job.”
alternatively, if you ’ rhenium applying for a position as a fiscal analyst and one of the requirements of the problem is to give regular reports to upper management, you won ’ metric ton want to emphasize to the hire director that you struggle with communication issues .
Why is the weakness question important?
Like most park job consultation questions, “ What are your weaknesses ? ” can be challenging to answer. But it ’ s not equitable an obstacle to clear or a pit to avoid. It ’ s an opportunity to show the employer how you can learn from constructive criticism, how you ’ ra will to make changes when you face challenges, and how you can pick yourself up and dust yourself off when you falter. Any employer would count those things as strengths .
