Finally, you are at your dream office with just one small interview away before you have the offer of your dreams in your hand and while there could be many questions that the interviewer might ask, “what’s your greatest weaknesses” is one question that is most likely to be raised.
Now before I tell you how to answer “what’s your greatest weakness” let me tell you how to not answer this question
So usually what happens is whenever this question is asked, candidates get intimidated and instead of telling their weaknesses, they shrug away from this question and they say, they don’t have any or they are a perfectionist. Now we all know that’s not true in fact when you say this, it makes you sound dishonest, egoistic and someone who lacks self-awareness so it’s a big NO-NO.
Disguising Strength as weakness
Always remember strength in disguise is not a weakness so if you are thinking to say “you are a workaholic” and trying to put positive spin to your weakness, it really won’t work, in fact it will be quite vivid to the interviewer that you are running away from the question and that certainly, you don’t want to do.
So now that we know how not to answer this question, lets understand how to impress your interviewer with the perfect answer.
Now the first tip is to choose an easily fixable weakness
No matter how much we hate this question, its still a very acceptable thing in an interview setting and unfortunately, we have to lay our card open but having said, we can always choose what to do include and what to exclude. So, make sure to choose an easily fixable weakness because if you choose something that’s part of your personality trait or cannot be changed then its going to be straight up red flag for you.
For example, if you say you are short tempered or you have anger management issues then it’s a part of who you are which cannot be changed overnight so, the employer wouldn’t be ready to put his best bet on you.
Now let’s move on to the second tip.
Now second tip is to make sure that your weakness doesn’t handicap the job role.
Yes, you have to be honest about your weakness but that doesn’t mean to blurt out the first negative issue that comes in your mind. The entire point of the employer to ask this question is to make sure that your weakness wouldn’t be a hindrance for the job role so make sure to be more strategic while exposing your flaws. For example, if you are applying for a sales representative role and you say you are shy or take time opening up to people, that wont really sit well with the employer, because the core of that job is to interact with new people and maintain relationship.
Share your improvement plan.
whenever you are listing out your flaws, make sure to actively remind the employer about your improvement plans, it shows that have not merely acknowledged you flaws but you are also working on it to eradicate it completely and it also shows that you are open for learning and improving which gives a very positive impression
So that was about all the tips on how to answer your weakness now let me also share with you some examples of some acceptable weaknesses
The first example is Impatient, it’s a very acceptable weakness so you can say that :
Whenever I have to rely on other people for my work, I tend to become a little impatient because I want to get the things done at the earliest so I might come off as someone who is pushy however, I have acknowledged this problem of mine and I am also trying to work on it. In fact, I have also enrolled myself in team building workshop and I understand that it’s important to trust my co-workers and let them work at their own pace.
Now when you frame you answer this way, it shows that not only you have acknowledged your problem but you are also working on it to eradicate it completely moreover, this problem wouldn’t handicap your job role because when yiu are working all by yourself it wouldn’t affect your performance and also not put you off guard.
Let’s move on to the second example.
The second example would be: I have trouble saying NO
Sometimes feel obligated to help my co-workers whenever they would need my assistance. I would have my plate full of work but I still couldn’t say NO, I realised this when my work-life balance was taking a toll, however, now I am working on it by recognising what duties are solely mine and trying to do them first and then lend a helping hand, if I have any additional time.
Now even though this is a weakness, its one weakness that would upset your employer because there is no one who would like a yes man and after all the employer is hiring you to make his work life gets easily and who better than someone to rely on would do it?
So, that was about all in this video. Hope it helped and if it did, don’t forget to like share and subscribe and stay tuned for next one.
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