This is one of the most feared interview questions. Everyone is afraid of it, and everyone knows it is coming – and almost nobody knows how the heck they are supposed to answer it! This is indeed a trick question, but if you are ready for it, your answer can really impress your interviewer.
Why are they asking this question?
Most people think this is a question about things that you are bad at. Obviously you don’t want to say anything negative about yourself in an interview, so the typical strategy will be to answer in a way that turns makes your negative seem not so bad, or to give a ‘fake’ weakness that isn’t really a weakness at all. Sometimes people error on the other side, and are too blunt or honest. Typical (mediocre) answers include the following:
- I am too much of a perfectionist.
- I don’t have enough experience in specific technical skill only tangentially related to the job.
- I am disorganized.
And the worst answer of all:
- I don’t have any weaknesses. I’m the total package!
With the exception of the last, clearly terrible answer, all of these answers are trying to play ‘the game’. They show little self-awareness, and there is no apparent drive to improve on them. Sure, perfectionism, lack of specific work experience outside the scope of the job, and disorganization are all true deficiencies, but if you stop your answer there, you will be defined by them.
The truth is, this question is not really about weaknesses – it is about self-awareness. The interviewer wants to know that you realize that you have faults and make mistakes, and that you are the sort of person that focuses on minimizing or eliminating them. With this in mind, you can see why that last answer above was so terrible – the inability to admit that you have any weaknesses shows a severe lack of self-awareness, and people with that particular failing are rarely fun to work with.
Common Strategies
So how do you describe your weakness in a way that will impress your interviewer? Simple – tell them your strategy for overcoming it! My technique for this is as follows:
- Identify the weakness – with a specific example! Share how the weakness has held you back professionally
- “I realized this was a problem, and I decided I wanted to get better.”
- Explain your plan to address your problem, and explain the results of implementing your plan
- “There’s more work to do, but I am proud of the progress I have made so far”.
Let’s take one of the examples above and see how we can apply this tactic to the answer.
One thing that I have struggled with is my organization. In the past, I would find myself constantly misplacing things on my desk – I would have papers everywhere and sometimes would have to ask someone else for a copy of whatever resume or job description I was looking for. I realized this was a problem, and I decided I wanted to get better. So, I started setting aside 30 minutes every Thursday afternoon where I do nothing but clean my desk. I don’t schedule any meetings or calls during that time – that is my desk cleaning time. I have noticed since I began doing this that after the first few weeks it didn’t take me the full 30 minutes to clean my desk – I don’t have time to get disorganized before I start the cleaning process again. Since I began doing this I have become a far more effective recruiter – I can find everything more quickly and have been able to get more candidates submitted to jobs. There is more work to be done, but I am proud of the progress I have made so far.
Reading this, it doesn’t appear that I am a disorganized person at all, does it? I have turned my weakness (disorganization) into a strength. A few things to take note of here:
- I never used the word “weakness“. I don’t want to cede that particular piece of rhetorical high ground. Instead, I said ‘something I have struggled with is…’. You can also use the phrase ‘area of focus’ as in, “One area of focus for me is…”
- I referred to my ‘area of focus’ in the past tense. The implication is that I no longer struggle with problem.
You can apply this system to pretty much any weakness, but to do so successfully you will need to really spend some time thinking about your own personal self improvement. After all, the best way to demonstrate self-awareness is to actually be self aware! One way to do this is to spend some time answering the question: “What was something you used to struggle at but are now much more proficient?”
Sample Answers
As usual, please try to come up with an answer that is specific to your situation – if you just crib one of the answers I give you, you are doing yourself a huge disservice and are going to come off like a used car salesman.
One area of focus for me as a teacher has been my relationship with my student’s parents. I had an experience early on in my career with a parent that did not go well. The parent had an aggressive, in-your-face sort of personality and I felt like I wilted a little bit during conferences. I went home and thought about it and decided I needed to make some changes to address this issue. I decided I needed to have clearer lines of communication, and began setting aside time to contact parents directly every two weeks with an update on how their child was doing in class. I noticed that since I began doing this, this parent in particular began to see me as a partner in child-rearing instead of someone that was telling them how many problems their kid had. There are more improvements I would like to make, but I am proud of the progress I have made so far.