How to Answer What Is Your Greatest Weakness (Interview Question) - Career Sidekick

How to Answer What Is Your Greatest Weakness (Interview Question) - Career Sidekick How to Answer What Is Your Greatest Weakness? (Interview Question) Interview Questions and Answers / https://www.edenscott.com/blog Hiring managers love to ask questions about your greatest weakness in a job interview. Theyll expect detailed examples in your answer, and they want to hear a unique weakness.To make things even tougher, some employers are now asking for 3 weaknesses.So in this article, Im going to show you EXACTLY how to handle questions about weaknesses in the job interview with example answers.Heres what well cover:Why interviewers really ask about your weaknessesExact two-step formula for answering what is your weakness or what are 3 weaknesses in the interview to impress employersThe one answer you absolutely should NOT giveWord-for-word example answers for your greatest weaknessLets get startedWhy Interviewers Ask About Your Weaknesses in the Interview:Hiring managers ask about your biggest weakness (or top 3 weaknesses) for a few reasons.First, they want to see how you view yourselfwhether youre self-aware and able to identify a weak spot and be honest about it. And whether youre upfront/comfortable talking about a weakness in general.Believe it or not, they dont want someone to say, Im great at everything. I have no weakness. Because nobodys amazing at everything! We all have strengths and areas were not so great at.So part of the reason theyre asking is to measure your character and personality.Then, theyre also asking about greatest weaknesses to make sure their job is a good fit.If you do have a weakness thats going to hurt your performance in their company, they want to know and avoid hiring you! So Ill talk about what weaknesses not to share in the next section.Finally, hiring managers know this isnt an easy question to answer, so they also ask this to observe how you perform under pressure.Fortunately, if youre going to go into the interview room with a game-plan for this specific question, so youll feel a lot less pressure than most candidates!So now lets look at how to plan out a great answer to your greatest weakness, or top 3 we aknesses plus what NOT to do.How Not to Answer Whats Your Greatest Weakness?This is probably what youve been told to do when asked about weaknesses in the interview. Its okay, but not greatThe strategy:Turn a strength into a weakness.If youve ever looked for help answering this question in the past, you were probably told to do something like this.Example answer using this strategy:“Well, sometimes I’m too detail-oriented and thorough, so I have to remember to hit my deadlines and balance speed too.”OrI’m really passionate about this industry and the work Im doing, so sometimes I need to remind myself to relax and not get over-excited in the moment.”Interviewers are pretty tired of hearing answers like this, though.Hiring managers have heard it so many times and its lost its magic. They wont be thrilledwith interview answers like this because it doesnt really tell them anything about you, other than the fact that you read a few interview tricks before coming in.They want a real weakness; They want to learn something about you and your background.So heres how to give a much better answer when they ask you about weaknesses in an interviewProven 2-Step Method to Answer What Is Your Greatest Weakness?Now that you know what not to do when naming your weaknesses in a job interview, lets look at what you *should* do to wow the hiring manager.Step 1: Provide a real weakness, but with a few rulesWhen they ask whats your greatest weakness?, I recommend you be straight-forward and give a candid answer to the hiring manager, theyll appreciate it IF you do it rightThat means you have to keep a few things in mind and avoid a couple of potential traps.First, dont name a weakness related to how you work with others or how you get along with management.Examples include: Trouble following instructions, trouble communicating, being prone to arguments and disagreements, etc. You better pick a different weakness to share, because no hiring manager wants to hear this type of thing.In fact, to play it even safer I recommend you pick something skill-based, not personality-based. Thatll keep you in the clear.When you pick something skill-based, you want it to be relevant to your work, but not a primary focus of the job youre applying for. If youre looking to become an accountant, dont say your weakness is working with numbers or being detail oriented.However, you could say your weakness is a certain type of tool or software,or an entire area of accounting that you havent worked particularly closely with recently. Maybe you studied it in school but havent had a chance to use it hands-on since then and youd require some time to brush up.Step 2: Talk about what youre doing to overcome this weaknessAfter giving a real weakness in your answer, you want to show how youre stopping this weakness from being an issue, or how youre making sure it doesnt affect your overall work.For example, maybe youre rapidly improving in the area.Maybe youve found a way around it with other tools/skills, etc.I put a sample answer below to show you how this might sound in the interview.The example is based on somebody in the software/programming field, but you should be able to understand this no matter what.Example Interview Answer for Whats Your Greatest Weakness?When I look at my skill set as a whole, one weakness right now would be Java Programming. It’s just not something that I’ve been asked to do since school so I understand the fundamentals but Im pretty rusty in terms of working hands-on with it. I was planning on brushing up in the next few months to broaden my skill set, though. I think it’d help me be more well-rounded and would filter down into other areas that I use more often in my work.This is a good answer as long as youre not interviewing for a job wherethey expect you to start using this skill (Java programming) every day.Never name a weakness thats a core part of the job youre interviewing for!Look at the job description and youll get a sense of this before the interview.Now, sometimes employers will ask for 3 weaknesses in a job interview, so lets look at examples of how to answer that now.What if They Ask for 3 Weaknesses in the Job Interview? (Examples)Lets say they ask you, What are your top 3 weaknesses?This is a bit tougher not only because you have to think of 3 different things while making sure its not going to scare the employer off, but you also have to keep your answer organized.So for this reason, Id recommend picking 3 closely-related topics that are weaknesses. Dont pick one personality trait, one hard-skill like Java programming, and one area like leadership or delegation. Keep them all related.So going back to the example answer above, we can adapt it a bit to include 3 weaknesses now. Heres how itd look3 Weaknesses Job Interview Example Answer:When I look at my skill set as a whole, I think three weaknesses are Java, Ruby, and CSS. Those are just not programming languages I’ve been asked to use or be involved in since school. So I understand the fundamentals, but Im pretty rusty in terms of working hands-on with them. I was planning on brushing up in the next few months to broaden my skill set, though, even if theyre not required in this role. I think it’d help me be more well-rounded and would filter down into other areas that I use more often in my work.Keep These Tips in Mind When Answering Whats Your Greatest Weakness in a Job InterviewIf you read the full article you now know why hiring managers ask, whats your greatest weakness.And you know why the typical answer most people are giving is *not* going to impress them.You also know the two-step formula to come up with a great answer that WILL stand out and make them want to offer you the job.If you missed that, make sure to go back up and get familiar with the two-step answer formula for giving a real weakness and then explaining how youve overcome it. Thats by far the BEST way to answer what is your greatest weakness? or what are your weaknesses? in the interview.If you give this type of answer instead of the typical fake weakness (a strength disguised as a weakness), youre going to build a much better connection with the hiring manager and theyll really appreciate the thoughtful, genuine answer you came up with.This is how you stand out in the interview and make yourself memorable (so you can get more job offers!)Any time you can avoid giving a cookie-cutter, common interview answer and say something unique is good.Id highly recommend going into each interview prepared to share at least one detailed example of a weakness using this two-step method.Related article: Answering What is your greatest strength?