101 Job Interview Questions You'll Never Fear Again
by James Reed - 2016
4. What are your greatest weaknesses?
The Real Question: Am I right in thinking X about you? And are you going to give me the same old evasive and lame answers that everybody else did, or are you going to level with me?
Top-line Tactic: If you’ve been invited for interview, chances are that the interviewer is seeking affirmation of predicted weaknesses, not information about new ones.
There is no quicker way to break the rapport between you and your interviewer than to give a clichéd answer to this question, or to pretend, as many do, that your weaknesses are trivial and irrelevant.
As Barack Obama found out, when the time comes to answer the dreaded “weaknesses question” the golden rule is to actually answer the question, dammit.
When you have nuclear launch codes, your personal weaknesses really matter. If you pretend they don’t matter, you should expect a seasoned interviewer to pull you up. That’s exactly what TV news reporter Katie Couric did to Obama during the 2008 U.S. presidential election campaign.
COURIC: What one personal flaw do you think might hinder your ability to be president?
OBAMA: I think that all of us have things we need to improve. You know, I have said that my management of paper can sometimes be a problem.
COURIC: You can come up with something better than that, though, can’t you?
Bang! You can come up with something better than that. Regardless of personal politics, anyone watching might have cheered when they saw this well-worn canned answer shot down in flames. No one likes to be finessed.
So many people dodge this question in interview; it is very frustrating for interviewers when it happens. Some interviewers will show their frustration, some won’t, but all will feel it. Couric wasn’t going to let the candidate mumble something about paperwork, and you should assume you won’t be allowed to either.
So when your interviewer asks what you think your weaknesses are, it’s best to level with them. If you don’t, your interviewer probably won’t let you get away with it, just as Couric didn’t let Obama get away with it.
To be fair to Obama, he managed to pull his interview back on track with a good follow-up answer, one in which he successfully reminds us all that strengths and weaknesses are usually two sides of the same coin. Funnily enough, Obama in office gathered a reputation for being either a careful thinker or a slow decision maker—pick one according to your personal politics—so it is interesting to see that same theme emerge in his answer prior to election.
I use paperwork as an example of something that I’m constantly tryin’ to work on. What is often a strength can be a weakness. So, you know, for me there are times where I want to think through all our options. At some point you’ve gotta make sure that we’re making a decision. So far, at least I’ve proven to be pretty good about knowing when that time is. I think, as president, with all the information that’s coming at you constantly, you’re never gonna have 100 percent information. And you’ve just gotta make the call quickly and surely.
With these words, he answered the question with a real example of what could be seen as a weakness—and he still got the job.
All the same, don’t make the interviewer ask this question twice, like Couric had to. Your first answer should always leave the interviewer wholly satisfied. Here’s how you can do that and remain attractive to them:
Tell them what they already know. There’s a good chance the interviewer already has a few ideas about your weaknesses and is keen to have those ideas confirmed or contextualized. And if you’ve done your homework, the lean patches in your résumé (relating to the job description) will be just as apparent to you as to them—so those lean patches should be exactly what you address. By sticking only to weaknesses apparent on your résumé, you’ll avoid introducing a new monster-under-the-bed that the interviewer hadn’t spotted.
Make it abundantly clear you know what your weaknesses are, and that they don’t perturb you. Answer like you’re giving your name and address, not a forced confession. Speak with the confidence of someone who knows that their weakness isn’t going to be a deal-breaker (if it were a deal-breaker, you probably wouldn’t be sitting there in the first place).
Cite evidence to show you’re working on your weaknesses. A life-long learner is better suited to today’s rapidly changing workplace than someone born with a natural but narrow talent that they rest on.
Talking about gaps in your résumé is a lot less subjective and disaster-prone than talking about what you or others see as moral failings in your character. For example, the difference between stubbornness and persistence is nearly always in the eye of the beholder. You’ve probably no idea whether the interviewer rates you as stubborn or persistent, nor are you likely to change their mind with mere talk, so don’t worry about drawing fine distinctions of character. Just stick to talking about the job description, your skills and your career history.
Most jobs measure you against a series of key performance indicators (KPIs). Some of these will be most important (e.g. how many cars you sold last month), some will be less important (e.g. how many blue cars you sold last month). You will impress the interviewer if your answer to the weakness question directly references your KPIs, because that will show you keep your eye on what the company thinks is important. Also, most people wouldn’t dare answer this question with reference to KPIs, and that’s your opportunity to score highly on honesty and integrity. Just make sure you’re talking about a lesser KPI.
End your answer by asking a question, in order to get the conversation back to what you can do. It wouldn’t hurt to ask if you’ve addressed their concerns.
Above all, stop thinking that there is a right answer to this question. If you’re looking for a potted answer that works in all weathers, you have the wrong mindset.
With that in mind, you need never again utter any of the following mealy-mouthed, semi-dishonest canned weaknesses, such as:
I’m a perfectionist [Whatever you do, don’t say this: it’s been done to death.]
I work too hard/care too much.
I get frustrated when colleagues don’t pull their weight.
I get lost in the details.
I don’t have any!
Chocolate.
I’m not good at [something the job obviously doesn’t require].
These are poor answers because they sound insincere—and because none shows any evidence that you’ve considered your résumé against the job description. In other words, you’re not talking to the employer about helping them with their problem. You’re just talking about yourself, and doing so in a vague and dissembling fashion.
Here’s all the foregoing advice wrapped up in a demo answer:
I’d say that my greatest weakness so far as you’re concerned is that I’ve been out of the workforce for a couple of years in order to raise my family. I didn’t drop out of the industry altogether during that time, though. My contacts book is up to date and I’ve kept up with industry trends. For example, I enrolled for online professional development courses with [give examples]. That’s something I wouldn’t have had time to do if I’d been at work, so in a way being out of the workforce has done me some good. Also, I’m a regular on most of the [industry name] blogs and forums.
If you take me on, I certainly don’t think I’ll need retraining.
In my last job, our KPIs measured all things great and small, and I didn’t hit every target I was set, so that’s perhaps a weakness. I did hit all the KPIs that counted the most, though.
Was there anything on my résumé that especially concerned you?
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