The Dreaded Interview Question - Weaknesses

Oh, you don't have any? Hmmm. You probably won't be hired. Everyone has some and to overcome this, it's all about how you position your answer. Most people assume that the following answers will usually do the trick:

* I'm a perfectionist
* I'm reliable/dependable to a fault, even when I'm sick
* I take care of the customer/client, even when I may have to bend some rules
* I know this is a writing job, but I hate writing and am not very good at it

The problem with these answers is that everyone uses them, and a skilled interviewer will see right through them. You see, they don't tell anyone anything. Or, worse, you've just talked yourself out of a job.

So the question arises - how do you share a weakness honestly without ruining your chances for the position?

It would never be wise to lie. Likewise, it would never be wise to flat out say that you often come in late, can't get your work done in a timely or correct way, can't get along with others, etc. That's career suicide. Thus, the trick is to take these types of negatives and to turn them into positives. For example, if you're chronically late and it was due to a situation that no longer exists, then you tell the story that way - "My (fill in the blank) was sick with a very severe illness and this often caused me to be late. I'm pleased to report that (s/he) is now better, and all of those issues are now fully resolved".

Or, "I mistreated a customer once and I'll never forget it. I realized later that it was a bad experience for everyone, and I recognized it as a weakness of mine [whatever the mistreatment was] and so I've taken a course on customer service to help me be better prepared to deal with that type of situation again". That shows initiative and class, and that you learned something and overcame an obstacle.

Honesty didn't hurt you; it likely helped you. Significantly. People want to hire people who they trust, and someone who is self-aware and who take responsibility for their own actions is usually someone who can be trusted.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

7 Answers to "Your Weakness" Interview Question

Obviously, no one likes to admit that they have any weaknesses, especially in front of a potential employer. So what do you do? Here are seven different tactics for dealing with the question.

Strength as weakness:
Give a weakness that can prove to be an asset. Conventional advice tells you to give a weakness that really could be taken as strength, such as: "I'm a workaholic. I spend a lot of time at work." As you can probably guess, while it sounds like a smart answer, employers usually see right through this because it's self-serving. A better answer is to mention something that may be perceived as a weakness but, in the proper context, constitutes a genuine strength

Correcting a weakness:
This tactic acknowledges you have a weakness but you recognize it and are working towards overcoming it. Always provide examples of the steps you're doing to fix the problem, How far you've come, and how these changes will help the employer.

Learned my lesson:
Similar to the correcting a weakness tactic, this approach acknowledges you made a mistake but it's within the context of you then learning a useful lesson from it. You'll need to demonstrate what you learned from the mistake. The expectation is that the employer will deem you can learn from your mistakes and that you're unlikely to make this mistake again. Like, the correcting a weakness tactic, see if you can imply how these changes will help the employer.

Plan to learn/overcome weakness:
Similar to the correcting a weakness, this approach admits you have a weakness, but will start working on it. This is a useful way to handle the situation where you know you have most but not all the skills required for the position. Since you acknowledge the deficiency, and what you plan to do about it, you present yourself as someone who knows themselves, what's needed in the position and are prepared to overcome weaknesses when required to do so.

Unrelated weakness:
Not every weakness will affect your job performance. This tactic suggests you pick a weakness that, while a genuine weakness doesn't interfere with your ability to do the job. This requires you to know what the job needs and being able to proffer a "safe" weakness.

None that apply:
This tactic is like trying to answer the question by not answering it, or deflecting it. The tactic here is to answer the question by admitting you have weaknesses, but can't think of any that would be relevant to the job. Be wary of using this approach as it will come across as evasive and may prompt more digging by the interviewer, or worse they may perceive you to have too many weaknesses and don't want to admit to any of them (also a bad thing).

Unspoken Question:
Providing you feel the interview is going in the right direction you may be able to try this tactic. Here you respond by asking the interviewer if there is a specific reason they asked the question i.e. they believe you may be missing something. The aim here is to bring out into the open a concern they have (if they have one) and allows you to speak to it, rather than approach it like a question that needs an answer.

Good hunting

Barry

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

Your Weakness Interview Question: How Do You Answer It?

What is your biggest weakness?

This is one of those difficult interview questions that interviewers ask from time to time. The way you handle your response to the question might be as important if not more important than what you actually say.

The question is how to answer the question without making it look like you have a weakness that might prevent you from getting hired.

At the same time, you don't want to mention a weakness that isn't really a weakness and simply tell the interviewer what you think they want to hear.

Trust me, an experienced interviewer has heard every clichéd answer to this question and will know when you are feeding them a line.

The purpose of asking this question is firstly to see how you handle a stress question and secondly how you actually respond to it.

Here are some guidelines for responding when an interviewer asks what about your biggest weakness:

1. Answer the question honestly. It's always best to answer any interview question honestly (obviously) but this is an especially important one. Making up a weakness that isn't really a weakness will most likely be very noticeable to the interviewer. If they think you are lying, they may ask you for another weakness which will cause you even more trouble trying to think of one off the top of your head.

2. Don't mention a big weakness that could cost you the job. Your goal here isn't to lie of course, it's simply to present yourself as best you can. We all have weaknesses but it doesn't mean we tell an interviewer everything that we do wrong. If for example you are interviewing for a project manager job, it's probably best not to mention that you have trouble getting along with people since you're going to be constantly working with others.

3. Don't evade the question. Don't try to avoid answering the question. Also be careful about giving a clichéd weakness (ie. I work too hard) and then quickly stating how you deal with it. That looks too scripted and the interviewer has probably heard it one million times before. Admitting a real weakness but then stating what you are doing to improve yourself is preferable ie. "My presentation skills are not as strong as I'd like so I signed up for weekend presentation skills classes and also joined a Toastmasters club." Remember that the specific job you are interviewing for will help to determine how you answer the question.

4.Keep your answer factual and brief. Typically, stress questions such as these that put us on the spot tend to cause us to ramble on and speak for longer than we should especially if we're nervous. The best way to answer the question is to be well prepared and to know how you are going to answer the question before the interview. This will avoid you trying to think off the top of your head and saying more than you need to which could hurt your chances of getting the job.

5. Be careful about using "my biggest weakness is my biggest strength" as your response. Saying that "I'm a perfectionist" or something like that is another of those clichéd answers that people often give to this question. It will probably come across as being scripted and the interviewer will most likely determine that you got the answer from an interview tips book.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

Difficult Interview Questions - What is your biggest weakness?

Job Interview Question: What is your greatest weakness?

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