One of the most common interview questions you’ll get when applying for a job is “What are your weaknesses?”. Many people do not know what to say when they are asked this question. One thing you should never try to do is try to convince them you do not have weaknesses because they already know that’s a lie.
Do not also say “well… I have never thought about it, no one ever asked me that”. Do not try to act smart, If you say that, the interviewer will take you as a person who is dishonest and not self-aware. Another question to ask is whether I should go ahead and reveal my weaknesses to them.
Well, that is why this article is here to help you properly answer that question.
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What do people think their weaknesses are?
To help you understand what your weaknesses are, you need to, first of all, understand what your weaknesses are not.
1. Your weakness is NOT your personality traits
2. Your weakness is NOT a strength in disguise
Weaknesses in the job market are things you can improve on, they are things that can be fixed or corrected. Your personality traits on the other hand are naturally inherent traits within you that nobody can fix unless you fix that yourself.
For example when you say, “I am impatient” as your weakness, that tells your employee that if they hire you, they will have someone impatient. Impatience is your personality trait.
Also, your weaknesses are not your strength in disguise. You see, a lot of people say my weakness is that I work too hard. Well, that’s not a weakness. Some even go ahead to say my weakness is that I am a perfectionist. If you say this, it’s pretty clear and transparent to the hiring manager that you are trying to play intelligence.
So, what is a weakness?
A weakness is an issue or concern that occurs in a certain context that you have improved and continue to improve on. So instead of saying I am impatient, you should say something like,
“In a situation where there’s a deadline to be met, I tend to want things to be done quickly and efficiently and in these situations, I have tended to finish my task quickly and consistently ask for status updates from my co-workers. This has made me appear impatient in front of others.”
In this instance, you are describing the context in which the weakness occurs. The plan is to make your weaknesses occur in the context of a particular situation so that it doesn’t look like that’s your general personality trait.
Once you say your weakness, always say what you did or you are doing to improve on this weakness. so you will say;
“As a result, I have learned to be cognizant of this fact and no longer try to constantly update myself on what my co-workers are up to as often. I’ve implemented weekly meetings where everyone comes to the table with their updates and that has led to greater efficiency for everyone involved.”
What are your Weaknesses?
“I am more of an introvert and sometimes I am shy to share my ideas when there’s a room of people.”
Now, that’s a good reply. The interviewer will just say, well this person is the shy type but that’s okay. I’ll just have to ask him or her personally when I want her to speak out. I can just say, what do you think of this, that way I’ll create a room for you to speak.
So always say what is fixable.
What can you do to figure out your weaknesses?
Brainstorm and make a list of your past and current concerns about yourself.
These are private lists, so nobody needs to see them. Take up a sheet of paper and divide it into two columns and list out the things that you need improvement on.
Highlight the weaknesses that tend to occur only in a certain context or situation. It’s not something that happens all the time.
This is going to be the majority of the weaknesses that you have listed out, then think of the one that can be applied in a professional setting, it’s not something that occurs all the time but it is something that if it occurs you tend to be in a certain way.
Pick one current and past weakness and develop individual stories around each.
Remember, this weakness only occurs if certain situations occur or happen, do think of this situation and find a way to develop a story around it.
So you can use the examples above as a template to relate to your situation. This way you will be able to answer the question, what are your weaknesses?
If you did understand this article, kindly answer this question in the comment box below. What are your weaknesses?
