Hey, guys.
Jennifer Tardy here, your career success coach, and today, we are having a discussion about
job interview questions and answers with today's question being: What are your weaknesses?
The one question that everyone hates to answer, but don't worry because I have a smooth answer
for you to use in your interview.
Be sure to stick around all the way to the very end because, as always, we have my fave,
fave, fave segment, the Career Success Bonus Tip for UPs.
Stick around.
We've got some work to do.
So, as I shared with you in previous videos, it does not matter how skilled you are or
how much experience you have.
If you are unable to interview well and if you are unable to articulate your knowledge,
skills, and abilities, it will make it that much more difficult for you when you are trying
to get that job.
You won't be as competitive, so it's through this series, we are trying to answer certain
common interview questions and give you those top-notch answers.
Got it?
So let's jump right into it.
Why would an interviewer even care to ask you what are your weaknesses?
They don't want to have to infer what your strengths are from any other questions, so
why not just ask you pointblank?
And that's what they do.
That's what I do.
That's what interviewers do all the time: ask you pointblank what they want to know
so they don't have to make any assumptions.
Now, here's how you do not answer that question.
You do not go to either extreme.
You don't say, "I don't have any weaknesses.
What are you talking about?
I am obviously perfect."
No, you don't do that.
And you also don't start listing off a slew of weaknesses.
No one wants to hire someone who is weak in multiple areas, especially multiple areas
that they verbalized during the interview.
So don't go through either extreme, okay?
Now, have you had someone ask you this question before, what are your weaknesses, and you
know that you completely messed up in answering that question?
What are some of the weaknesses that you've shared with an employer?
Tell me in the comments section below.
I am really, really curious to hear from you.
Okay, so here's how you answer that question.
There are two ways to answer it.
One is you can tell them a weakness and you can tell them what you have already done to
begin to correct this weakness or to fix or to help this weakness, okay?
And that's one way that people go, but don't ever just say a weakness and then just leave
it.
Talk about what you've been doing to fix it.
Now, the second way, which is one of my favorite ways, is share with the interviewer a weakness
that also is value-added as a benefit to them.
So what is one weakness that you have that is extremely valuable to them, okay?
So let me give you an example.
I would say, "Well, one of my main weaknesses is that I often don't stop to smell the roses.
When I finish one project, I'm always moving forward to the next project, to get the next
deliverable taken care, and I know and I've also been told that it's probably important
for me to stop and celebrate my successes along the way."
So whatever your weakness is, spin it and make it something that's positive or advantageous
to the employer.
We are at my favorite, favorite, favorite segment and this is the Career Success Bonus
Tip for Underrepresented Populations, or UPs.
So here is where I would recommend that you do the opposite of what I told you to do in
the last video as we were talking about strengths.
In weaknesses, you do not want to point out a weakness that reminds the employer that
you are a member of an underrepresented population.
It just becomes a distraction.
So, for instance, if English is a second language for you, this is not a time to remind the
employer that English is a second language for you, in that you are a little self-conscious
about your ability to speak English well.
See, what happens is when you tell them that, number one, you're reminding them that you
are a part of a UP, right, which is neither here nor there.
However, if you don't feel confident in your ability to articulate yourself, then they're
going to lose confidence in your ability to articulate yourself and it's going to make
you move down their list.
So try to avoid sharing any weaknesses that reminds someone that you're a member of an
underrepresented population.
I've shared with you how to answer this one interview question.
What is or what are your weaknesses?
If you want to know how to answer 24 additional interview questions, common interview questions,
be sure to download our free copy of The 25 Most Common Interview Questions with Top-Notch
Answers and you can find it in the details section below.
I hope that you enjoyed this video.
If you did, you know what to do.
Subscribe to our channel, like this video, leave a comment, and, as you know, we'll be
back, bringing you more videos every Tuesday by noon.
Jennifer Tardy, your career success coach.
I'll see you in the next video.
Take care.