"What are your weaknesses" is a negative interview question and having coached
and interviewed lots of people I've heard some great answers and some insane ones.
Firstly we're going to understand what the interviewers are looking for,
then I'm going to highlight some common mistakes to avoid , then we'll look at how to structure
and prepare your answer and finally I'll give you my top 5 weaknesses to use based on data
from thousands of interviews. What interviewers are looking
for when they ask you "What are your weaknesses" From my perspective as a CEO or hiring manager
I'm asking about weakness as I want to understand if a candidate has insight into their abilities
and are actively working on any flaws to improve themselves.
Asking about weakness also puts the candidate under pressure since no-one likes talking about
negative things and this allows you to see if they are honest and how they respond when on the back
foot. All of these are important traits for an employee and really boil down to whether someone
is coachable, honest and able to learn from any mistakes. I've seen interviewers ask for multiple
weaknesses to really push the best candidates. To score highly at the question you need to show
interviewers you are self-aware, that you can be open and honest, particularly about
your own shortcomings and that you pursue self-improvement and growth opportunities
to combat these issues, as opposed to letting any weaknesses hold you back.
So while many people are terrified of answering this question it is actually a great opportunity
to positively show how you audit yourself and are a high performer with a growth mindset.
Common Mistakes To Avoid So having interviewed a lot
of people I've heard some crazy responses to this question including someone who genuinely said she
had no weaknesses at all even when probed by interviewers and another guy who simply said
"I can sometimes be lazy and late for things". So common mistake number one is to give a
weakness that is actually a negative personality trait. Personality traits
like laziness are natural inherent traits within you that are really tough to fix and
are closely associated with your identity and behaviours. In the context of a job interview
weaknesses are things that can be improved on and which occur in a certain context not all the time.
Common mistake two is to not be honest with yourself and the interviewers and show lack
of insight by dodging the question either by saying you don't have a weakness or saying
"I'm not sure" or by trying to make it humourous by saying something stupid like "my
weakness is Kryptonite". Don't try and be funny, understand that everyone has areas to work on and
interviewers want to see that you have insight. The third common mistake I see people make when
answering this question is to choose an example which is quite obviously a strength in disguise.
It is very common for people to say that their weakness is that they are a perfectionist or that
they work too hard or they are a people person and so spend too long talking to colleagues and
customers. These are extremely clichéd and obvious to interviewers and they again lack insight.
The final common mistake to avoid is choosing anything that sounds too bad. Saying things
like you missed a sales quota because you need to improve your sales technique
or that you need to improve your basic marketing knowledge when applying for a marketing role
will raise a few eyebrows. So don't choose anything that will prevent you from
succeeding in the role you're applying for. So now we know what not to do let's look at
how to plan and structure your answer. How to Prepare and Structure Your Answer
Hopefully by now you know that for the purposes of a job interview a weakness is something that
has occurred in a certain situation which isn't too bad and which you have improved
upon and continue to develop. Choosing Your Weaknesses
So step one in structuring your answer is to choose a weakness that will not prevent you from
succeeding in the role and which isn't too bad. You should be honest and choose a real weakness
and I'd suggest you select a recent weakness and have one or two past weaknesses which you have
corrected as back-up in case interviewers ask you for multiple weaknesses to really push you.
At the end of this video I dive into some examples you might find helpful too. Hopefully
you have received coaching or have worked on something naturally but if you are struggling try
brainstorming your past and present weaknesses on a sheet of paper and then underline the weaknesses
that occur in certain circumstances. You can also use this template to help get you started:
"I don't have a huge amount of experience in X and I noticed that when doing Y I was Z."
You want to make sure you get the context right and show the weakness is correctable,
as an example let's look at someone who needs to improve their public speaking:
"I don't have a huge amount of public speaking experience and I noticed that
my voice would wobble when presenting at large team meetings meaning that I didn't
sound as confident as I would like." This is a good example as we'll assume
public speaking isn't essential to the role and is something that many people struggle
with. The person also shows awareness that their neves can imply they are not confident
and this needs to be corrected. Say How You Identified The Weakness
Having selected a weakness remember that interviewers want to know that you are
self-aware and regularly look for ways to improve yourself. You might want to say that you regularly
reflect on projects you've been involved in and look for ways to improve or simply that
you constantly self-audit your performance and ask others for feedback from which you
can learn. This helps to provide context and a situation and story for the weakness itself.
"I identified/spotted this during X and I also got feedback from Y and analysed the issue by Z"
Using our public speaking example this might look like:
"I don't have a huge amount of public speaking experience and I noticed that my voice would
wobble when presenting at large team meetings. I spotted this and also asked my team for feedback
after presentations and realised I didn't come across as confident as I would like..."
Here not only has the person spotted a weakness themselves they have also dived further into that
weakness by asking others for feedback to really interrogate it and understand how best to improve.
Say What You Are Doing About It Regardless of what weakness you choose the
key to answering this question well is to show the interviewers what you have done and are continuing
to do about the weakness. You want to make sure you say that you have corrected the weakness and
that you are now developing your skills in the area even further. This is a great opportunity
to show self-development and how you learn and can go the extra mile. A template for this is:
"To improve this I did W. I now no longer do X and instead do Y which has resulted
in Z for my team/company/myself" Taking the previous example of
someone who lacks confidence in public speaking, the candidate might say:
"...to improve this I first dived into some books including 'Talk Like TED' by Carmine
Gallo to help me understand what to work on, I then attended public speaking classes
and asked our exec team if I could do some larger meetings to push myself. I continued
getting feedback from my team and not only did I feel more confident but my team also fed-back
that my presentation skills were much improved. I now really enjoy public speaking and have done
some YouTube videos for the company which lead to 20 MQLs last month and will be speaking at
a 10,000 person conference next month." This is a great answer as it shows to
interviewers that this person is a high-performer since they are challenging themselves and have
actual quantifiable results that show they have successfully overcome their weakness that have
positively impacted their team and company. Putting It Together and Re-Framing
So putting all of these steps together you want to choose a correctable weakness that isn't too bad,
mention it briefly together with how you became aware of it and then quickly move the answer from
a negative question about weaknesses and reframe it in a positive light focusing on how you are
self-aware, how you corrected the weakness and what you learned from developing the skills
which will be essential to the employer. This is a Jedi interview trick and allows you to own your
answer and move it from being about weakness to how you can add value to the employer. Remember
every answer you give should include value to the employer. So as a bonus point following on
from the previous public speaking example you might say: "... I'd love to speak at large team
meetings at your company Mr Interviewer and to represent the company at any events or conferences
to help talk about our product if needed." Top 5 Weaknesses To Use
So now we've been through how to plan and prepare your answer let's look at some solid examples
for you to choose from based on data and responses from thousands of
high-scoring interviews I've been involved with. Number 1: “I lack experience in…” My top tip is to
go for something that is part of your development. This is an understandable weakness and shows you
are ambitious and know what skills are relevant to your career progression. It might also be a
skill that is parallel to the role that will help you communicate with other teams such as learning
coding if you are applying for a marketing role Number 2: “I used to find it difficult to ask
other people for help. I always try to figure things out for myself." This is a nice example
as it is again understandable and hints that you can work autonomously but appreciate the
importance of teamwork and coaching. Number 3: “I used to struggle with
giving people feedback.” No-one enjoys giving negative feedback to team mates and this is a
skill which is needed by managers and you can go on to talk about the importance of
emotional intelligence and coaching team members. Number 4: “I used to find it hard saying no to
people.” Anyone who is busy will appreciate this weakness. We all want to please others
and it can be tricky respecting our own time and boundaries. Interviewers will relate and
books like "The Art of Saying No" can be used as references for how you tackled the problem.
Number 5: “I used to struggle to let go of projects I worked deeply on.”
This is great as it shows a passion for work but also an understanding around the importance of
working quickly and handing completed projects off to other teams. You can bring in elements
about reflection at the end of a project and being grateful for having completed the project
and how projects contribute to company goals to show understanding of company alignment.
Now if you practise your answer and get used to reframing any negative to a positive
you'll be well-placed to score highly at any interview and get hired.