Answering the job interview question: “What are your weaknesses?”
Answering the “What are your weaknesses?” question effectively can be a fantastic way to show your ability to be humble, authentic, teachable, and self-aware, which are traits that every hiring manager is looking for. Answering it ineffectively, however, can lose the entire interview for you in a matter of seconds. As a result, this question terrifies most candidates. The good news is that if you follow the below guidelines, you should be able to easily nail this question.
Variations of this question
“What is your greatest weakness?” · “What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?” · “What areas would your boss say you could improve on?” · “What skills do you need to improve?” · “If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?”
What the hiring manager is looking for
The hiring manager is looking for a candidate who is self-aware, has a desire to improve, and is capable of planning a clear path to improvement. Since this is a question that makes people uncomfortable, they also want to see someone who is confident, positive and composed under pressure.
What your goal should be
Your goal is to give the recruiter confidence you have the ability to do the job well despite the weaknesses you have or will discover while in the new role. You can do this by ensuring the weaknesses you discuss in your answer are not critical to the role you are applying for and by showing you have experience in improving past weaknesses.
Preparing for this question
Start by brainstorming weaknesses that you are aware of or a colleague/manager have pointed out in the past. Then, pick from your list one or two that you have made the most progress on improving and are not listed as critical competencies in the job description. Afterward, follow the below structure to deliver a solid answer.
Answer Structure
Your answer should be no longer than 2 minutes and should contain the following elements:
- Start by listing the weakness in a positive manner. This should take no more than 10 seconds.
Example: “My presentation skills are far from perfect, but I have made significant progress lately.” - Explain how you found out about your weakness. Spend about 15 seconds on this part.
Example: “About a year ago, after giving a risk assessment presentation on an initiative we were working on, my manager mentioned that I had too many bullets and words on my slides. She challenged me to work on communicating more effectively with less content.” - Next, explain what you have done to improve the weakness. This is the most important part of your answer so include good detail. Spend about 30 seconds on this section.
Example: “Realizing she was right, I did some research and purchased a copy of Presentation Zen, by Garr Reynolds. From this book, I gained some valuable principles, including using more images and removing the “non-essential”, which I recognized I had a lot of in my presentations. Since then, I have made a conscious effort to create great infographics and only present what is needed to convey my message. To make sure I’m prepared for follow-up questions I always have backup appendix slides with more information.” - Last, end with a solid and recent win. Spend 15 seconds on this part.
Example: “About a month ago I delivered another presentation to leadership and several leaders complimented me on how great my presentation was and one even asked me to train his team on giving effective presentations.”
Extra tips
- Don’t pretend to not have any weaknesses. This will communicate naivety and unpreparedness at best and dishonesty at worst.
- Focus on minor ability gaps rather than personal weaknesses because they are a lot easier to improve and describe the progress you’ve made on improving them. Making personal weakness statements such as, “I’m not very organized’” can lead a recruiter to negatively assume too much about who you are and your work ethic. Instead, try saying, “I received feedback that I was taking too long answering my emails.” and showing how you changed your behavior to become more efficient.
- Don’t use a strength as a weakness. Saying things like, “I care too much about work.”, “I’m a perfectionist.” and “I’m too competitive.” are easy ways to get a hiring manager to shut off for the rest of the interview.
- Check out a related article: Answering the job interview question: “What are your strengths?”
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