Tell Me about your Weaknesses
Just because an interviewer asks you to ‘tell me about your weaknesses”, you don’t have to open up as if it’s a therapy session!
In answer to – Tell Me about your Weaknesses, don’t tell the recruiter that you are shy and find it hard to strike up conversations with new people if you are applying for a sales-orientated role.
Or that you don’t always spot mistakes if you are going for a role where you need to do checking.
I’ve had people apply for senior roles tell me that they find it hard to look at the bigger picture, when being strategic is an important element of the role.
Many people will search for interview advice online and then use this to come up with an example. The problem is that many other people are doing the same and it is not unusual, as an interviewer to have every candidate offer the same weakness – I don’t suffer fools gladly or that you find it hard not to work too hard.
Other people don’t answer, they say that they can’t think of any weakness that interferes with them doing the job, but we all have areas where we are not strong, or areas where we have focused improvement activity.
The most obvious way of answering “Tell Me about your Weaknesses” is to offer something that isn’t relevant to the job you go for.
For example, if you are going for a finance role where creativity is not required you can offer up that you find it hard to come up with creative ideas.
To do this you need to be clear on the job requirements so anything you offer is a safe option.
You can also talk about a weakness that you have overcome. For example, Karen used to be very critical of herself but has learnt, through coaching, to celebrate the things that have gone well, and this has helped her to be clear on everything she has achieved. Julie found time management a challenge so now uses online diaries and time organisers to manage this and shares this example at interview.
Think back to your last interview, what did you offer as a weakness? If you are happy why not share it below? I read every comment.
