Interview tomorrow. What's your strategy for this question?

[C.R.E.A.M.]

I've got a job interview coming up this week. I consider myself fairly adept at handling interviews, for the most part. The one question I'm never sure how to handle though, is when they ask you about your weaknesses. It's usually something like "what do you think are your weaknesses" or "if we spoke to your last employer, what areas would they say are your weakest".

What do you think is the best way to tackle this question?

[nyc999]

Something that can be deflected into a positive.

For instance, "I sometimes have trouble working in large group settings because I keep such a high standard of excellence on my work."

Obviously that statement needs a little bit of work, but you get the idea.

[4_2_it]

They are looking for you to make an honest assessment. No one is perfect and trying to act like you are will not impress anyone.

I always talk about how the situations where I am learned the most were usually the results of a mistake. Then I give an example or two (not a problem for me) from my personal experience.

(I recognize this hedges the weakness thing a little, but does not avoid the question.)

[C.R.E.A.M.]

[ QUOTE ]
They are looking for you to make an honest assessment. No one is perfect and trying to act like you are will not impress anyone.

I always talk about how the situations where I am learned the most were usually the results of a mistake. Then I give an example or two (not a problem for me) from my personal experience.

(I recognize this hedges the weakness thing a little, but does not avoid the question.)

[/ QUOTE ]

This is actually similiar to the angle I was thinking about taking. Instead of talking about a weakness I currently have, talking about a couple mistakes and weaknesses I used to have at another job, and how I learned from them and improved upon them.

[gorie]

i just say that i am shy , but that i can still get along with anyone. because it is true and i wouldn't want a job where i am expected to deal with a lot of different people anyway.

but i don't really know how to answer those questions to make yourself look good. i think the "sometimes i just work way too hard!" answers are dumb, but i guess it's what you're suppose to say.

[4_2_it]

[ QUOTE ]
i just say that i am shy , but that i can still get along with anyone. because it is true and i wouldn't want a job where i am expected to deal with a lot of different people anyway.

but i don't really know how to answer those questions to make yourself look good. i think the "sometimes i just work way too hard!" answers are dumb, but i guess it's what you're suppose to say.

[/ QUOTE ]


Try this:
I need to learn to say no more often. Sometimes I take on too many projects at once and wind up not be able to get each the full attention it deserves.

[dustyn]

[ QUOTE ]
They are looking for you to make an honest assessment. No one is perfect and trying to act like you are will not impress anyone.

I always talk about how the situations where I am learned the most were usually the results of a mistake. Then I give an example or two (not a problem for me) from my personal experience.

(I recognize this hedges the weakness thing a little, but does not avoid the question.)

[/ QUOTE ]

I think this is good advice. Everyone has weaknesses, and the purpose of the question isn't to lie and say some BS "positive/negative" type of answer. If your weakness is that you aren't always the most organized person, saying something like this is good: "Sometimes I tend to get overloaded with work and can get disorganized. I've worked hard to stay on top of it, and succeed at that more often than not. However, there at times I still need to work on this."

It's a judgment call overall; some people (lower level HR screeners, or lower level managers that don't seem particularly intelligent) may respond better to the obvious crap like "My weakness is I work too hard and take on too many projects." However, if you are interviewing with an intelligent and strong manager, you are going to need to give a better answer than the above one. It's all about catering to your audience; just be careful about giving answers to this question that are obviously prefabricated and contain limited honesty. Think about the answers YOU want to hear if you are interviewing someone and ask this question.

[C.R.E.A.M.]

Good points. I agree with your take on the negative/positive response of "I work too hard sometimes". I was thinking about saying something like that (and I have used it in the past at interviews for $7.50/hour part time jobs that I worked while in school with success), but the more I thought about it, the more I feel it just sounds so fake and sounds like such BS. I bet interviewers get that answer all the time.

[swede123]

I'm a workaholic, requiring at least 120 hours of work per week!

Joking aside, you're on the right track. Think of a mistake or screw-up in a previous job/position, and talk about how this incident made you more aware of your weakness and how it's not really an area of concern any more.

Swede

[Predator314]

That's the worst question ever. It's a stupid question too. There's no way to answer it without coming off like a 1.) arrogant prick, 2.) worthless loser, or 3.) a liar.