How To Talk About Your Biggest Weakness In a Job Interview

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I am on again with my daily Forbes reading, and this time I came across this article on talking about your biggest weakness in a job interview. "What's your biggest weakness?", according to Amanda Abella, a career coach, writer, speaker and founder of the Gen Y lifestyle blog Grad Meets World, this is one of the questions people have the hardest time answering. How you respond to this question will have a big say if you either get the job or not. There is no right answer to the question but there's a qualified answer to this. The article shares 6 tips for talking about your biggest weakness in a job interview. 1. Know your weakness(es). Everyone knows the no one is perfect. So never say that you don't have any weakness because hiring managers may look at you as proud and conceited, and that is not a good impression to give them in an interview. So if you don't know your weaknesses, try taking personality type quiz. This will also help you know your strengths which you can use to sell yourself to the hiring managers during the interview. 2. Be honest, but don't mention essential skills. Tell them the truth but don't tell them that you are bad in programming if you are applying for a programmer position. It is very unlikely to be hired for something you are most weak at doing. Tell them another weakness which may not be necessarily related to the job like your bad at finances, etc. 3. Talk about how you conquered the weakness. “Be prepared to share an example of a previous failure or weakness that you've successfully turned into a strength,” Schweitzer says. “Do not discuss areas of opportunity that you are still working on and have not yet fixed.” You could use this question to your advantage by telling them how you've overcome a weakness. Hiring managers will look on how was your attitude towards that weakness, and how you were able to conquer them. 4. Don't prepare an exact response. You don't want to make your response sound staged and scripted. Have an outline of your response but make it fitting to the flow of the conversation. 5. Only discuss work-related weakness. As much as possible, don't wash dirty-linens at the interview. Hiring managers are more interested on work-related weaknesses and how you overcome them. You also want to avoid personal drama, she says. “Sure, everyone has got some, but companies want to ensure this won’t affect your job if you get hired. Besides, it’s considered completely inappropriate to bring personal drama into the business world.” 6. Don't say you're a perfectionist or you work too hard. "I am a perfectionist" and "I work so hard that I don't allow myself to relax" are the most common responses to this question. You don't want to be seen as someone who already prepared for the question. Use the question as an opportunity to share how you've overcome a professional challenge and how you now are better because of it. Hiring managers know that people make mistakes, and they want to know how you've handled yours,” Abella concludes. “Being aware of your weaknesses is a good sign; it shows that you know where your boundaries are and aren't suffering from a case of hubris.” The full article is here. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/02/19/how-to-talk-about-your-biggest-weakness-in-a-job-interview/