What are your weaknesses? How to hack this interview question

In this article, we will see how to crack the infamous interview question what are your weaknesses. Do you think the interviewer expects an honest answer to this? Yes, exactly that is what you should do and let’s see why.

To be successful, you want to be humble and self-aware. In this scenario, you should share an authentic story that you are self-aware. It’s ok not to be a perfect person. More often, nobody is going to have 100% of what is in the job description. Even employers are looking for someone who possesses 70% to 80% of the qualifications. The interviewer is looking for you to have a realistic view of your competencies and your ability to improve. So, you can be honest and show them how you are going to fix that particular weakness as quickly as possible.

What weakness to share?

While selecting weakness to answer “what are your weaknesses”, don’t choose a weakness that disqualifies you from the job. Pick a safe weakness. Choose something that is not that important to the job. For this, you have to go back and analyze the job description, determine what particular skill that is least important to the position that you don’t possess. Often those are listed at the bottom of responsibilities of the job description. This weakness should be something that you didn’t strongly represent on your resume. And the particular skill should be something that can be learned or overcome quickly. Have a fix-it strategy for your weakness. You can show them your plan on how you are going to solve or address the weakness.

So to conclude, while answering the question, what your weaknesses are.

1. Be humble and authentic.
2. Select the weakness that doesn’t disqualify you from the role.
3. Have a plan and describe your fix-it strategy.

Example of how to respond to the question “what are your weaknesses”

Example 1:

If a particular job requires you to manage a staff that you haven’t done before, you could say something like “I haven’t had formal management experience, but I can apply my knowledge of managing a community in college to motivate the staff. I addition, I’ve also taken several management classes and workshops that I will apply to this situation.“

Here in the answer, the person has chosen a transferable skill and also shared how he is fixing that weakness. The interviewer is also looking for you to have a realistic view of yourself and how you overcome any present challenges.

Example 2:

A Candidate is applying for an entry-level position as a UX designer. The job description requires to have after-effects skills that the candidate lacks experience. In this case, the candidate can answer something like. “As you mentioned in the job description, I am not that much confident in using after effects, but I was able to pick up illustrator, quite quickly with the help of my friends and by taking a course. I was also able to create a logo for the college fest that turned out quite well. I hope I can pick up after-effects as well.“

Here the candidate also hasn’t mentioned the after-effects skills on his resume. Also, he used experience from his past to address the weakness.

Recommended Reading

How to answer the interview question “tell me about yourself” with Examples.