How to Answer What Is Your Weakness Examples

What exactly is the right style to answer "what is your greatest weakness?"

For such a popular interview question, the answer was never really clear!

Are yous supposed to deny that you have i? Or become all confession time on recruiters and share your virtually genuine weakness?

The answer is neither. What y'all exercise is turn the situation to your advantage past framing your weaknesses positively.

And no - we don't mean maxim "I'k a perfectionist" or some similar nonsense.

Then, wanna know how not to miss a beat when recruiters enquire you "what is your greatest weakness?"

This commodity volition testify you just that!

• Why Do Interviewers Ask "What Is Your Greatest Weakness?"
• How to Answer "What Is Your Greatest Weakness?"
• 5+ "What Is Your Greatest Weakness?" Reply Samples
• 49+ Skills You Tin Mention as Weaknesses in An Interview
• Tips to Identify (and Address) Your Weaknesses

Why Do Interviewers Ask "What Is Your Greatest Weakness?"

The first step to answering "what is your greatest weakness" correctly is to sympathise why recruiters ask the question in the outset identify.

When recruiters ask you to identify your greatest weaknesses, they are looking for the following three things:

• Honesty. They want to know if yous're honest enough to requite a real weakness. Continue in mind that if you get hired, your professional weaknesses will come upwardly in ane way or another, then being open nigh them in advance is the best option.
• Self-awareness, or the ability to analyze yourself and recognize the areas where you demand to piece of work on.
• Willingness to improve. Everyone has weaknesses - even recruiters themselves. That's why they don't expect you to prevarication about it. What recruiters do wait, however, is that yous're willing (and trying) to improve.

When you lot know simply what the recruiters are expecting from you, the interview question doesn't seem as hard, does it?

At present, let's motility on to the adjacent important footstep:

How to Respond "What Is Your Greatest Weakness?"

Let's first state the obvious.

No matter what, your respond should never be "Weakness? I don't have a weakness."

Everybody has weaknesses. Denying yours only shows you're not self-enlightened, which is, equally nosotros mentioned earlier, a red flag for recruiters.

Instead, you should frame your weaknesses positively.

And no, that's non the same as disguising a force as a weakness ("I'm just Also detail-oriented").

What we mean by "frame your weaknesses positively" is the following:

• Don't lie nigh your weakness, but choose 1 that's not super relevant to the position yous're applying for. Yous can't say "my weakness is that I'grand bad at writing" if you're applying for a chore every bit a creative writer, right?
• Talk about the steps you're taking to improve yourself.

Here's a physical case.

Say you're applying for a job equally a copy editor. This is part of the job description:

Source: glassdoor.com

For starters, y'all wouldn't want to reply "what's your greatest weakness?" with any of the following: constructive communication, accuracy, attention to detail, or teamwork.

All these skills are essential to the job and mentioning them as weaknesses would do more damage than practiced.

Rather, you want to identify a existent weakness that you accept, discuss it genuinely, and highlight how you lot are addressing it (or planning to).

Here's how yous tin practise that:

My greatest weakness is fourth dimension direction. I have ever been very detail-oriented, so it sometimes takes me longer to finish a project than I initially think it will. This is why I started using time-tracking software in my last job. Information technology made me more conscious of the time a task takes me and helped me never miss a borderline once more.

This is a good respond because:

• It answers with a real weakness, but one that's not essential to the position.
• It highlights exactly what you've done to amend yourself.

Moreover, this respond finer mentions a strength that is essential to the job: existence particular-oriented. If you lot can as well fit one organically into your answer, that's a huge plus.

v+ "What Is Your Greatest Weakness?" Answer Samples

#i. Lack of feel

This one'south usually a very good answer if you're a recent university graduate or if you're switching careers.

For example, allow's say y'all're a recent college graduate applying for a job as a graphic designer.

You tin can say that y'all lack experience with a sure software because yous've practiced on a unlike ane.

In such a case, if you're asked "what is your greatest weakness?" y'all tin respond like this:

• "I'grand not experienced with the latest version of Adobe Illustrator, because I've proficient my skills using CorelDRAW. However, considering they are both design software, I recollect I could learn how to employ Adobe in no time. "

Or, similar this:

• "I'm not experienced in analyzing large amounts of financial data because I have yet to properly practice the fiscal literacy skills I acquired at University. I'yard confident I volition get the hang of information technology equally presently as I become starting time-hand work experience."

#2. Teamwork

Teamwork (or lack thereof) is a completely valid weakness, particularly if your chore doesn't involve working with many people.

Just make sure non to mix up teamwork skills with effective communication skills, even though the two are connected.

See, at that place are hardly whatever jobs out there that don't crave advice skills, then straight-on mentioning advice as your weakness might non exist the best idea.

Teamwork, on the other mitt, involves close collaboration with a team to achieve a common goal, which is non necessarily required in every field.

Here's how you lot tin tell the recruiter virtually this weakness:

• "I'thou not a squad role player, honestly. I've ever been less productive working with a group of people, while I practice my all-time when I'm alone. This is ane of the reasons I chose to get a writer."

#three. Procrastination

You lot'd be surprised how many people struggle with procrastination. It's a (bad) habit that's been around for so long, at that place'south even a Goodreads quote folio dedicated to information technology.

As a weakness, procrastination can be a 2-edged sword. If you don't frame it properly, recruiters might presume you lot're likely to miss deadlines or submit low-quality work.

The key hither is to mention exactly how yous've improved or are planning to improve this weakness.

Here's how to frame your respond:

• "Since I was in academy, I have struggled with procrastination. Before I worked my get-go job, I didn't remember it was a weakness, because I never missed a deadline. I just had to pull an all-nighter here and there. But afterwards I saw how my procrastination on a task affects the productivity of the entire team and the quality of a project's consequence, I realized it's a weakness I should meliorate. I changed my work ethic, how I tackle tasks, and how I motivate myself to work and have seen considerable improvement. I no longer rely on terminal-minute panic to complete my work."

#4. Impatience

Struggling to remain patient is one of those weaknesses that is almost justifiable to have.

Recall about information technology. Information technology's virtually impossible not to lose your patience at some point or some other when you're working. It might happen because of a hard task yous can't complete, or a colleague missing a deadline. The signal is how you react to your impatience and whether you allow information technology impact your relations with your coworkers or customers.

And so, unless you're working a task where it's essential to exist patient (such as being a teacher), y'all tin can use impatience every bit a weakness every bit long as you lot frame it positively.

Here's how to do that:

• "At times, impatience gets the best of me. If I'm working on a team project and I think that we're not handling the task at hand in the all-time way, I tend to get fidgety and annoyed. In my terminal job, this weakness impacted my human relationship with coworkers, then I've now enrolled in a training course to cultivate patience in the workplace. I'm also actively practicing patience exterior of work to brand it a addiction in my daily life."

#5. Self-criticism

Many people grapple with cocky-criticism.

At ane betoken or another, nosotros feel like nosotros could have done more, or that nosotros didn't requite our all towards a sure chore.

For this reason, self-criticism is a weakness that yous can use in almost situations when recruiters enquire you what your greatest weakness is.

Here'due south how you'd go about information technology:

• "My greatest weakness is that I'thousand too disquisitional of myself and often experience like I'grand not giving my all-time, or similar I disappoint the people I piece of work with. This often led me to overwork myself, burn down out, or experience junior to my colleagues, although my supervisors hadn't complained about my performance. During the past year, I have been working on myself actively, trying to be fairer with myself."

#6. Multitasking

Multitasking might not exist as great every bit you lot think.

Yes, our increasingly decorated lifestyles tin sometimes trick us into thinking multitasking is amazing, merely recent studies show multitasking can seriously harm work performance.

Multitasking makes you more likely to brand mistakes at piece of work, be less efficient with your tasks, and overall really hurts your productivity.

Hence, yous can easily use multitasking as an answer to "what is your greatest weakness?"

Here'south how y'all'd reply to the interviewers:

• "My weakness? I multitask too much. I first noticed it was an upshot in my terminal task - I was too distracted and tackling two or three tasks at once ruined my productivity. I've been minding how I piece of work always since and I brand sure to always define and prioritize all my tasks. Then, instead of juggling iii at the same time, I try to go through them one by one."

Skills You Can Mention as Weaknesses in An Interview

Past now, you should understand that it'south not really about the weakness, merely about the way you nowadays the weakness and the steps you're taking to improve on information technology.

If you are true and proactive about your weakness, it shows that you're the type of person who shows bulldoze and initiative - both must-have skills for a lot of employers.

Having said this, you tin take a look at the list below of soft skills that you can mention as weaknesses to get y'all thinking on what your weakness is:

• Creativity
• Task delegation
• Sense of humour
• Spontaneity
• System
• Impatience
• Taking on risks
• Artistic writing
• Financial literacy
• Foreign languages (or a particular foreign linguistic communication)
• A detail software
• Being likewise honest
• Multitasking
• Public speaking/Presenting
• Shyness
• Time direction
• Sharing responsibility
• Self-criticism
• Teamwork
• Sensitivity
• Taking on too much responsibility
• Taking on too many projects at once

As nosotros mentioned before, you lot tin mention any of these weaknesses equally long as they're non direct related to the job you lot're applying for.

If you're applying for a position as a TV reporter, your weakness shouldn't exist public speaking, shyness, or teamwork - defective these skills will negatively bear on your ability to do the job (and will lead to you not getting hired).

Instead, you could say the following:

• "Some of my weaknesses? Allow'southward meet...Kickoff, I'd say I'm not a very spontaneous person. I prefer to piece of work prepared and according to a well-defined plan. This sometimes works to my disadvantage, because it's incommunicable to always exist prepared. Another weakness is that I sometimes take on too many projects at one time. This can sometimes hinder the quality of my work. This is why I've fabricated information technology a do to prepare realistic goals every time I take on a project and share more responsibilities with my colleagues."

Tips to Place (and Address) Your Weakness

Now, in example nosotros didn't stress this enough, it's important to exist as genuine every bit possible when recruiters ask "what is your greatest weakness?"

This means that your weakness should be authentic, non just a skill that you picked out of a listing because you think it's harmless to the position y'all're applying to.

The more authentic the weakness you mention (and the steps you lot're taking to address it), the easier yous'll come up across as a self-aware and self-improving candidate.

In this section, we'll teach you but how you can do this.

Identifying Your Weakness

Struggling to pinpoint your weak points? Enquire yourself the following:

• Did my past supervisors criticize me on a particular attribute of my work?
• Was I ever asked to meliorate something and how did I approach it?
• How take I failed to complete work tasks and what have I done to improve?
• What is something I'm really not fond of doing in terms of work?
• What were some of my weaknesses back when I was a student?
• Was there something specific that professors criticized me virtually during my bookish studies?

The answers that come upward more frequently will be your principal weaknesses.

Addressing Your Weaknesses

Now, identifying your weaknesses doesn't hateful much unless you lot go the extra mile and improve on them.

And certain, y'all can accept a shortcut and say you're doing something to accost your weaknesses only for the sake of replying to the interview question correctly, but sooner or later that could impairment your work performance.

That'southward why, instead of just mentioning information technology during the task interview, we advise you lot to try out one of the post-obit means to address your weakness:

• Utilise tools that can assist you meliorate your weaknesses
• Enroll in a form
• Ask for feedback
• Consult an advisor
• Practice the skill/s outside of work
• Join a workshop
• Go training
• Get advice from someone whose forcefulness is your weakness

Cardinal Takeaways

Well, that was a lot to take in!

Hopefully, now yous're more than than prepared to answer "what is your greatest weakness?"

Just in case, let's go over some of the master points we covered in the article:

• When recruiters ask "what is your greatest weakness," they are looking to encounter if you are honest, self-enlightened, and willing to improve.
• Answer "what is your greatest weakness" past choosing a skill that is not essential to the job you're applying to and past stressing exactly how you're practically addressing your weakness.
• Some skills that you tin can use every bit weaknesses include impatience, multitasking, self-criticism, and procrastination.
• An authentic answer goes a long fashion. That's why the best solution is to identify your existent weaknesses and take proactive measures to accost them.

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Source: https://novoresume.com/career-blog/what-is-your-greatest-weakness

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