The Prepped Team
April 14, 2023
7 minutes
As someone fresh out of university or college, interviewing for your first job can be as stressful as it is exciting. So when that first interview call comes, you want to be prepared and that means practising your responses to commonly asked questions. Perhaps one of the trickiest interview questions to get right is “What is your greatest weakness?”
Many job seekers struggle to understand why employers ask this question and, as a result, have a tough time framing the perfect response. While the question may appear negative, like something employers only ask to eliminate unsuitable candidates, that’s not entirely true. In this article, we provide tips on how to answer “What is your greatest weakness?” in a job interview in a way that allows you to showcase your strengths and position yourself as an excellent candidate for the job.
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Although talking about your weaknesses may seem counterintuitive in a job interview, this is a question hiring managers often ask. To prepare an effective, impressive answer to this common interview question, you must understand why employers want to know about your weaknesses. Here are some reasons why interviewers ask candidates “What is your greatest weakness?”:
Answering the greatest weakness interview question can be tricky. It takes a fair amount of soul-searching to identify a weakness that seems meaningful enough to mention but also won’t negatively affect your chances of landing the job. Although you should always respond to this question honestly by citing weaknesses you actually have, you may find inspiration in these examples of professional weaknesses:
Preparation is key to acing your job interview, and the best place to start is planning your answers to commonly asked questions like this one. But what is the best way to frame your response to the greatest weakness interview question? And how do you answer this question in a way that won’t negatively impact your chances of landing the job? Here are some tips to help you prepare a strong response to “What is your greatest weakness?”:
Although most professionals, including those with extensive work histories, have some weaknesses, not all weaknesses can or should be shared with the interviewer. Before you can narrow your options down to one or two ideal weaknesses to mention, you should jot down all the professional areas where you feel you need to put in more work to improve.
As a recent graduate, you may have identified weaknesses that were roadblocks or impediments to your performance during your time at university or college. Or more recently, you may have noticed a required or good-to-have skill in job descriptions and realized it’s not an area of strength for you. Put all of these weaknesses down on paper. Your list can include both technical and soft skills, but stay clear of weaknesses that won’t have an impact on your work life.
Next, it’s time to start eliminating weaknesses that are unsuitable for the job you’re interviewing for. A good rule of thumb is to carefully reread the job description and learn about the company culture to determine what skills the employer is looking for. Those (or the lack of those) are ones you should avoid citing as weaknesses during your interview. Ideally, the weakness you pick should not be an essential skill for the job you’re looking to perform. Nor should it be a personality trait that’s valued as part of the company culture.
While reading a “Top 10 weaknesses for job interviews” listicle is a great way to get your thought process started, don’t be tempted to cite a weakness that you don’t actually have just so you can answer this question easily. Be sure to pick a real weakness because the interviewer may expect you to elaborate on your answer and provide details on why this is a weakness for you.
That said, you must find a way to connect your weakness to a valuable strength. For instance, if you aren’t great at creative designing, you can highlight your commitment to continuous learning by talking about how you’ve been watching Photoshop tutorials and practicing in your spare time.
When the interviewer asks about your greatest weakness, it’s always an open-ended question. It’s a chance to tell a story of how you identified and addressed a problem and why that makes you a strong candidate for the job. This means you have an opportunity to provide insight into why you consider something a weakness and how it has affected you in the past (or how it may impact your work in the future).
Continuing with the creative design example, perhaps you had worked part-time as a social media coordinator and relied on a designer to get the images and text in social post templates changed several times a week, which resulted in delays.
Although it may seem counterintuitive when you’re talking about weaknesses, it’s possible—and recommended—that you end your response on a positive note. Perhaps you’re pursuing a certification in a tool the company uses or recently achieved a milestone in managing your time better. It’s always good to show progress toward overcoming your shortcomings. However, demonstrating something you learnt, such as an alternative approach that achieves strong results, can also put a positive spin on your response. For instance, perhaps you found and mastered a free tool that makes it easier to replace images in a templated design.
Your response to this question should ideally be customized based on the job you’re interviewing for. Let’s summarize the above tips with an example. Let’s say a job description lists attention to detail as a required skill, a good weakness to mention in that interview might be:
“I sometimes struggle with time management because I get very focused on details and need things to be perfect. However, during my university/college time, I realized this often resulted in me having to work long hours to meet project deadlines and, in the beginning, I ended up turning in a few assignments late. I knew I had to do something or both my grades and my health would suffer. I began setting separate project timelines for myself, ahead of the actual deadline, and that helped. I also started keeping track of how long it took me to complete a certain type of task, so I could plan accordingly in the future. I’ve continued finding ways to improve on this, and now I try to find a balance between things that must get done and things that need to be perfect so that I can pay closer attention to the right things. As a result, in my last year of school, I never missed a deadline. In fact, with my final assignments, I ended up completing my work with several days left to go.”
Despite being a common feature in interviews, this question is an easy one to get wrong. Ideally, you should resist the temptation to wing it with an on-the-spot answer or use the same response in multiple job interviews. You should also be aware of how not to answer the greatest weakness question, including:
Let’s be real, everyone has weaknesses and employers know this. The employer wants to see whether you have the self-awareness to recognize your shortcomings because that is the first step toward improvement. Responding with a statement like “I don’t have any weaknesses” comes across as arrogant, which understandably, is not a great look in a job interview (or on the job).
Also, remember, if you do get hired, your professional weaknesses will come to light sooner or later, so it’s best to be upfront about them.
Employers are looking for honest responses and most are too smart to fall for pretend weaknesses like “I’m a perfectionist.” Unless you can justify how something is a weakness, avoid using it as an example while answering this question. Attempting to pass off a strength as a weakness is equivalent to saying you don’t have any weaknesses. With such a response, you risk the employer seeing you as arrogant, or simply a liar.
If you’re interviewing for a marketing job, saying you’re not a great communicator is unlikely to work in your favour. Steer clear of citing weaknesses that’ll surely cost you the job by revisiting the job description before your interview.
You should also do some research about the skills that are necessary or good to have to perform similar roles. If possible, set aside some time to have coffee chats with professionals in similar jobs, so you have better insight into the skills, personality traits, and technical know-how they require to perform well in their roles.
While you don’t want to mention a weakness that’ll land your resume in the don’t-hire pile, steering too far from professional weaknesses isn’t recommended either. “I’m bad at cooking” is a bad example to give in a job interview and might lead the interviewer to think you’re not serious about the interview or self-improvement. Ideally, the weakness you mention should relate to your work, but in a way that doesn’t significantly impact your ability to perform.
Although giving a one-word answer to an open-ended interview question is almost always bad, in this case, it can be disastrous. Avoid just stating a weakness and leaving it at that. The interviewer wants to know why you think this is a weakness for you and what you’re doing to remedy it. Be sure to highlight steps you’ve been taking to address your weakness, along with improvements you’ve already made.
As a new graduate, approaching job interviews with confidence can set you up for professional success. Sign up for Prepped for access to tools like our AI Interviewer and ATS Resume Scanner which will improve your chances of landing your first job.
The Prepped Team
April 14, 2023
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