‘What is your greatest weakness?’ must be the toughest question you can get asked at an interview. In this article I want to discuss the type of answer that would be acceptable to your next prospective employer. You must give a balanced answer – it needs to be a little bit true, but also something that’s not going to put them off you.

What is the interview panel looking for with this question?

It’s always good to put yourself in the shoes of the interviewers. They’ll be trying to see how self-aware you are and how you can talk about yourself objectively. Most interview questions give you the chance to let the interview panel know your strengths and what you are good at. Therefore, asking about your main weakness will give the panel a more balanced view of an area that you might need to develop. Hopefully, in the answer, you can talk about what you have done to address the weakness, before they have time to get concerned about it.

Some advice on preparing for the weakness question

When preparing for this question, I’d always advise you to think genuinely about what your actual weaknesses are. Think about what you would say your weaknesses would be if you were chatting to someone that you’d be unlikely to meet again, or who is unlikely to judge you (someone like a careers adviser perhaps). Maybe you could write a list of two or three weaknesses. Then have a think about how you could concisely explain the weakness. As you’ll see from the examples below, I recommend that you ‘soften’ the answer, with a word like ‘sometimes’. It’s also important to tell the interview panel what you are doing, or have done, to address the weakness.

With this question, I don’t advocate over-explaining or giving a great amount of detail in your answer. You don’t want to take up too much of the 40 minutes, or whatever the length of the interview, talking about what you’re not good at, or what’s lacking in your skill-set.

You should give the interviewers just one weakness. Even if they ask for your weaknesses, still try to get away with giving them just the one. (Don’t tell them about those ten areas that you think you need to improve!)

In my experience, you’ll only be asked for one weakness. However, I did once sit as an observer on a panel where the interviewer insisted on asking for a second weakness, so it’s good to have another answer up your sleeve if they insist on this.

Some examples of what you could say (remember though they should be genuine for you)

Example 1: ‘I realise that as I have been brought up not to boast about my achievements, that I sometimes don’t market myself as much as I could. This is something that I am addressing by making myself more visible by going to meetings and by posting or reposting useful industry information on LinkedIn.’

Example 2: ‘Sometimes I find I get distracted by an idea, as I have a wide range of work interests and I’ve noticed that I can get into too much of the details surrounding it. As I’m aware of this, I remind myself daily to also look at the bigger picture and that helps me prioritise my work. I now set myself five tasks per day that I know are doable and work hard towards those. This helps me to be productive.’

Example 3: ‘I like to take the lead in projects. Sometimes, however, I notice that I don’t consult with all the members of the team, who might have something useful to add. Therefore, although I’m still highly creative and like to share my ideas for problem-solving, I now make sure that I ask all members of the team for their input, allowing them some time to respond, either in person or by email/Teams message.’

Example 4: ‘I like to help my colleagues and I have had, in the past, ‘an open door policy’ for anyone to get in touch with me if they had a difficult work (or personal) problem. However, I realised that I had been getting too involved in these problems and it meant that I struggled sometimes to meet my own deadlines. Therefore, although I think it’s highly important to be there for colleagues, when I know I have a deadline, I take myself off somewhere quiet where I can work until I finish the project. This has also helped me to have a better work/life balance.’

Some examples of what not to say

From talking to colleagues and from my own experience, I have heard some genuine answers to the weakness question that didn’t go down very well.

Example 5: ‘I don’t suffer fools gladly.’

Why I don’t recommend saying this

If you are working in a team then collaboration will be an important part of your job, so anything that gives a message of intolerance is not a good idea.

Example 6: ‘I’m a bit of a maverick and like to push against the status quo.’

Why I don’t recommend saying this

Though in some settings this might be a useful characteristic, it is not what an interviewer, particularly a line manager, will want to hear about a new recruit.

If, however, you feel you have one of the weaknesses given in examples 5 or 6, there still could be a way to use them in your answer to this question.

Example 7 (a re-work of example 5): ‘I was brought up to have a strong work ethic, therefore if I am working with someone who I feel is not pulling their weight, I tend to get a bit exasperated, especially if their line manager doesn’t pull them into line. I have learned, though, that there may be reasons that I don’t know about, regarding why that person is not performing as well. Therefore, if there is a situation like this, I now have a confidential chat with the colleague in question and offer my support to them and to the team.’

Example 8 (a re-work of example 6): ‘I enjoy problem-solving and when I am new to a team, I enjoy pointing out how improvements can be made to any processes. Sometimes, however, I have noticed that not all my suggestions have been appreciated, as they might involve changes to tasks carried out by individuals who, in some cases, have been there for a while. So now when I join a new team, I still enjoy looking at processes with fresh eyes, but I take my time to suggest gradual improvements, and avoid suggesting changing too much within a short space of time.’

Examining the difference between the examples of what you could say and what I don’t recommend you say

For the examples of what you could say notice that:

• the phrases are softened with a ‘sometimes’
• they are much longer; you can make them into more of a story
• they also give a strength (it’s fine even to start with a strength, but to give another side to the story, where you highlight an awareness of a weakness)
• it’s best not to use memorable phrases, such as ‘maverick’ or ‘suffer fools gladly’, keep it quite bland as you don’t want to be remembered for the wrong reasons!
• they show an awareness of this weakness and how you have addressed it.

Conclusion

I hope you’ve found it useful to think about how you could answer the weakness question. Just to say, many of the Careers Writers Association members are qualified careers advisers and can help you to prepare for an interview. Interviews are tough, especially if you haven’t had one for a while, so discussing the messages you want to get across, including the answer to the weakness question, can be really helpful.

© Lisa Stone