Have you ever received that question in an interview? First, let me apologize. Most of us in HR who ask this question don’t even know what we’re asking, why we’re asking or what we’re supposed to get out of this question. Furthermore, candidates are usually so poorly prepared for this question that it usually defeats the purpose of asking it in the first place.
I know all of the cool people in HR think the question is bogus. They have a point but there are thousands of bogus questions getting asked daily that we never address. If you aren’t preparing yourself for this stupid question, than you aren’t preparing yourself for the other stupid questions that will come your way. It is easily one of the more common questions still asked today.
Here’s what I’ve figured out from asking this question (or being in interviews where this question is asked): If you answered the question quickly, you are either well rehearsed or you are extremely self-aware. If you can’t answer the question quickly or you give me some bullshit response, you’re either ill-prepared, not at all self-aware or a liar. Well, you’re probably all liars when it comes to this question which is why I don’t ask the question much.
Even if you don’t choose to give me a straight answer on this question, your glaring deficiencies should be on the top of your mind. No matter how good you become at anything, your weaknesses will hold you back. If you are the best salesperson in the company yet you neglect your spouse, it will hold you back. If you are the best number cruncher in the government but you can’t speak to other people without stuttering, it will hold you back. If you are a great speaker but you can’t ever execute a plan, it will hold you back.
When important people in your organization are talking about you, they are using “but” statements. “He’s a great welder but he can’t get along with people.” “She’s a great CEO but she is a liability with the press.” Those “but” statements point to your perceived weakness.
My weaknesses are pretty simple ones:
- Impatient – If you tell me I can’t do something now, I either figure out a way around you or I lose interest in it completely. Getting married has helped this immensely but I am sure my wife would say it still needs improvement.
- Lacking detail orientation – Terrible weakness for a HR person in the current legal climate right? Absolutely. At my first job, I said I was good on detail orientation and simply made it happen. Yes, I have to work twice as hard on it but I can make the big picture stuff happen more quickly to make up for it.
- Laid back - I couldn’t ever say this in an interview (because it would sound like BS) but my laid back attitude has definitely impacted my career negatively. Being approachable helps in HR but it is a pain when it is time to lay down the law and people don’t understand why the attitude has disappeared.
What I can say is that working on all three of these has made me not only a better employee but a better person. Which, you know, sounds corny.
Some people have advocated just focusing on your strengths and letting them compensate for your weaknesses. Unless you are wildly successful (like top 0.01%), focusing on your strengths to compensate for your weaknesses isn’t going to get you anywhere. Maintain (or slowly build your strengths) and focus your energy on your deficiencies instead.
What’s your greatest weakness and what are you doing to improve it?
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Lance, you’re a nice guy
but you don’t know anything about meatand you know everything about meat!When asked that question in an interview, I always answer that my weaknesses are redheads, ice cream, and a well-poured pint of ale.
Oh, you wanted a work-related answer?
I suppose my greatest weakness is that I like to enjoy my time at work, and I’ll sometimes answer a question with a non-sequitur response, because I like to make people think twice.
Of course, there’s a fair number of people that would feel it’s inappropriate to talk about beer and ice cream as a weakness in a job interview, or who would assume that I’m not taking them or their opportunity seriously as a professional. That interpretation couldn’t be farther from the truth!
I made the joke because I feel comfortable here, and I feel that I’m able to be myself. My sense of humour comes with me, and it’s a part of who I am that I wouldn’t trade for anything. I’ve learned over the years that I have to keep the jokes relevant and appropriate, and I felt that an example of my weakness would be a great way to answer your question.
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How did I do? Too rehearsed?
I think the reason this question doesn’t work is that the interviewee doesn’t trust the interviewer with transparency on this topic – and they shouldn’t. A frank discussion about weaknesses can do wonders for an employment relationship, but they’re not in one of those. The question is simply out of sync with the power relationship that exists during an interview.
Personally I would tend to go out on a limb and be transparent about my weaknesses, because I’d be more concerned with the long-term satisfaction of both parties than with the immediate outcome of the interview. If they see my very real weaknesses as a big problem, this may not be the job for me. It’s much better to know that now. But that tendency wouldn’t hold in all economic circumstances! I liked the suggestion in the punkrockhr comments about framing the question in terms of what weaknesses might come up during reference checks. That should give you a seed of truth that can form the basis for more revealing questions.
My greatest weakness is avoiding people-management tasks because I just dislike doing them. I have decided that direct improvement is not what I desire – I prefer to migrate my career away from the need to directly manage a group of people on a daily basis. There’s a fine line between perseverance and self-abuse, and I don’t need to toe it. I am valuable in plenty of other ways.
I know everyone in HR will hate me for saying this, but there is actually compelling evidence that all forms of job interviews are pretty much useless in determining how well the candidate will perform as an employee. Seeing as you say that many questions HR asks are not useful, I’m curious to hear your thoughts on what questions are useful.
@Laurie – Thanks! haha
@Rob – It is a little convoluted. I know some managers who would love it and it would be a hit. Others would think you’re trying to be cute. Really, is your strategy to appeal to a broader audience or make a connection to one at the expense of another?
@Ethan – Yeah, I think that technique works as well as any. Then it isn’t about what you think you’re bad at, it is what your supervisors gave you feedback on. It feels like you can justify it more. BTW, I think you’re a fine people manager but I can understand why you don’t like it.
@Monica – Not everyone but certainly those who believe that the interview is more of a dog and pony show (let’s see if you can jump through these sets of hoops successfully) than a chance to truly get answers to your most pressing needs are going to disagree.
This is probably worth an individual post but a good interviewee can really do their homework and figure out what you need and perform for an hour or four in an interview.
The only questions I’ve found useful enough to cut through that is to talk about tangible experiences and results. You tell me what you’ve done and how you’ve done it and we decide whether that fits close enough with what we want to do and how we want to do it. So if I am the interviewee, I’ve worked in food and retail, government, Fortune 50 and small businesses. I’ve done stuff there. I want to tell you about. The interviewer needs to get that information from me.
What about: “I tend to be a workaholic, which is a weakness because it can obviously affect my work-life balance.” This turns a “weakness” into something that can be viewed as beneficial to the employer, and it happens to be true, even though it sounds like total bull. May not be the most ideal answer, but I’ve used it several times with success and I think Lance is right – interviewers expect a bit of bull, especially with questions like this.
I’ve had to face this question before and I said that sometimes, in the heat of a deadline looming, that I can give off an “all business” attitude that can come across as gruff or abrasive but that I’ve learned to recognize this after the deadline has passed and task has been accomplished and make it a point to circle back with anyone whom I may have interacted with in that way with an apology and explanation of the situation. A recruiter pushed me to come up with an answer to this question and she kept pushing the idea that you want to present a negative but turn it into a positive.
I am one who relies on this question in my interview. Basically if you open your mouth and say anything except “My weakness is that I have no weaknesses” you most likely aren’t going to meet with me again!
I use it more for a laugh then anything else, but it’s incredible at getting some things out of candidates. Word of advice, don’t give it to any Gen Y interviewing for a junior or entry level position – there simply isn’t enough time in the day to hear their response!
Great piece!
I think a better question I was asked in an interview was to rank the 5 skills they gave me from best to worst. They said ” of course the last doesn’t mean you are bad at it, just that not as great as the first”. Uh huh. So they ended up finding my weakness without asking it directly.
great post- we should all ask ourselves what our weaknesses are and try to turn them into strengths (even when we aren’t preparing for an interview)
I forgot to tell you that my greatest weakness is being a stalker. Also, I just wanted to test to see if my new site links to this website. It does! Hooray! Thank you.
Also, you’re awesome. (That’s another test.)
Some candidates will be well versed in their responses.
‘Oh my weakness I hate it when I do not get the job done perfectly’ or
‘My development area, knowing when to stop work and go home!’
Great to turn a positive into a negative, but show me the evidence of the behaviour!
As for myself I don’t have any weaknesses, I have ‘development areas’!
As a hiring manager, this is one of my favorite interview questions. It’s a test of self-awareness and how the interviewee has addressed that weakness.
I wrote a blog post on how candidates might answer this question, using lessons from a recent interview between Katie Couric and President Obama: http://blog.seattleinterviewcoach.com/2009/01/ace-your-job-interview-questions-like.html
I say that my greatest weakness is that I’m a workaholic and have a hard time leaving the office at night. LOL!
Another weakness is that I have a lot of initiative. This makes it hard for some managers to manage me because I’m always trying to think outside the box and if they are in the box, well you get the picture.
I usually don’t bother with behavioral questions, but my favorite is: “Did you watch the Celtics?”
Yep, I was asked this one yesterday.
I handled it by saying that I COULD give them a canned standard answer, but that I prefer to be upfront. Then I went on to say that the flip side of my analytical abilities is a tendency to go too in depth, to drill down a couple of levels beyond what is in the best interests of productivity in my quest to cover all bases, but that I am aware of it and work to balance it. The interview panel seemed to receive it well
Q. biggest weakness?
A. I’ll give you 2 but the first is your typical canned answer: I enjoy cross dressing from time to time.
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