3 Ways to Answer “What’s Your Biggest Weakness?”

3 Ways to Answer “What’s Your Biggest Weakness?”

 

When you’re asked “what’s your greatest strength?” in an interview, you’ve got it covered: You showcase your professional skills and talk about how there’s no one better suited for the job. But, “what’s your biggest weakness?” That question can be much tougher to answer.

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But it’s not a trick question. What your interviewer is really trying to do—beyond identifying any red flags—is to gauge your self-awareness and honesty. So, “I can’t meet a deadline to save my life” is not an option—but neither is “Nothing! I’m perfect!” A good answer can show how you can overcome challenges, paint you as a committed professional who continues to improve herself, and actually highlight your strengths.

Here are three strategies to ensure that talking about your weakness won’t be the weak spot in your next interview.

1. Show How You’ve Overcome Something

Everyone has areas that could use improvement, but if you can describe how you’ve mitigated yours, you’ll seem strong, capable, and in charge of your professional development. So, think of something that you struggle with but that you’re working to improve. You could explain that you’ve never been strong at public speaking, but over the past few years, you’ve asked for team leadership roles, run successfully meetings, and found tools to help you be more comfortable when addressing a crowd.

Another smart tactic is to describe something that was once a weakness, but that you now can point to as an accomplishment. For example, “I’ve always had to work at math. But I took a course in Excel, and that’s helped me tackle quantitative analysis projects much more easily. In fact, let me show you a report I recently developed.”

2. Address Uncertainties in Your Background

If your background doesn’t completely match up with the requirements in the job description, or if you know that the employer has hesitations about parts of your experience, this question is a great time to address those uncertainties.

You can talk about something she already knows is a hurdle, but at the same time, turn it around to highlight your strong points. For example: “It might seem that my biggest weakness in applying for this position is that I don’t have any inside sales experience. But the skills I’ve gained during my five years of fundraising are incredibly relevant to the position—let me tell you why.”

3. Paint a Weakness as a Strength

Choose a shortcoming that can be explained in the most positive light possible. Are you neurotic, stubborn, or incapable of delegating? Instead, try using words that are seen as professional strengths, like dedicated, persistent, or thorough. For example: “I tend to be a perfectionist, so sometimes I have a hard time letting a project leave my hands until it’s absolutely finalized.” This answer addresses an area you need to improve, but explains it in a positive way.

Just be sure to follow it up with how you’ve addressed this “shortcoming,” such as: “But I’ve found that sometimes it’s more effective to get feedback on a project along the way, even if it is not yet complete. I try to strike a balance between getting things done right the first time and being open to others’ input.”

Whatever strategy you choose, the trick is to sound genuine and to end things on a positive note. Rehearse your response so that you can give it easily, and more importantly, concisely—if you spend too much time talking about your flaws, it’s easy to dig yourself into a hole. Get past the “weakness” part of your answer as quickly as possible, so you can get back what’s most important: your (many!) strengths.

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What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses ?

What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses ?

 

•  Strengths
•  Trabs
•  Best Answer
• Weeknesses
• Trabs
• Possible Answer
• Example 1
• Drawback
• Example 2
• Example 3

Strengths

Trabs :

This question seems like a softball lob, but be prepared. You don't want to come across as egotistical or arrogant. Neither is this a time to be humble.

Best Answer: 

You know that your key strategy is to first uncover your interviewer's greatest wants and needs before you answer questions. And from Question 1, you know how to do this.

Prior to any interview, you should have a list mentally prepared of your greatest strengths. You should also have, a specific example or two, which illustrates each strength, an example chosen from your most recent and most impressive achievements.

You should, have this list of your greatest strengths and corresponding examples from your achievements so well committed to memory that you can recite them cold after being shaken awake at 2:30AM.

Then, once you uncover your interviewer's greatest wants and needs, you can choose those achievements from your list that best match up.

As a general guideline, the 10 most desirable traits that all employers love to see in their employees are:

1. A proven track record as an achiever...especially if your achievements match up with the employer's greatest wants and needs.
2. Intelligence...management "savvy".
3. Honesty...integrity...a decent human being.
4. Good fit with corporate culture...someone to feel comfortable with...a team player who meshes well with interviewer's team.
5. Likeability...positive attitude...sense of humor.
6. Good communication skills.
7. Dedication...willingness to walk the extra mile to achieve excellence.
8. Definiteness of purpose...clear goals.
9. Enthusiasm...high level of motivation.
10. Confident...healthy...a leader. 

 

Weaknesses

Trabs: Beware - this is an eliminator question, designed to shorten the candidate list. Any admission of a weakness or fault will earn you an “A” for honesty, but an “F” for the interview.

PASSABLE ANSWER: Disguise a strength as a weakness.

Example 1: “I sometimes push my people too hard. I like to work with a sense of urgency and everyone is not always on the same wavelength.”

Drawback : This strategy is better than admitting a flaw, but it's so widely used, it is transparent to any experienced interviewer.

BEST ANSWER: (and another reason it's so important to get a thorough description of your interviewer's needs before you answer questions): Assure the interviewer that you can think of nothing that would stand in the way of your performing in this position with excellence. Then, quickly review you strongest qualifications.

Example 2: “Nobody's perfect, but based on what you've told me about this position, I believe I' d make an outstanding match. I know that when I hire people, I look for two things most of all. Do they have the qualifications to do the job well, and the motivation to do it well? Everything in my background shows I have both the qualifications and a strong desire to achieve excellence in whatever I take on. So I can say in all honesty that I see nothing that would cause you even a small concern about my ability or my strong desire to perform this job with excellence.”

Alternate strategy : (if you don't yet know enough about the position to talk about such a perfect fit):
Instead of confessing a weakness, describe what you like most and like least, making sure that what you like most matches up with the most important qualification for success in the position, and what you like least is not essential.

Example 3: Let's say you're applying for a teaching position. “If given a choice, I like to spend as much time as possible in front of my prospects selling, as opposed to shuffling paperwork back at the office. Of course, I long ago learned the importance of filing paperwork properly, and I do it conscientiously. But what I really love to do is sell (if your interviewer were a sales manager, this should be music to his ears.)

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Tell us something about yourself

Tell us something about yourself

• Introduction
• Trabs
• Best Answer

Introduction :

This is the first question, you can expect during any interview you face. This usually is a question to start the communication and set the ball rolling for the interview. You can answer this question by providing some information about your work experience, technologies you have worked upon, educational qualifications. If you are a fresh graduate, you can provide some information about your family also.

Since this is often the opening question in an interview, be extra careful that you don’t run off at the mouth. Keep your answer to a minute or two at most. Cover four topics: early years, education, work history, and recent career experience. Emphasize this last subject. Remember that this is likely to be a warm-up question. Don’t waste your best points on it.

The trick is to put the full stop at the right place to provoke the next question you want. For e.g. “Recently I developed a website using Drupal. It was quite an interesting but challenging job which I enjoyed”

Trabs:

Beware, about 80% of all interviews begin with this “innocent” question. Many candidates, unprepared for the question, skewer themselves by rambling, recapping their life story, delving into ancient work history or personal matters.

Best Answer:

Start with the present and tell why you are well qualified for the position. Remember that the key to all successful interviewing is to match your qualifications to what the interviewer is looking for. In other words you must sell what the buyer is buying. This is the single most important strategy in job hunting.

So, before you answer this or any question it's imperative that you try to uncover your interviewer's greatest need, want, problem or goal.

To do so, make you take these two steps:

1. Do all the homework you can before the interview to uncover this person's wants and needs (not the generalized needs of the industry or company)
2. As early as you can in the interview, ask for a more complete description of what the position entails. You might say: “I have a number of accomplishments I'd like to tell you about, but I want to make the best use of our time together and talk directly to your needs. To help me do, that, could you tell me more about the most important priorities of this position? All I know is what I (heard from the recruiter, read in the classified ad, etc.)”Then, ALWAYS follow-up with a second and possibly, third question, to draw out his needs even more. Surprisingly, it's usually this second or third question that unearths what the interviewer is most looking for.

You might ask simply, "And in addition to that?..." or, "Is there anything else you see as essential to success in this position?

This process will not feel easy or natural at first, because it is easier simply to answer questions, but only if you uncover the employer's wants and needs will your answers make the most sense. Practice asking these key questions before giving your answers, the process will feel more natural and you will be light years ahead of the other job candidates you're competing with.

After uncovering what the employer is looking for, describe why the needs of this job bear striking parallels to tasks you've succeeded at before. Be sure to illustrate with specific examples of your responsibilities and especially your achievements, all of which are geared to present yourself as a perfect match for the needs he has just described.

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Nunchuk Supreme

Nunchuk Supreme

Nunchuk Supreme is a powerful weapon that can be used to disable an unlimited number of assailants. To graduate from the Mangan Kung Fu Academy, one has to master the use of the Nunchuk Supreme. Think of it as a very long stick. 

The Nunchuk is thrown at the assailants and rotates in the air as it is thrown. It will strike an assailant, disable him/her and then using this person as a pivot, rotate about them and strike a second person and then rotate about the second person until it strikes a third person and rotates about them and so on until all of the assailants have been dealt with. Being disabled from fighting does not prevent being struck again by the Nunchuk and causing a change in the pivot of rotation. 

Think of assailants as fixed points in the plane; is it always possible to choose a first assailant to strike, so that if no three assailants are collinear and the Nunchuck is long enough, then all assailants will be struck down? 

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Einstein's Riddle

Einstein's Riddle

ALBERT EINSTEIN'S RIDDLE ARE YOU IN THE TOP 2% OF INTELLIGENT PEOPLE IN THE WORLD? SOLVE THE RIDDLE AND FIND OUT.


There are no tricks, just pure logic, so good luck and don't give up.

1. In a street there are five houses, painted five different colors.

2. In each house lives a person of different nationality

3. These five homeowners each drink a different kind of beverage, smoke different brand of cigar and keep a different pet.  

THE QUESTION: WHO OWNS THE FISH?

HINTS

   1. The British man lives in a red house.
   2. The Swedish man keeps dogs as pets.
   3. The Danish man drinks tea.
   4. The Green house is next to, and on the left of the White house.
   5. The owner of the Green house drinks coffee.
   6. The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
   7. The owner of the Yellow house smokes Dunhill.
   8. The man living in the center house drinks milk.
   9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
   10. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
   11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
   12. The man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
   13. The German smokes Prince.
   14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
   15. The Blends smoker lives next to the one who drinks water.

ALBERT EINSTEIN WROTE THIS RIDDLE EARLY DURING THE 19th CENTURY. HE SAID THAT 98% OF THE WORLD POPULATION WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO SOLVE IT.  

Feel free to comment your answers and share to your friends.

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Image Puzzle Find the Cat

Image Puzzle Find the Cat - i.

Find Cat - Image puzzle

There is a cat hidden in the above image. Try to find out. Feel free to comment.

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Chasing Dogs Puzzle :

Puzzle :

There are four dogs each at the corner of a unit square. Each of the dogs starts chasing the dog in the clockwise direction. They all run at the same speed and continuously change their direction accordingly so that they are always heading straight towards the other dog. How long does it take for the dogs to catch each other and where?

Have a better solution? Let us know through the comments section!

Liked this question? Post this on Stumble, Twitter or Digg!

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