What is your weakness?

What is your weakness is a simple question but has a lot of significance. This question has to be answered well and by this the employer guages your temperament. So, prepare well to make it your strength during the interview.

What is your weakness? This seemingly simple question is the clincher; a strong weapon in the HR personnel’s arsenal, posing dilemma and trouble to most interviewees. Very frankly, if you are honest, you might lose the job opportunity but you can’t lie either… So what do you do? Giving an oft-said answer seems phony and fake. When you say, “I’m a perfectionist and I go to the minute details…” you make the interviewer comprehend that you are slow. Stating you don’t have any weakness is being ego-maniacal. So how do you tackle it?

“It’s a tricky question." Some belonging to the old school suggest stating a fault which isn’t really one on deep insight. Some say, state a weakness and link it to a reprehensible fault displayed by someone else, i.e, “I’m impatient when my team doesn't take initiative, or don’t owe up.”However, a weakness in reality is the flip side of a strength taken too far. Good selling is talking a lot, being realistic is being uncreative, etc. So, how do you talk about weaknesses when you're trying to sell yourself simultaneously?

Strengths and weaknesses are situational and are actually entwined. So, study your environment and use your skills to answer this. Nobody’s perfect at everything and every employer knows that too. If you're not comfortable stating a real weakness, state something that has nothing to do with the job. If I were to answer it, I would say, "I'm bad at math”, as math has nothing to do with my writing career and that’s an honest answer too. You can also state a real weakness, and talk about the rectifiable measures taken by you but don't open a can of worms by talking people issues bluntly. Here are some tips to assist you in framing the answer:

If you're a match for the job, the employer wants to reiterate that. Your goal is to land in a position where you'll thrive and being honest helps then. So, come clean on a weakness, thinking hard about your past work struggles, what your managers had suggested, etc.
While stating weakness, answer with things you "are working upon to improve".
Don't use the clichéd means of presenting strength as weakness like stating you’re a workaholic. Best is to name a true weakness of modest size, i.e. I had trouble in organising things, but now, I write down a list of things to do and maintain a diary to track deadlines and the small things. It has helped me to finish things on time and be organised.
Always choose one weakness that will not disqualify you from the job citing examples of what you are doing to fix them. Make it evident that you learn from your mistakes.

This thought-provoking question can actually open the door for further discussion. It helps in probing a strong, dominant personality and helps in matching as well as understanding his/her weakness vis-a-vis the strengths. This question is also a measure of a candidate’s diplomacy quotient. Your aim is not to get any job but to secure the right one. And this question would inevitably pop up during interview. So, prepare carefully having a balanced approach and you'll shine in the interview. Prepare well and make the weakness your strength.

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