This question, as most of you know, is not a chance to confess your sins or deep personal truths, but an opportunity to share what is known in politically correct terms as an “area of development.”
You will often hear about these areas of development in performance reviews, so it is never a bad time to start thinking about weaknesses this way.
So, how do you put a positive spin on a negative quality?
Most job interview preparatory articles and recruiters seem to agree that you need to avoid dwelling on the negative. However, the intuitive response of many is to say they are a perfectionist or a workaholic. But an answer like that shows a lack of imagination, as most people see themselves as hard-working.
You should avoid personality-based traits and focus on professional skills which you can tell them you are actively working to develop. Talk about one of your weaknesses and what you are doing to overcome it. You should pick something and explain how you are actively working on developing this skill, preferably something that will be an asset to the organization in the future.
An example of this could be public speaking, prioritizing or comfort with change. Keep in mind, however, that you should not dwell on the negative and you need to convince the employer you are actively working to develop these skills.
Prior to an interview, actively assess both strengths and weaknesses. Look through the skill sets and personal assets required for the job, and then focus on the required skills for your strengths and think about other, less important areas to describe as your weaknesses.
I love how you suggested concentrating on a weak skill rather than a weak personality trait.
Explaining how you’re working to overcome or develop one of your weaker skills shows your employer that you are aware of a need for improvement and that you’re already actively taking charge.
I like how you recommend focusing on professional weaknesses rather than personal traits, but I have to question why bother with weaknesses at all?
Everyone has weaknesses and although I agree it’s helpful to know what they are, I don’t necessarily agree on focusing to overcome them.
If ‘weak’ implies skills that are not yet developed because you’ve never tried to develop them, then absolutely build on them. But if by ‘weak’ you mean underdeveloped because you’re just bad at them or have no interest in them then why waste time focusing on strengthening weak skills when you could be focusing on perfecting strong skills?
Isn’t it better to be great at something than good at everything? I would personally rather be great at something and outsource my weaknesses, after all – Isn’t that what teams are for?
For the sake of an interview however, if the awkward ‘weakness’ question does come up, then I totally agree with putting a positive spin on a negative quality.
Thanks for your comments
Marisa – I’m glad it helps to put it in that perspective. That’s the way I used to look at it
Sophie – I think the interpretation of the word weakness is interesting. At my old company we always talked about “areas of development” and how you are always working to improve yourself and your skills. Therefore you are constantly developing yourself and learning more.
I agree with you in a way – for example, I can write but I couldn’t draw you a picture if my life depended on it. This does not mean that I’m going to invest hours of my life into perfecting art skills when I could be improving my writing.
But there will be aspects of future roles that you may hold professionally that will not be as strong as others. I spent a great deal of time learning soft skills such as how to respect my managers time and how to present information at a meeting. These were valuable for me to learn and critical in my future success at the company. So these are the types of weaknesses/areas of development that companies are interested in. The ones that matter for what you’re trying to accomplish.
That said, to your point you cannot be perfect at everything and at some point you just have to let weaknesses be weaknesses. And the strength in working in a team means that everyone will bring a different strength to the table which will complement the weaknesses of others. At a certain point in the process I did get tired of people telling me what I need to work on. It is a very interesting question you raise – thanks for the comment!