{"id":147,"date":"2017-11-13T09:59:11","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T09:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.icomputinglabs.in\/blog\/?p=147"},"modified":"2017-11-13T09:59:11","modified_gmt":"2017-11-13T09:59:11","slug":"answer-greatest-weaknesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icomputinglabs.in\/blog\/answer-greatest-weaknesses\/","title":{"rendered":"How do you answer: \u201cWhat are your greatest weaknesses?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cTell me about your greatest weakness\u201d is one interview question which is capable of \u00a0throwing off guard 90% of the candidates. Why do you think the \u201cweakness\u201d question presents such a problem to the candidates? It is primarily because you are being judged in an interview setting and it feels like \u00a0you are indirectly asked <\/span>\u201cUltimately, why <\/span>shouldn\u2019t <\/span><\/i>you get this job?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A lot of times candidates use generic answers like, \u201cI\u2019m a perfectionist!\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m just a type-A person\u201d. But the problem with these responses is that they don\u2019t sound very authentic. It\u2019s basically saying you\u2019re the perfect human\u2014and there\u2019s no such thing. The worst would be either \u00a0by saying you don\u2019t know, or that you don\u2019t have a weakness. Both scenarios are bad. <\/span><\/p>\n

Employers ask these questions to get a sense of how well you know yourself. They also ask these to see if you know how to improve on your weaknesses. There are a number of ways you can answer these questions. The most important things to remember when answering questions about weaknesses are to remain positive, focus on solutions, and be honest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why remain positive?<\/b><\/p>\n

It is because you have to prove that whatever weaknesses you have or challenges you face, they will not hinder (and may even help) your ability to do your job. One way to remain positive is to simply avoid negative words like \u201cweak,\u201d \u201cweakness,\u201d and \u201cfailure\u201d in your answers. You might also emphasise how the skill or quality you struggle with is either unimportant to the job, or even a positive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why focus on solutions?<\/b><\/p>\n

Instead of focussing on \u00a0the weakness \u00a0you have, talk about what steps you \u00a0are taking to overcome these. This makes you sound a positive person. One who is aware of his\/her shortcomings and is willing \u00a0to improve it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Why honesty is always the best policy?<\/b><\/p>\n

While you should remain positive, you also want to be honest. Do not pretend you have a weakness that you do not, or say you have no weaknesses. Interviewers appreciate truthful answers. Before answering, think carefully about your past work experience and the skills you have developed or would like to continue to develop.<\/span><\/p>\n

After all, it\u2019s hard to talk about your flaws in an interview without making yourself sound like a horrible candidate. You don\u2019t want to raise any major red flags with your interviewer, but you also don\u2019t want to talk about how you\u2019re \u201ctoo perfect\u201d. But there is a way to strike a balance, showing your interviewer that you\u2019re aware of your flaws and\u2014better yet\u2014working to improve them.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cTell me about your greatest weakness\u201d is one interview question which is capable of \u00a0throwing off guard 90% of the candidates. Why do you think the \u201cweakness\u201d question presents such a problem to the candidates? It is primarily because you are being judged in an interview setting and it feels like \u00a0you are indirectly asked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":148,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8,6],"tags":[9,25,12,4],"class_list":["post-147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-job-interview","category-learning","category-preparation","tag-communication-skills","tag-confidence","tag-conversation","tag-preparation","grid-item","grid-item-landscape"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icomputinglabs.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icomputinglabs.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icomputinglabs.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icomputinglabs.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icomputinglabs.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.icomputinglabs.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149,"href":"https:\/\/www.icomputinglabs.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions\/149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icomputinglabs.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icomputinglabs.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icomputinglabs.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icomputinglabs.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}