17/03/2023
Nobody likes talking about their weaknesses and you do have to walk a line. If you are too open, it may be used against you as a reason not to hire you, but if you fail to acknowledge any weakness, it demonstrates a lack of self awareness and can also result in you getting rejected so I’m going to give you some ideas on how to handle these questions.
There are two ways to approach this. The first is to just be totally open, this is absolutely my preferred approach. If I’m interviewing and someone tells me their REAL relative weaknesses, I just get right behind them. Nothing beats authenticity and self awareness. If those weaknesses mean that they are likely to fail in the job, then clearly they are in the wrong place and I can help that job seeker to steer themselves in a different direction, this is the entire point of the interview.
If you are taking this track, remember, you don’t have a ‘weakness’ you simply have certain things that you will have to work harder to overcome. Try using language like
“I have to put more focus on X”
“Because X is something that doesn’t come as naturally to me as Y, I worked hard to learn to be better at X and if anything I over compensate”.
“If I thought that it was going to hold me back from being successful in this job I wouldn’t be here.”
Remember, a relative weakness is simply something that has to be met and overcome.
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