How to answer what is your greatest weakness? You must prepare this question when you are going for an interview. Most often employers ask this question to know more about you personally.
You can answer this question by saying my greatest weakness is that I talk too little, I do overwork myself, I am a shy person. To overcome my less talkative behavior I try to take part in activities that involve more communication and I also try to initiate small talks. When answering this question always state the steps you are taking to improve your weakness.
In this article, you will learn about the best way to answer the question of what is your biggest weakness.
How to Answer What is Your Greatest Weakness?
You prepared your best resume and also did your preparation for the interview. But when it comes to answering this question you have to be very careful. You should make sure that the answer will not affect the application. You have to be honest with your answer but positive at the same time and select good weaknesses to say in an interview.
You must focus on talking about the steps you take to improve your shortcoming.
Follow these steps to answer this question:
1. Do a self-analysis
You can perform a self-analysis by yourself. You can ask you’re the following questions:
- What challenges do you face regularly?
- What tasks do you find that you have to do again?
- What feedback do you get on these things?
2. Consider the position you are applying for
Your answer must be relevant and in alignment with the position you are applying for. You always wanted to show your employer that you have all the qualities required for the profile.
You can think of a particular skill that you want to improve and the steps you are taking to improve it. This will tell the employer that you are goal-oriented and interested in learning new things.
3. Make it actionable and put it in a positive light
After you share your weakness explain how you want to overcome it. You can turn this into an opportunity to become a more skilled person.
4. Avoid things
You should not say that “I have no weaknesses”. No one is perfect and the recruiter knows this. If you deny this question by saying so the recruiter will feel that you are over-confident or you are not self-aware.
5. Be honest
You should be honest with your answer. You don’t need to make it look like a scripted response. Think about your response and look at how it goes with your job profile and then provide a good answer.
Sample Answers for a Job Interview
1. Overworking
I keep on receiving new tasks even before finishing the old ones. This keeps me overworked and I could draw a line between my personal and professional life.
To overcome this weakness I started working on priority tasks and I felt calmer. I also take out time to enjoy my personal life so that when I get back to work I am fully recharged.
2. Public speaking
If it is not a requirement in your job role you can discuss this weakness. This is the most common weakness that people face while speaking publicly.
This is true for those people who think what people will think about them. For this, you can say that you want to work on this weakness by making and delivering presentations to your team member and then going above that.
This way you want to increase your confidence level while speaking publicly and overcome your weakness.
3. Asking for help
When you are at a new workplace you will require the help of others to understand many things. Sharing this weakness with the recruiter will make the recruiter aware of your problem of asking for favors.
You can tell that you start to realize that it is ok to ask for help to understand new skills and new tasks. I also understand that I always welcome people to help them and I accept the same from others. To overcome this I try to be more confident and ask for help whenever required.
4. Self-criticism
Self-criticism is a common problem but you can share if you have one. This shows that you care about a lot for your work and always trying to do more and more best. You can tell that you will learn from your feedback and don’t get more stuck with the things move on it next if it is the best.
Why did the Interviewer Ask About Your Weakness?
You must think about why employers ask about weaknesses. They do so to know more about you and how you will handle a situation. They can’t get a complete picture of you by only talking about your strengths.
When you answer this question about your weakness this will help the recruiter to know how well you know yourself. This will show how honest you are and how you are willing to work on your weaknesses.
Your answer is a part of your emotional intelligence. It will show the ability to handle your emotions and identify your motivations.
Conclusion
The answer to this question depends on many things. You should always check your profile before giving a response and it should be true to yourself and make sure it does not look like a scripted reply.
I hope the above-mentioned steps must help you to crack this question.
Over to You
Have you ever faced this question? How you gave a reply?
I would love to hear from you.