Hello everyone! Today’s question is: How do you approach questions that ask you to discuss your weaknesses?
Like many other people, I used to find this question a bit tricky, and it took me some time to find my way around it, but with time I developed a few ideas that helped me answer this question with confidence.
I think what the interviewer wants to know is that we can determine our weaknesses and take actions to work on them and develop personally and professionally.
Firstly, I think it is fundamental to select our weakness carefully and make sure it isn’t one of the core values of the firm/company. For example, teamwork. Teamwork is usually KEY for most positions. Therefore, even when I struggled with it sometimes, I decided to choose another weakness that gave me more room to demonstrate I was suited to the position.
Secondly, I found it helpful to convert a good quality into a weakness, BUT we have to be very careful. An example that worked for me is being ‘overenthusiastic’. You can name this how you want, but it is essentially getting too excited about helping others and getting involved in multiple activities simultaneously, which can impact your workload and performance. This is essentially bad time management, but I didn’t want to sound like I wasn’t able to juggle competing priorities. Instead, I wanted to demonstrate that I was too willing to help, which is good because it shows proactivity but can have negative consequences.
Thirdly, the best way to answer this question is to give an example of a real experience. It is also crucial to explain what you have done to improve!
Would love to hear what works for you guys!
.
