If you ever have made a mistake at work or discovered areas where you need to develop strengths, then you probably can relate to the anxiety that most people feel during a job interview.
It’s generally not their weaknesses that keep job candidates from getting job offers; it’s the way they present their past mistakes during the interview.
One of the questions job candidates dread most is the one about their weaknesses. Even more important, what job seekers may think of as an employment barrier such as a job loss or a failed business venture, may not be what an employer thinks of as failure.
You shouldn’t admit mistakes without indicating what you have learned from them, because that omission leaves the interviewer guessing. Everyone has made mistakes at some point in their career, and learning how to leverage your mistakes into areas of growth is a plus for you rather than a disadvantage.
The strategy behind the “weakness” question hasn’t changed over the years, but the way it is asked has evolved. Rather than coming right out and asking about your weaknesses, interviewers now disguise the question by asking about mistakes, failures, or concerns you may have about the job. Hiring decision-makers know that most job candidates will do their best to avoid talking about their weaknesses, but they also know that the way a candidate answers the question can be revealing.
For example, weakness questions can be a double-edged sword. Denying you have areas of weakness can indicate you are less than forthcoming. On the other hand, describing areas in detail without offering what you learned from those experiences can send a less-than-confident message to an employer.
So how do you handle questions about your weaknesses?
The best way is by balancing your answers with lessons you learned and examples of how you are using the information or skills today to make you a stronger contributor. Being genuine with your answers goes a long way towards overcoming areas of concern.
One of the greatest challenges to answering this kind of question is knowing when to stop talking. Talking about mistakes is not confession time where you tell your life story, rather it’s a time to talk about what you have learned.
A human resource manager once described an applicant who had the right set of skills and experience necessary for the position. In fact, they were very interested in the applicant. All was going well for the first 30 minutes of the interview, until the job candidate was asked to talk about a time in which they felt they had made a mistake. The candidate began talking about the situation in detail and how they wanted to avoid future incidents. The candidate blamed another coworker, too.
The human resource manager left the interview with the words “blame” and “avoidance” on his mind, while the job candidate left hoping the interviewer was convinced it was not their fault. The main reason the candidate was not considered for the position was his inability to explain what he learned from incident.
Here are some suggestions for successfully answering the weakness question:
• Take the time to think about a situation in which you made a mistake and what you learned. Think about how this situation has added to your experience. How has it made you a stronger candidate? Then write your answer down, and practice saying it.
• What matters to an employer is how you have dealt with mistakes and how confident you are in learning from them. They are interested in candidates who have skills to offer, not what has stalled your career or kept you from being successful.
• Employers are looking candidates who have a measure of self-insight and can verbalize their willingness to learn.
• Consider balancing your missteps with your willingness to learn and improve. For example, “In the past I underestimated the significance of (fill in the blank) and have taken training classes to improve (the area).”
• Give employers reasons to believe in your desire, abilities to overcome areas of weaknesses.
• Be concise with your answers and practice until you can respond confidently. If you don’t believe your answers, neither will the employer.
What questions about your weaknesses have given you the most trouble?
