Interview weakness question AIBU

[Pombearsandnaiceham]

Have an interview coming up and just thinking about what kind of answer to use for 'what is your biggest weakness'.

The particular role that I'm applying is entry-level. It places quite a bit emphasis on teamwork, so I'm just wondering whether I should use a quality like leadership as a weakness?

So perhaps I could say something like 'Although I have some leadership experience, I need to work on my leadership skills'?

I agree with pp that the 'faux-weakness' eggs classic example if being a perfectionist etc is too obvious and I think it could well look insincere and count against you. I've been a SAHM fur a few years and just starting to think about applying for jobs and have decided to go down the very honest route - there's jobs I wouldn't apply for because I'd hate certain aspects of them so I'd say that is my weakness. Eg for me: public speaking. I've always been terrible at it therefore wouldn't apply for a job that necessitated it, therefore would be happy to state that as a weakness in my interview.

I'd always be tempted to say cake

My friend was on an interview panel recently and this was one of the questions asked. One candidate replied "I eat too much chocolate. I really need to cut down." This was completely unrelated to the job!

I wanted to say Custard Creams when I was asked. I can't remember what I said, but I nearly laughed when I heard it.

As an interviewer, I absolutely loathe the twee, try-hard made-up-sounding "but I'm working on this in x, y, z" ways. It's what they used to tell us to say in secondary school careers advice and sounds about as sophisticated! There might be better ways to phrase it, but this usually makes me cringe.

As an interviewee I take the tack the OP suggested: a real weakness but one that isn't a problem for the job. So I say I'm not a natural leader - which I'm not, and make damn sure the jobs I apply for don't need me to be.

Once when I was asked this in an interview (about 10 years ago) I answered 'ooh definitely hockey' 🙈
I have absolutely no clue why it came into my head.
The interviewers just laughed and moved on to the next question whilst I died inside

If interviewers are fed up of the bullshit answers maybe they should stop asking bullshit questions?

I agree with pp that it's a really outdated question and my organisation doesn't use it. We do ask what skills the candidate is looking to develop as part of the job.

Don't give the answer you suggested, OP - breaking up tasks into manageable chunks doesn't address your problem with being self-critical. Lots of other good examples on this thread though.