Urgent Question- interview in an hour!

[sylvm]

I've heard one of the questions people sometimes get asked is "what are your weaknesses". What is the right thing to say? This is for an admin position in a school by the way.

chocolate

I think I'd for something you're very unlikely to have to do e.g. "I'm not very good at chairing meetings" or something like that. Tricky question!

I always say something along the lines of "I am a bit of a perfectionist, which is sometimes a weakness as I find it hard to stop until it is done how I like it "
Not at all the truth! but hey-ho!!

I have also said before now, that being a bit forgetful was a weakness but it was ok because I always write everything down...(I was trying to make my weakness not look that weak!)

Good luck though

You can say a weakness but then immediately talk about what you've done to compensate for it - eg my memory is poor so I'm very carefull to keep an up to date job list.

Good luck

Assessing Your Weaknesses

Probably the most dreaded part of the question. Everyone has weaknesses, but who wants to admit to them, especially in an interview?

The best way to handle this question is to minimize the trait and emphasize the positive. Select a trait and come up with a solution to overcome your weakness. Stay away from personal qualities and concentrate more on professional traits. For example:

"I pride myself on being a 'big picture' guy. I have to admit I sometimes miss small details, but I always make sure I have someone who is detail-oriented on my team."

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• You should answer with things you "are improving upon". Example: I believe I should always be improving upon myself, good or bad. You are answering the dreaded question without looking like an egotistical maniac, and showing the interviewer that you see yourself as a work in progress, trying to better all of your qualities.

• For your weakness, just pick one that is not going to disqualify you from the job, and then follow up with this what really matters the examples of what you are doing (or have done) to fix your weakness. The most important point here is to show that you learn from your mistakes and your weakness, and you are taking the corrective action to fix the situation -- and stress that! For example, if the job does not require public speaking, you can say that your weakness is you are afraid of speaking in front of the public. Then tell the interviewers that you have joined a Toastmaster club or public speech course to overcome the problem. Remind them that when you identify a problem, you actively take actions to correct it, and that is how you do things.

• Don't try to use a cliche or try to present a strength as a weakness by saying your weakness is that you are a workaholic. No one will believe that answer. Being too emotional will make the recruiter wonder if your interpersonal skills are lacking. Give a true weakness but one of modest size. Shows that you have taken steps to correct the weakness. For example you want to improve your MS Excel skills so you are taking a course on that now.

• I used to have trouble with procrastinating, now I have learned to write down a list of things that I need to do, and keep a calender to keep track of deadlines, I have found that this not only helps me to finish things on time, but it has also helped me to be more organized.

• A weakness of mine would be the fact that I get nervous when speaking in front of groups. I haven't had a lot of experience with this over the past several years. Although I did join Toastmasters International to help overcome this anxiety -- and feel much more confident today when I need to speak in front of groups and give presentations.

• I'm little egoistic when it comes to winning things and get a little ruthless too.

• Lose patience sometimes when I am not in a position to complete the assigned job in time.

• I have to work on having more patience and giving myself a break because I always want everything done at once.

• Tend to go to any limits while helping my friends.

• I am too focused on my work and I need to find more time to relax.

• I'm too focused on work and need to develop some after hours hobbies.

And examples of combination strength-weakness answers:

• I'm a workaholic person and love to dedicate myself to the work I'm doing. But at the same time I forget to keep a balance between other things which I'm trying to improve on.

• Take whatever is your best quality and also describe it as your worst. It often is, as we are all made up like two sides of a coin. Try it out with different qualities and accomplishments and see how it works. For example ... The best thing about me is that I am able to see the big picture in a situation. The worst thing about me is that I can see the big picture in a situation. This is the best thing because I can remove myself from the emotion of a decision that needs to be made and act accordingly. It is a bad thing because I often can see the conclusion quicker than the other participants in a project and that can cause frustration sometimes amongst them.

Any help?

Lucybug- snap, what i always say LOL

Thanks guys - chocolate made me smile red - cos it certainly is - not quite the answer I need though!

The perfectionist comment is so overused these days as tyo be a cliche. Many recruiters treat that response as a bit lazy. You could soften it by saying something like "I don't like to let people down" and then burble on about how that sometimes means you take on too much and have to be careful to priortise your workload carefully. It has the added advantage of, if you get the job, giving you the right to say NO to unreasonable requests.

so how did it go? Did you get asked it?

I personally think chocolate would be a good answer to this question. It is honest, funny and memorable. It should make the prospective emplyer laugh and thus be warmer to you (works better if it is a woman interveiwing of course!!)

I am about to become a recruitment consultant, I start Monday, and I am going to use this one.

The question is such a clique anyway

BTW my referees were asked about my weaknesses and one said I was a (and I quote) 'a north london jewish princess'

I am jewish, but I don't consider myself a 'princess' at all!!

No Anniebear I didn't get it. Head said in feedback that I was very appointable and a very good runnerup but the person they appointed and slightly better skills in "a couple of areas". I take this to be in computer skills where mine are all based on using stand along computers and they were talking about troubleshooting teachers' networked laptops.

They didn't ask the "weaknesses" questions but I went prepared and felt that the interview went pretty well. I felt I learnt a lot from it and have now moved on to applying for the next one!

I think chocolate is great too! If I was the interviewer that would make me laugh and feel like the candidate is relaxed and we would have something in common too!