What are your weaknesses?

when asked this (ridiculous) question on an interview, what do you say?

Re: What are your weaknesses?

I have only been asked that ONCE on an interview. I said something like "My professional weakness is my tendency to be very stringent and perhaps compulsive about organization. I tend to follow a school of thought that being well organized leads to better productivity. I can get a bit irritated if my files or paperwork is rearranged or disturbed."

Yes. I got the job. I kept the job too.. even though it probably became evident after 2-3 days that my organization skills are not terribly strong!

Re: What are your weaknesses?

Posted by rojerono

I have only been asked that ONCE on an interview. I said something like "My professional weakness is my tendency to be very stringent and perhaps compulsive about organization. I tend to follow a school of thought that being well organized leads to better productivity. I can get a bit irritated if my files or paperwork is rearranged or disturbed."

Yes. I got the job. I kept the job too.. even though it probably became evident after 2-3 days that my organization skills are not terribly strong!

Re: What are your weaknesses?

I was asked this while giving a personal reference to someone about them.

I said:

"Kristen has such a strong worth ethic that she tends to prioritize her job over her personal life. Then, her personal life suffers and I don't get to see her as much."

Re: What are your weaknesses?

Re: What are your weaknesses?

I always say things that can be interpreted as good, not just bad - like, I'm a perfectionist. Or, I'm very demanding of myself and demanding of others.

The best, I think, is to really point out a weakness, and say how you've learned from it and made improvements. The one I always refer to is a job I had that was going nowhere - I was in a management development program where I had 5 different rotations. One of the rotations was for this project that was just SO stupid (to eliminate all junk mail coming into the company).

After about 3 weeks on the project I realized it was completely and totally futile. But, instead of approaching my supervisor and telling him that, I kept plugging away. 4 months later, at my review, my supervisor told me that about 3 weeks into the project, he knew it was stupid, and knew I knew it was stupid. But he said, lesson learned is that you should've come to me and told me, and we would have done something about it.

So, I learned my weakness is I tend to not give up (which can be a good trait most of the time). But, I learned from the experience to step back and evaluate the situation and recognize when it doesn't make sense to keep going with something.

Re: What are your weaknesses?

I was asked that a couple of times. I always saying something along the lines of "taking on too much work" - it works!

Re: What are your weaknesses?

to follow the posts above. i was asked and said that i take my job to heart... some bs like that

it was then asked of my reference, she said the same thing.

i got the job... now i hate the job, but that's for another post

Re: What are your weaknesses?

biggest weakness = I'm too hard on myself. i always want to get everything just right and when i don't, i get disappointed.

Re: What are your weaknesses?

Re: What are your weaknesses?

when once asked this in an interview I responded "chocolate is my weakness. you can pretty much bribe me on any point with chocolate."...and when we both laughed I went on to say that I'm a perfectionist, and I can't put something down until it's perfect.

Re: What are your weaknesses?

This is such a dumb interview question.
The only thing this question tells you when you interview someone is if they are actually dumb enough to say something completely stupid in an interview like "I don't like to work long hours" or "I'm completely disorganized" or "I am bad with authority".

Re: What are your weaknesses?

I was on an interview committee this morning and no one asked that question.

But by the end of the interview we could all tell what each person's weakness was due to the responses to the other questions.

Re: What are your weaknesses?

Posted by rojerono

I have only been asked that ONCE on an interview. I said something like "My professional weakness is my tendency to be very stringent and perhaps compulsive about organization. I tend to follow a school of thought that being well organized leads to better productivity. I can get a bit irritated if my files or paperwork is rearranged or disturbed."

Yes. I got the job. I kept the job too.. even though it probably became evident after 2-3 days that my organization skills are not terribly strong!

Re: What are your weaknesses?

That I have a problem delegating. I feel more comfortable doing the work myself.

Re: What are your weaknesses?

I read this one someone and liked it.

"I take my job so seriously I have a hard time deligating work to others"

Re: What are your weaknesses?

Any weakness you give should have a positive spin like "perfectionism".