Interview Questions – ‘What are your weaknesses?’

For Service-leavers who haven’t got recent interview experience, the prospect can seem daunting. Here, we dissect another of the more common but no less tricky interview questions so that you can show your best side to interviewers and land your next post-Services role.

‘What are your weaknesses?’
The real question is: ‘Are you going to try to avoid the issue or are you strong enough to tell the truth?’ By extension, this is also a test to see if you trot out the same old answers. Tip number one is don’t say: ‘I’m a perfectionist.’

The fact is that the question is being used as confirmation of probable weaknesses that are already known about you. These will have already been identified by any gaps in your CV as they relate to the job description. What this question isn’t, is an invitation for you to furnish the interviewer with information regarding weakness or even character flaws that they do not know about and probably don’t need to know about, since they have zero relevance to the role you’re going for. 

Being a professional relies on a knowledge of your strengths and weaknesses. You need to know your limits and where you can improve. Don’t pretend that they don’t exist or that they’re so minor as not to matter. This is an important question since by hiring you, an organisation is trusting that you can make credible decisions and act well for them. This requires a sensible perspective.

Point of view
Speaking of perspectives, remember that often, weaknesses are a question of point of view: hesitant or cautious are fairly similar traits but clearly, hesitancy looks that bit weaker.

Consider that if you don’t answer the question properly first time, it’s likely to be re-phrased and thrown at you again. A second failure to ‘fess up’ will irritate the interviewer and likely knock your own confidence. Things could start to unravel for you.

The good news is that your weaknesses are not going to see you thrown out of the interview. After all, if your assumed weaknesses were that bad, you wouldn’t have got the interview!

Not every advisor will give you the same advice on this topic. Incredibly, some will even suggest that you hand out clichés such as, ‘I worry too much’ or ‘I get lost in the details’ as if these are somehow going to fox a seasoned interviewer into accepting the thinly veiled suggestion that you are more conscientious than you know.

Express yourself as somebody continually auditing and developing skills. In other words, that you’re working on your weaknesses and developing your strengths. This could link to a question from you that can act as a conclusion to this tricky area, such as: ‘Did you want to discuss anything else about my CV?’

Be confident and be honest but don’t be daft.