10 Best Answers to “What Is Your Greatest Weakness?”

Why Interviewers Ask “What Is Your Greatest Weakness?”

When interviewers ask, “What is your greatest weakness?” don’t panic. They want to check your self-awareness. Hiring managers want to check if you’re self-aware and able to identify your weak spot. So, be honest about it. It is their way of measuring whether you are comfortable talking about your weaknesses for interview in general.

Hiring managers don’t want someone to say, “I’m awesome at everything or “I have no weakness”.

Nobody is perfect at everything! We all have strengths and weak areas where we are not great.

It is a part of why hiring managers ask you about your weakness as they want to measure your character and personality.

Sharing your weaknesses with an employer can be tricky or rewarding too, depending on how the employer takes it. So, you need to be careful while sharing examples of yours. We are sure you don’t want to knock yourself out of contention for the job. You also don’t want to come as too arrogant and too perfect because nobody is.

The best way is to be honest, and positive with your weaknesses while showing how you’re a good fit for the job.

How to Choose Your Weakness

If you are confused and don’t know how to find/locate any weakness in you, we are happy to help you with some, you might relate with.

Choose the ones that are apt according to you and answer in a way that you are working on them:

Hard skills	Interpersonal Skills	Soft skills
Advance mathematics	Confrontation	Creativity
Foreign language	Public speaking	Organization
Spelling	Being too sensitive	Patience

• Hard skill – Hard skills are job-specific abilities that an employer seeks and keeps at the top list. These skills are easily quantifiable and can be developed through school and other forms of training. Like, computer skills, finance, mathematics, and more.
• Interpersonal skill- Interpersonal skills are the ability to communicate with others. It is an essential thing in a job. You may pick one of the specific issues mentioned above that you are struggling with and then talk about how you are working on improvising on it.
• Soft skills- Soft skills are very important for almost every job. They tell about your personality traits, communication abilities, and social skills. You may pick one soft skill from above as your weakness by ensuring it is not mandatory for the job and narrate to the employer how you are improving it. Some soft skills might require creativity. If you do not possess it, say it.

Choose the weakness as per your trait and give your best shot to make a place for yourself in the company.

Read our full guide – How to prepare for a job interview

How To Answer “What Is Your Greatest Weakness?”

Let us give you some incredible tips on how you can choose to answer when the hiring manager asks you, “What is your greatest weakness”-

Tips:

• Select a weakness that will not prevent you from succeeding in the role.

Nobody is perfect. Everyone has some flaws. To overcome these flaws, you have to be constantly learning and growing. You’ll want to use this question to say how you’ve used your weakness as motivation to improve your skills and grow professionally.

• Select your real weakness honestly.

Everyone has weaknesses for interview — your interviewer doesn’t expect you to be perfect. Perfectionism can never be attained. But it is developed slowly. Trying to attain perfectionism leads to burnout and low-quality work. Underneath the desire to do perfect work might lie a weakness of trust. While working in a team, you may strive to do everything perfectly without committing a mistake. That’s the real weakness that you surely need to overcome.

• Give an example of how you’ve worked or you are working to improve upon your weakness and learn new skills to combat the issue.
• Demonstrate self-awareness and how others are providing you with resources that are necessary for your growth.

 Types of Weaknesses

• Personal weakness

Something about your personality or personal weakness could be seen as unfavourable. For example, Coming to the office late often is your habitual attribute and part of your personality. It can not be fixed in response to questioning.

• Knowledge-based weakness

Knowledge about specific topics due to lack of past experiences or having too little or no experience at all is called knowledge-based weakness. These are more fixable through training and time spent learning those skills with someone who knows them better than you do now.

• Technical weakness:

Not being aware of using specific tools or having a poor understanding of how things work can be fixed by gaining knowledge about those tools and by practicing.

• Situational weakness

Personal issues (like caring for kids and elderly parents) which can affect your ability to perform well in your job are related to the company’s needs. Situational weakness is related to companies’ policies and how they take them.

• Environmental weakness

This can include company culture or lack of growth opportunities within that specific job role. Again, these are often fixable through a change in employer and environment.

Best Examples for “What Is Your Greatest Weakness?”

When the interviewer asks you to demonstrate your weaknesses, there are different ways to answer. This question is asked to explore the candidate. Here are some examples of “What is your greatest weakness” questions asked by hiring managers and how you should respond to them:

By asking you, “What is your greatest weakness?” the interviewer wants to find out:

• If you have a healthy level of self-awareness about yourself.
• Whether you are open and honest about your shortcomings.
• Whether you pursue self-improvement and growth opportunities to combat these issues, as opposed to letting these weaknesses hold you back.

Next time an interviewer asks about your greatest weakness, you should pause and ask certain questions to customize it as per your personal and professional weaknesses. Here’s how to do it:

Ask yourself the following:

• Is there a task or work-related skill that I don’t know how to do well?
• Was there any time that I failed at work or did not meet the deadline?
• How did I fail and correct my mistake?
• After rectification, did I receive any praise from my superior?

Always remember, that an honest and authentic answer goes a long way. The best way is to identify your real weaknesses and proactively address them.

What is your weakness best answer for freshers and experienced persons:

1. Lack of experience

You can say that you are new with a specific software because you practiced on some other. Your answer can be, “I’m not experienced in ‘tool A’ but I’ve used ‘tool B’. I need to clarify some doubts before I get first-hand work experience.”

2. Attention to detail

A keen attention to detail is good until it’s not. If this is something you would want to highlight about your personality, you may say, “I have an eye for detail and strive to deliver clear cut results. In pursuit of this, sometimes I get too engrossed in my projects. Clearly, I need to stand back sometimes and enjoy the bigger picture.”

3. My family

Whether you are a fresher or experienced, you can always say a ‘No’ to relocation, if interviewer asks you. That too, during Covid times, when many jobs have permanently gone online or remote, you can always check with the interviewer if there’s a work from home option. Stating,

“My family is my weakness. I can’t do anything without their support. They support me in all my decisions and are always with me no matter how hard the situation is. So, if there is a work from home option in {company’s name} I would like to choose that happily”.

4. Public speaking

Sometimes you may find feel public speaking is intimidating and struggle with presentations. It can be your weakness. You might not feel comfortable speaking to a gathering. Start rehearsing in front of the mirror every day. You may read a stanza aloud, in front of the mirror and gain confidence. Do not hesitate to put your suggestions in a call or a meeting. Socialise.

5. Task delegation

You may sometimes struggle with delegating and prioritising the tasks on your plate, which can create some pressure on you. Companies need people who are multi taskers and who can finish assignments tasks timely while helping others in the team. You can use a variety of software to remember things and get the work done timely with focus.

6. Shyness

Shyness is completely different from public speaking. Some people struggle in large groups and find it intimidating to ask questions when in doubt or raise points when they have suggestions and often remain quiet.

Try to be vocal about your thoughts, whatever it is. It will build confidence.

7. Dealing with negative criticism

Feedback are often taken as criticism. Criticism, which is negative. To perfect work after people’s suggestions and criticism, do not go harsh on yourself.

Learn, and then keep your points before others in the meeting. You can start with, “I appreciate your views, but i think …..”

8. Timidity

Corporates’ environment comes with inclusivity and diversity, where people from different backgrounds and places come together to work. As departments are interconnected with each other, there can be a lot of feedback coming in from various departments. Constructive feedback to coworkers can be confusing and helpful too. So, it is up to you how you take the feedback. Feedback can be both helpful and kind when delivered the right way.

9. Talkative 

“I like to know my coworkers by engaging in conversations.” It can be a team-building skill, but sometimes you don’t realise that your over-friendlyness can distract your coworkers too. Keep your conversations short and get back to work.

As you know, over-talking can lead to unnecessary conversations, which can impact work and productivity.

10. Lack in Work life balance

It can sound your strength. But, devoting yourself to too much work is not good for your health and your family. To an extent, being a workaholic means you love your job. But it is not so great if it stakes your relationship and impacts your productivity. Structure your day and sort the work-life balance issues.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When answering “What Is Your Greatest Weakness?”

Understand it with some examples of ‘what is your greatest weakness’ answer samples

• Do not be specific with significant terminologies that you yourself don’t adhere to.

Some people say ‘Perfectionist’. Instead, say ‘I tend to go in detail of every detail which distract me from my ultimate goal.”

• Instead of saying “overly high standards….” Say,

“It can be difficult to gauge when the people I’m working with are overwhelmed or dissatisfied with their workloads.”

• Instead of “Workaholism,” Say… “We all will need to get much better at knowing working hard and working productively. I sometimes tend to blur these lines and push too hard”
• Instead of “Public Speaking,” Say… “I’ve heard that more people fear public speaking than death. Well, my fear is not that extreme, but it is definitely challenging to present my ideas in front of a crowd. It is definitely something that needs some work.”

Conclusion

Whether you’re bad with numbers or shy to speak up in group settings, every person has strength behind every weakness. And the strength is – how you work to overcome it. The immediate learnings can start with leaning on your teammates who excel in the areas you are not great at. Also, taking professional development courses can help you overcome your weaknesses and shows that you’re willing to improve.

With all the above tips, you can avoid giving a cookie-cutter, common interview answer and step closer on getting the job.