Answering the hardest interview question
Allie Grill and Matt Rousu
Originally published in The Daily Item on October 15, and 2023
Job interviews can be stressful for many reasons, but primarily because interview performance can make or break the potential to land a new job. One other stressful reason is that the interview environment is somewhat unpredictable as the interviewers can ask you any number of questions about your background. Further, while not deliberate, some questions are notoriously difficult.
“What is your greatest weakness?” is one of those notoriously difficult questions. It can be unclear about what the employer hopes to learn through this question and candidates often worry that their response will inhibit their ability to land the role. We believe that there are other better questions to determine if a candidate can do a job well. That said, many companies will continue to ask the question, so you should be prepared to answer it. And answering it with “I work too hard” or “I care too much” is overdone and not addressing the question directly. So how do you respond to “what is your greatest weakness” during an interview?
1. Examine the intent
As an interviewee, it’s important to examine the intent behind each question the interviewer asks you. Despite popular belief, the intent behind a “weakness” question is usually not to trick you into sharing your most problematic flaws. Instead, a weakness-related question may be asked to assess your self-awareness, including your ability to reflect on the past and generate ideas for constant improvement. With that intent in mind, it may be helpful for you to think about specific feedbackon your job performance that you’ve received by a superior. You can also draw on your own self-knowledge from past experiences. The goal is to deliver a response that is authentic to you and your experiences, rather than a cliche response such as, “I am a perfectionist.”
2. Be specific
First off, while being honest about your challenges, it’s important not to select any weaknesses that are essential skills orqualities for the position. Instead, think about a specific challenge you recently had and how you worked to resolve it. Pro-tip: you can always reframe a weakness, by drawing upon a challenge you’ve had during a very specific moment. This way, you are not addressing an overall quality that may be more difficult to manage or improve on. A response can look like: “A recent challenge I faced occurred a few months ago when I received a promotion at work. I was challenged by trying to prioritize my new responsibilities alongside my existing job duties.”
3. Highlight your strengths and how you’ve improved
While you don’t want to respond that you “work too hard” or “care too much”, there might be an opportunity to relate your weakness to one of your strengths. For example, one of the authors (Matt) on has a strength of “Activator”, according to Gallup’s Strength’s Test. An activator gets things done – often quickly. However, Matt, and others with this strength, may struggle to loop everyone into decisions. A response for this weakness might be. “I am really good at accomplishing goals – it is a strength of mine. But in the process of getting things done, I often move fast and I have to be really careful not to exclude people from the decision-making process. I strive to be an inclusive leader and so I’ve spent time and energy thinking though how to make sure all appropriate parties are looped in, and I think I’ve improved in this area.”
In your response, you could address what specific action steps you took to fix the challenge and how the challenge has resolved itself —hopefully positively! You could also highlight what you learned about yourself during the process. By referencing these points, you will indicate that you have the skills to identify a problem related to your performance and as well as the skill set to improve, which is the most important. Since the intent behind the question is to assess your self-awareness, concluding with what you learned about yourself in the process is appropriate.
While interviews can be difficult, the proper preparation can greatly reduce the stress of your interview experience. We highly recommend in practicing difficult interview questions, including the dreaded question about your weaknesses!
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Allie Grill is Director of the Career Development Center and Matthew Rousu is Dean of the Sigmund Weis School of Business at Susquehanna University