Poll of the Day > What do you say when you're asked for your greatest weakness in job interviews?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I think my weakness is not knowing how to answer questions about my weakness

---

Kryptonite.

---

drinking on the job

---

That's more of a boilerplate HR question. Usually when I'm interviewing, I'm meeting with somebody higher up in the company so the questions are strictly pragmatic. Of course, back when I was meeting with gatekeepers, I'd have a little fun with questions like that.

funkyfritter posted...

Kryptonite.

This, or some variation thereof. I tried saying, "the color yellow," a few times, but nobody got the GL reference whereas Kryptonite usually at least gets a chuckle.

---

gaming addiction

---

Bees. i'll punch a customer if they're a bee

---

I list not having performed a couple types of semi-common treatments that I know the sites doesnt do.

medium dick energy

---

"I work too hard, and give to much of myself to my job"

---

I don't let incompetence slide.

---

Brunettes.

---

how about "my weakness is, that i care to much"
---

Boredom

---

gun

---

I'm not assertive when speaking to people face to face.

---

"People have said that I'm just too good at the job. Like, I'm just way too focused on it. It's like I'm obsessed."

Jokes aside, I conduct hiring interviews and I've always found that to be one of the most useless questions to ask, because you're basically asking the candidate how convincingly they can lie to you. No one is actually going to tell you a weakness that reduces their chances at getting in the job.

When I interview, I avoid this question and instead ask something like, "Describe for me an experience in your school (if the applicant is a recent grad) or previous work (if they've got actual work experience) where things went really badly. How did you react? What would you have done differently if you could go back and do things again?"

Back when I was still in the market myself, if I got asked the "biggest weakness" question, my go-to answer was, "Inexperience. I'm still fairly new in this field, so I don't know the ins and outs of the industry or of the type of work this office does." That was a perfect answer to the question, because it was demonstrably true, demonstrating a good character trait (awareness of inexperience and hopefully not falling for the Dunning-Kruger effect), and also something that the company could easily address via their own internal training programs (it wouldn't work for me today, but I've stuck with a single company for my entire career, so I've never had to update my default answer). You never want to say something like, "I have trouble working with others", because that's a character trait with no upside and not something the company can really fix.

---

Taking my pants off when I eat lunch in the break room

---

Procrastination, but I work best under a time limit so it's also a strength.

---

I describe an actual weakness and then how I've overcome it.


---

Gaawa_chan posted...

I'm not assertive when speaking to people face to face.

Me either. I cant even look people in the eye most of the time.

---

I've always said mild and situational stubbornness when I get too far or committed to something. I have yet to not get a job I interviewed for so I must be doing something right

---

Being interviewed by a panel of people, vs., say, just one individual.

---

I'm TOO good, nahmean

Say an actual weakness you used to have and how you worked to overcome it. So like how you used to be lazy but now you're not.

That doesn't work all the time though, the interviewer might be puzzled by the answer or not like it. It truly is the shittiest of questions, and it almost exclusively seems to be asked by bad interviewers (or new interviewer who are just reading from a list). In the worst interview of my life (I almost walked out) the woman straight up told me "that's not a weakness" and repeatedly insisted I tell her something bad about myself.

---

My biggest weakness is perfection. When I try to fix a problem it is in my nature to try to get the best solution possible. Getting to the best solution sometimes takes to much time. So over the years I learned to balance for the best efficiency, but it is always a challenge and sometimes you take a bit more time. For example blablabla.

Some bull like that. Ask useless questions and get a useless answer. I have done interviews myself and don't get why you wouldn't ask a relevant question to the job or the cv.

electric and rock

joke answer: give an honest minor or irrelevant weakness

---

Capitalistic companies destroying the environment and wrecking middle class america.

"My greatest weakness would have to be my inability to answer loaded stock questions with loaded stock answers"

I didnt get the job

---

Blightzkrieg posted...

Say an actual weakness you used to have and how you worked to overcome it.

See, this is why I hate this question. A friend of mine did this, and their interviewer responded with "sounds like you overcame that weakness, what would you say is your biggest current weakness". He still got the job, because these are fluff hr questions with little to no relevance unless you say something really dumb, but there really isn't a "good" answer to the question.

Baardmeester posted...

My biggest weakness is perfection. When I try to fix a problem it is in my nature to try to get the best solution possible. Getting to the best solution sometimes takes to much time.

I strongly recommend against this suggestion though. It's the most common go-to, and if they are interviewing a lot of folks, they're bound to hear it several times. More original, and more relevant.

---

Dynalo posted...

See, this is why I hate this question. A friend of mine did this, and their interviewer responded with "sounds like you overcame that weakness, what would you say is your biggest current weakness". He still got the job, because these are fluff hr questions with little to no relevance unless you say something really dumb, but there really isn't a "good" answer to the question.

Yeah I touched on this. It doesn't always work. But as someone who has been to a lot of interviews (I got fired from a job a couple years ago and had a lot of difficulty bouncing back into the workforce with that), I would say this question didn't pop up nearly as much as you would think. So I think it might be a question people overthink or worry too much about.

"How would you resolve a conflict in the workplace" or some variant of that, is the biggest question that comes up in nearly every interview. The greatest weakness question only came up a handful of times in all the interviews I went to.

---

darkknight109 posted...

Jokes aside, I conduct hiring interviews and I've always found that to be one of the most useless questions to ask, because you're basically asking the candidate how convincingly they can lie to you. No one is actually going to tell you a weakness that reduces their chances at getting in the job.

idk, lying is a pretty essential business skill.


---

my large penis, if i was hit in it, boy would that hurt, ok?

---

Zeus posted...

idk, lying is a pretty essential business skill.

If you're working in a fundamentally dishonest industry, that would probably be true.

In my line of work, we need to be the opposite of that. My job is to be brutally honest with my clients, which occasionally involves telling them things they don't want to hear. I don't particularly care how well a job candidate lies, because it's a skill they won't get a lot of use of in my department.

---

funkyfritter posted...

Kryptonite.

Beat me to it.

---

I tell em I'm lazy.

---

Being a perfectionist

---

I say...

I like to gather as much information as possible regarding the issue before taking action. I understand that this may be seen as indecisive, but my goal is to make the most informed decision possible. Since I am aware that this is my thought process, I act proactively in finding potential issues so that I may resolve them more quickly.

darkknight109 posted...

If you're working in a fundamentally dishonest industry, that would probably be true.

In my line of work, we need to be the opposite of that. My job is to be brutally honest with my clients, which occasionally involves telling them things they don't want to hear. I don't particularly care how well a job candidate lies, because it's a skill they won't get a lot of use of in my department.

Go easy on him. Zeus is a compulsive liar. He tried telling us he worked for the DOD. In reality hes living off the dole for years.

---

IronBornCorps posted...

I like to gather as much information as possible regarding the issue before taking action.

When I was doing interviews for engineering positions, I kinda say the same as well. That I take too much time evaluating something before making a decision.

In reality, this really is a weakness of mine still. I sometime triple check my calculations and ask a senior engineer to review my work before proceeding just because I am not always confident with myself. Oddly enough, one time I was correct on something but because it was not favorable for the client, I kept doubting myself and thinking I made a mistake when my numbers were correct. It was kind of a relief to know I was correct, even if it was not favorable for the client.

darkknight109 posted...

My job is to be brutally honest with my clients, which occasionally involves telling them things they don't want to hear.

I have a coworker who is like that with our clients. He does not beat around the bush when telling clients whatever material they want to use will not work. As he always say. We are engineers, not magicians.

Gaawa_chan posted...

I'm not assertive when speaking to people face to face.

Even over the phone I struggle with this. Recently I had to repeat to a client more than once we needed a certain note on our drawings because the building code requires it. Client kept saying other engineers/companies do not use that note. My manager is a lot more blunt in telling said clients to go to those companies then if they do not like our company's standard but I do not feel I have the seniority to say that.

---

darkknight109 posted...

If you're working in a fundamentally dishonest industry, that would probably be true.

Getting ahead in any industry and performing most jobs well requires at least some ability to lie, even if it's as innocuous as saying that you've done something before you actually do it.

darkknight109 posted...

In my line of work, we need to be the opposite of that. My job is to be brutally honest with my clients, which occasionally involves telling them things they don't want to hear. I don't particularly care how well a job candidate lies, because it's a skill they won't get a lot of use of in my department.

Didn't you tell me you're a martial arts instructor or something?


---