What is your biggest weakness?

Interview Preparation
#1

Ah, this is always a tricky one!

After all, you don’t want to mention your flaws during an interview, so it’s guaranteed to be a tough question.

The trick to answering this one is realizing that the interviewers don’t expect you to be perfect. Everyone has flaws, weaknesses, and things to improve on.

When asking this question, the HR manager is actually seeking to learn:

  • Whether you have the right skills for the job. If you’re applying for the position of a server in a busy restaurant, and you say your biggest weakness is performing under pressure, then you’re definitely not getting a callback.
  • If you’re self-aware and really know what your sticking points are.

And NO: fake humble-brag weaknesses don’t count as weaknesses. You can’t just say that your biggest weakness is that you work too hard, or that you’re a perfectionist.

The key here is to mention a weakness that’s real, but not something that would get in the way of you doing your job. You wouldn’t want to say you’re bad at math if you’re applying for an accountant position, would you

It’s also good practice to mention how you are working towards overcoming this weakness and realizing how it affects you negatively. If you can, just balance it with a positive side effect: treat it like two sides of the same coin.