Tell the Truth With the Weakness Interview Question - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Tell the Truth With the Weakness Interview Question - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Im surprised at the bad advice given when it comes to the weakness interview question â€" whats your biggest weakness? â€" from career experts. Turn it into a strength, they say. Use examples like I have to triple check everything before I send it out, or I insist on being early for every meeting.' Thats bullshit. Thats the worst kind of bullshit, because its been perpetuated ever since I can remember, when I first joined the job market over 20 years ago. For one thing, interviewers can see right through it. They read the same articles that tell you to give that answer, so theyre expecting it. For another, nobody, and I mean nobody is so perfect in every way that even their weaknesses make them awesome. If that were true, they wouldnt be looking for a job. Instead, they would be giving awesome lessons to the Most Interesting Man in the World. And yet, we keep hearing that answers like Im a perfectionist or I work too hard will impress the interviewers so much, theyll leap to their feet, shout Eureka! and hire you on the spot. Bullshit. Now, that doesnt mean you tell your most damning weaknesses during the interview. Like your ever-changing loyalties that has you changing jobs every six months. Or your overdeveloped need to create office drama. Or your sexual attraction to office equipment. Being honest doesnt mean being so stupidly honest you interview yourself right out of a job. Pick a real weakness, but not a glaring one, and do one of two things: 1) Find a bright side to the weakness, or a way that you work around it. For example, I am absolutely afraid of public speaking, but communicate very well in a one-on-one situation. So I always try to sell only to one or two people, and bring in someone to assist if there is a need for a sales presentation. Ive been able to keep a high close rate with this approach. That shows you know its a problem, and have a solution already in mind. 2) Tell the interviewer youre working on the problem. Ive always been afraid of public speaking, and thats hurt some sales opportunities in the past. So Ive been going to Toastmasters to improve my speaking skills. That tells them youre trying to fix the problem. In either case, youre not making a weakness a strength. Youre identifying a real problem that many people have, and demonstrating your self-awareness and commitment to working around it. Everyone has weaknesses. Everyone. People who dont are liars or are susceptible to bad advice, which are weaknesses of their own. When youre asked the weakness question â€" and you will be â€"   make sure you work out your answer in advance, practice it a few times, and deliver it with conviction. Your interviewer is more likely to be impressed by a real answer, and youll stand out from the crowd in a positive way. Not because you were the third workaholic perfectionist to cross their path that day.  Author: Erik Deckers is the owner of Professional Blog Service, and the co-author of Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself. His new book, No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing, which he wrote with Jason Falls, is in bookstores and on Amazon now.