Professionally acceptable interview answers for what are your weaknesses?

[Anonymous]

At my agency, they use a trickier version of this question: "What would your supervisor say is your greatest weakness?"

Same strategy for answering though: Something real, relevant, but that you are/have overcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Np here. The bad thing is that perfectionism is my biggest weakness, at least according to my boss. I can point to two clients that I missed out on getting because I wanted a proposal to be perfect instead of just done, and someone beat me to the job. I've worked on it a lot, though, and have gotten a lot faster. Should I come up with another weakness just to not look canned?

Honestly? Yes. Or tell the same story but without using the word "perfectionism."

I would NOT tell a story about losing a client! Turn it into something that is not core to your job performance, that you already overcame. Mine is "i used to hate public speaking but i did toastmasters and now I like it."

This is an awful trick question.

Disagree, I think it's OK to tell the story if it's far enough in the past and you have subsequent accomplishments you can point to as evidence of how you've corrected this weakness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Np here. The bad thing is that perfectionism is my biggest weakness, at least according to my boss. I can point to two clients that I missed out on getting because I wanted a proposal to be perfect instead of just done, and someone beat me to the job. I've worked on it a lot, though, and have gotten a lot faster. Should I come up with another weakness just to not look canned?

So my take is not that you are a perfectionist but that you can get tangled up in detail and miss seeing the big picture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Np here. The bad thing is that perfectionism is my biggest weakness, at least according to my boss. I can point to two clients that I missed out on getting because I wanted a proposal to be perfect instead of just done, and someone beat me to the job. I've worked on it a lot, though, and have gotten a lot faster. Should I come up with another weakness just to not look canned?

So my take is not that you are a perfectionist but that you can get tangled up in detail and miss seeing the big picture.

I guess I could say that. We might not never landed those clients anyway, but I did slow down the proposals by wanting to cross all the t's and dot all the i's. I now have a better appreciation for speed. My boss told me not to go for 100% when 80-90% will do. It's really really hard for me to let something go out the door that may not be perfect, but that's how it goes here.

Now that I wrote that out, I'm thinking that this is not good interview material!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Np here. The bad thing is that perfectionism is my biggest weakness, at least according to my boss. I can point to two clients that I missed out on getting because I wanted a proposal to be perfect instead of just done, and someone beat me to the job. I've worked on it a lot, though, and have gotten a lot faster. Should I come up with another weakness just to not look canned?

So my take is not that you are a perfectionist but that you can get tangled up in detail and miss seeing the big picture.

I guess I could say that. We might not never landed those clients anyway, but I did slow down the proposals by wanting to cross all the t's and dot all the i's. I now have a better appreciation for speed. My boss told me not to go for 100% when 80-90% will do. It's really really hard for me to let something go out the door that may not be perfect, but that's how it goes here.

Now that I wrote that out, I'm thinking that this is not good interview material!

Nope, it's not. It may be an actual weakness, and you may have overcome it, but it just cuts too close to the bone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At my agency, they use a trickier version of this question: "What would your supervisor say is your greatest weakness?"

Same strategy for answering though: Something real, relevant, but that you are/have overcome.

What's yours?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At my agency, they use a trickier version of this question: "What would your supervisor say is your greatest weakness?"

Same strategy for answering though: Something real, relevant, but that you are/have overcome.

What's yours?

Ugh. I don't know. I'd have to pick something that my supervisor might actually say. Probably that I start projects with a lot of enthusiasm, but am often ready to move on to the next thing while there are still some details of the previous project to finish. If I'm not careful, it is easy for things to fall through the cracks and the project never gets 100% complete. I create a physical "punch list" for each project listing each item/step to completion, and physically check them off.

[Anonymous]

I like this one. I use it. Say it confidently if it is true.

[Anonymous]

I hate this type of phony interview questions. Like they do not have a job description ready.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just answer it honestly.

For me, my weaknesses are I don't do well in roles where there is lot of 'sales' or marketing type focus, or where i'm on the phone a lot, or where there isn't intellectual stimulation.

I make it clear i will take much less money to not be bored out of my mind.

I don't think my answer has ever hurt me. Probably saved me from a few jobs I would've hated.

Me too, and it has served me well.

[Anonymous]

So I ask this question differently, usually- I'll say, in what area of this role do you believe you'll need the most support? I am not looking for a BS answer, I want to see if you have some level of self-awareness- bc it's usually obvious to me where you would need support. Don't say I'm a perfectionist or something else- state an area in which you may need growth but also tell me how you plan to get there.

[Anonymous]

My answer which has worked well is

I dont have any fatal flaws but there are some areas where I would like to keep working on.

And then be honest of what you need to work on for the job - a good one is networking - everyone needs to do this constantly.