What is Your Weakness?

June Coffey
4 min readNov 17, 2020

What is behind the question, ways to answer this dreaded question, and my 3 weaknesses

Photo by Daniel Mingook Kim on Unsplash

I am sure we have all been there. Sitting in an interview room thinking that the interview is actually going relatively well and feeling pretty good about the whole thing. Then they drop the dreaded question, “so tell me what is your weakness?”

You answer something like I am a perfectionist, thinking, that has got to be the right answer. They pause, then ask, “no really, what is your greatest weakness?”

Your mind goes blank. And you think to yourself, interviewing is your greatest weakness! It has got to be!

I hate the weakness question as much as anyone else. Why do managers ask about weaknesses? What I have learned is they are not really asking about your weakness.

What most people are interested in when they ask questions about weaknesses in an interview are the following:

1. Are you prepared?

This is one of the most commonly asked questions in an interview. If the candidate draws a blank, they are either overly nervous or not prepared. Be prepared and have answers.

2. Do you give something truthful?

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June Coffey
June Coffey

Written by June Coffey

Software Developer turned IT Specialist Recruitment Consultant, Entrepreneur, Proud mom of an 8 year old girl

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