Here are the Best Weaknesses to Mention in a Job Interview

Job interviews can be nerve-wracking. Public speaking is already tough enough, but now you’re adding getting a job on the line? Yikes! It’s no surprise that so man people get nervous during interviews, and the back-and-forth between employer and job prospect can often be rife with landmines.

Then there’s the dreaded question: “What’s your biggest weakness?”

Ugh, now what? Well, we’re all in luck. These AskReddit users shared their opinions on how you should answer the most infamously difficult question to get “right.”

1. Sharing

“For my current job, I said that I had a hard time sharing my ideas with new groups.”

2. Controlling

“Actual weakness: Taking on jobs by myself, not taking time to train other people to do them. In the end, I’m usually “the guy” and find myself feeling burnt out.

Probably could be worded better at an interview, but this could sound like you’re a “go-getter.” It might also encourage your employer to find opportunities for you to train other people to do things you particularly don’t like doing.”

3. Nervous excitement

“One of my actual weaknesses: when I get nervous/excited, I tend to speak really fast and breathlessly. This can actually have a negative influence on my job as I work in healthcare and have to respond/communicate during emergencies.

For my next interview, I will bring this up, and say I have discovered that taking a second to collect myself and take a deep breath seems to calm my nerves and allow me to do/say what is needed in a more collected manner.”

4. …Yet

“If you are changing industries, your biggest weakness is not knowing the industry… yet.

If you are younger, say inexperience. Anything to show your willingness to learn and develop.”

5. Might work?

“What’s your greatest-”

“Weakness? Finishing other peoples’ sentences.” Calan_adan

“That’s what I was gonna’ say!”

6. How will you respond?

“Frame it in terms of something you’re looking to improve. “Well, at my last performance evaluation I received some constructive criticism regarding X, so since then I’ve been doing Y and Z to focus on improving in that regard.”

Honestly though, if an interviewer asks you that ridiculous cliched question either they have no idea what they’re doing and/or don’t give a crap, or they aren’t looking for an answer but just want to see how you respond to being pushed.”

7. Good move

“I work in healthcare and always say “Not speaking Spanish” and odds are the interviewer is also not fluent in Spanish so it comes across as not really a weakness. WIN-WIN!”

 

8. Dedicated

“I said “I don’t like letting go of unfinished projects” during my interviews. I feel like it shows that I’m dedicated to the work I take on.”

9. Brutal honesty

“Show enough self awareness to know your actual weaknesses and mention how you’re working to reduce their impact on your life. For example, I have an issue with speaking compassionately. For a long time, I believed brutal honesty was the best way to go about things, but it often backfired and made people less willing to work with me because they respected me less and they thought I respected them less.

My wife has helped me with this by, for example when I say something and it’s phrased badly, she’ll say “stop. Try it again.” And I’ll rephrase it to be more empathetic and kinder while still getting across the information I want to communicate.”

10. Awareness

“When I was graduating college I got interview tips from my dad who was heavily involved in the hiring process at his company for his department. His advice on this one, which I’ve used ever since and has gone great, was:

The whole “say a weakness that’s actually a positive” has been done to death and is such common knowledge that it’s no longer a clever “trick” and is now seen as avoiding the question. People want to see some self awareness, obviously don’t bring something absolutely terrible up, but mention a real flaw and most importantly what you’ve done to address or work with it.

For example the one I tend to use is that I can be forgetful so I now keep multiple sets of calendars, reminders, notes, etc to cover as much as possible.”

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10+ of the Most Cringeworthy Job Interview Horror Stories Ever

Looking for a job is a LOT of work! Between searching for openings, prepping resumes, and writing cover letters, it’s basically a full-time occupation in its own right. Then, once you’ve got your foot in the door, it’s time for the all-important interview.

Honestly, interviews are no fun – even when they’re not actually that bad. Then again, as these Buzzfeed users revealed, sometimes it can be downright horrible!

1. Wow, never heard that one before

“I had an older cousin who worked at a temp agency when I was in college, and he offered to help get my friend and me a job. We arrived to our interviews on time and he offered to do our interviews and drug screens together. I passed mine but apparently my friend had been partying all night. I have never seen a 12-panel drug screen with EVERY PANEL MARKED. It immediately went from a job interview to an intervention.”

2. That’s…odd

“My dad told me he went to an interview on Halloween once, and the HR woman was dressed as a scuba diver with a fishbowl as a helmet. Every time she spoke she was muffled behind this glass bowl.”

3. A bloody mess

“I had two interviews in one afternoon, and the first one ran over. As I was rushing down a brick sidewalk (in heels), I tripped and fell forward onto the ground, ripping my pantyhose and scraping my hands and knees really badly. I had to walk into the second interview with blood dripping down my legs and hands, and ask if they had a first aid kit. I sat through the interview trying not to cry from pain and embarrassment. I did end up getting an offer, but I turned it down because I was too embarrassed to go back.”

4. That sounds made up

“I had an interview that took over two hours. They had already given me the keys to the store and when we were about to sign the contract, they asked me how long I had been unemployed — I had been unemployed a couple months. They said they had some weird rule that they only hire people who have been unemployed for at least two years. I didn’t get the job because of that.”

5. Hang on, please

“I got an asthma attack during a Skype interview and the interviewer just sat there while I was coughing.”

6. Check the tags

“I drove two hours for a series of interviews with a company that I wasn’t quite sure about working for. The interviews went great and we finished after almost four hours. I left and later realized the tag on my blazer was still attached the entire time.”

7. Kicked out

“I had done several very long tests for a job with a company in NYC and they wanted to fly me up for a final interview. I got incredibly carsick on the drive from the airport to the company’s offices and barely managed to not vomit. By the time I arrived, I could barely stand up straight and was totally delirious.

One of them said I didn’t seem smart enough to have done so well on the technical tests they’d given me, and accused me of having someone else do them on my behalf. They insisted I do another one, and I felt like death thrice warmed over. I started writing code and burst into tears, and they kicked me out of the building.”

8. Run!

“I listened to my mom who said, ‘No place takes the time to call your references when you are applying for a position that’s less than part-time.’ I put made-up people with fake phone numbers on my application because all I needed was a third job for a few hours a week. I was sitting in a call center, waiting for my interview, and a lady sitting at a near desk was on the phone and said, ‘Hello, this is ____ calling from ____. _____ listed you as a reference on a job application with us….’ I literally got up and ran away.”

9. Good thing you didn’t hire him

“One time I was interviewing someone, and the entire interview was a flop. I decided not to hire him, and a couple of weeks later, I get a phone call from someone who was asking about this guy, thinking he had been hired. I told them that he hadn’t been hired and he didn’t work there. They then asked me ‘Would it be possible for you to describe him to the police?’ Turns out he was a person of interest in a murder case. So yeah, I was face to face with a possible murderer.”

10. Hang up on that guy

“I had decided to become an au pair in the Netherlands or Germany. I did an interview by video call with one family and it went crazy. The man tried to change my vegetarian diet and said veggies and vegan food were not allowed in his home.

We talked about my duties as an au pair (taking care of the kids and the house) and he told me I had to work for him in his own business. He wanted me to go to shops and find good clothes so he could sell them online. He even said I was not going to be paid for this work. I hung up the video call.”

11. Damn bronzer

“An older woman managing a beauty store told me that being a perfectionist was rare for a millennial. On the floor test, she asked me to apply bronzer to a pale white employee, and when I couldn’t find a bronzer light enough for the employee, she said, ‘You need to work on applying makeup to people with light skin.’ They ended up not hiring me because I wouldn’t give up my part-time job and give them 100% availability.”

12. Farting

“I got recruited by a founder of a popular travel app who had just founded a new tech company. The entire interview consisted of him interrupting me (34 times, I counted) and farting LOUDLY (7 times, also counted).”

13. Intense

“Made the mistake of eating spicy food before an interview. I barely made it off public transportation, and I had explosive diarrhea in the bathroom of the business next door to where I was interviewing. The manager interviewing me was running late, and I thought for sure I’d poop again. I was so nervous and sweaty during the interview, anticipating the next poop, and it was the most intense interview I ever had.”

14. No callback

“I was feeling sick that morning when I woke up, but I decided to ignore it. While in the interview, I immediately felt vomit come up. I ran to the drinking fountain and threw up lots of red vomit in the drinking fountain ( I ate red vines earlier that day). I tried to clean it up and then went home to get some rest. I never got a call back.”

15. This is a test

“I went in for a group interview and was told to be at the store at 6:00 A.M. When I got there, the store was closed and a sign on the door read that it opened at 6:30. I thought that maybe the manager gave me the wrong time, but five other people had shown up as well. We got into the store and were told that the manager would be in at 7:00.

We waited and waited until she came in at 9:00, but she didn’t even acknowledge us until 11:00. By 4:00 P.M, two people, including myself, were still waiting. At 7:00 P.M, the manager came over and said, ‘This was a test to see if you really wanted the job!’ We had waited for 13 hours. Sure enough, it was a toxic environment and the worst job I have ever had.”

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This Infographic Shows Signs That You Should Not Accept a Job Offer

There’s no sugarcoating it: looking for a job is a soul-crushing experience that will have almost everyone at their wit’s end.

But if you’ve been on the job hunt for a long time, that doesn’t mean that you should take the first one that’s offered to you.

That’s why it’s crucial to always pay attention to the signs when you interview for a job and visit an office. This infographic lays it out perfectly. Even though you might be desperate sometimes, every once in a while you have to RUN THE OTHER WAY.

Photo Credit: Approved Index

h/t: Mental Floss

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