How to turn a weakness into a strength for an interview
Preparing for an interview can be stressful. They can be tough, as you typically have no idea what to expect. There are however some topics that may come up to address. As we go ahead I will share with you how to approach this.
Most individuals have a weakness and are not usually comfortable or confident to talk about them. The objective of this question is to measure or self evaluate oneself and be aware of one’s own short comings.
Being honest about your weakness will be the best policy, as it will always be validated by your new employer during the reference check before coming on board.
During the interview no one is interested to know your personal weakness, this question is framed to see if you demonstrate self-awareness and are willing to accommodate, such as enroll in a training course for development.
Being Confident
In order to build confidence, you must practice. This question is not about confessing your weaknesses or exposing yourself. It’s about demonstrating confidence, honesty and composure when asked a difficult behavioural interview question.
Don’t be Ignorant
The silliest response that anyone can answer to this question is “I don’t have a weakness”. Well every human is born with some integral natural traits which puts the person at disadvantage against other individuals. If you really think that you don’t have a weakness, it shows you lack self-awareness.
Turn your positive to negative
Another avenue is to convert your strength and turn it into a weakness. This will represent you as humble and modest professional.
Beware of using the old trick of turning a weakness into strength by saying, “I work very hard”, or “I am a workaholic” can be deemed as you are inefficient or bad at time management.
Interviewers would like to hear how you have managed to overcome your weakness and how you are able to demonstrate with a few examples.
An interviewer has heard them all before and from numerous candidates. Again don’t come up with a weakness that directly relates to your current work. For instance, if you are interviewing for an accountant role and you say, “I am bad at numbers”, nothing can save you.
Why is an interviewer interested in your weakness?
This question can often pop up in an interview. The interviewer’s efforts are to get past the nice, deceptive, disguise that you have put on for the interview and get an idea of the real you. Even a dishonest or clever answer ends up saying something about you as an individual. An interviewer can assume that you might be secretive, less self-aware or too self-obsessed.
Things to prepare:-
- What is your greatest weakness – Choose wisely
- While choosing your weakness, it’s often advised to choose something work-related and fixable.
- Make sure that it’s not something crucial at work, but that it is something related to the work.
- Your goal is to represent a literal weakness that does not impact your potential towards the job but also does not come across as an impractical or staged.
By the way, the person on the other side of the desk wants you to prove to them that you are the best person for the job. With your experience, come up with a few examples of how you have dealt with a weakness you comprehend in yourself and you will easily demonstrate your value to an interviewer.
At the end of the day we are all individuals with our own shortcomings. It’s all about how we work towards weakness and overcome the barrier.
