My post from last year on the topic of addressing weakness questions at interview has been one of the most searched topics on this blog and one of the most popular posts thus far. It also spawned a number of interesting comments from readers. I received this one today from an anonymous poster, reproduced here as I received it:
Anonymous - thanks for the thoughtful comment. I can't count the number of times in interview prep sessions that clients have told me that their No.1 weakness is "confidence" or "communication"- the obvious problem being that saying those in almost any interview will kill your chances dead.
My advice to job-hunters is that the shortcoming you raise must be true, but if it is a core function of the job, you have problems. If it is something that you are well aware of and have been working hard to remedy, you may be able to safely raise it as a chink in your armour. In your case, I wasn't surprised that you were eliminated from the selection process for raising communication as a noteworthy weakness when (a) it was a core function of the job and (b) you were already an adult. You said it yourself - some years later, you now see yourself as having much-improved communication skills, but as an adult, you weren't going to be able to "fix" that problem in a matter of weeks or even months. So, harsh as it was, my thinking is that your boss was not wrong to drop you from the process seeing as you lacked a core skill for the role.
At a more serious level however, is a weakness that is something innate. For example, if you are a pronounced introvert and you are going for a business development role, then my advice comes down to a more fundamental level: Why are you applying for a round-hole job when you are so obviously a square peg? Which brings us back to the all-too-common "confidence" issue that I see client after client raising.
Bottom line, you need to know this stuff about yourself - you really, really do - and I don't just mean for job-hunts. This kind of fundamental self-knowledge is sorely lacking in the modern workplace and time and again I've seen it as a major impediment to career progression.
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in a sketch that seems very appropriate for the topic:
RSS Readers may need to click through to the post.
The original weakness post is here.
My thoughts on Impostor Syndrome are here.
Ask a Manager also has some great thoughts on the weakness topic here.
I have given a right answer to this one once. At that time I was not good at communication, good team player but I was not good at communicating, that's all. For that job I applied for, it was an important skill, like several others. I was honest and picked this relevent weakness for that job. It immediatly disqulified me. A few years letter I have much better communication skills now. But the Director who disqualified me of course will not interview me again. Therefore my suggestion, don't ever mention relevent weaknesses. You can improve them a lot in several months if you work hard on them. But many people can't beleive this and don't know if you can improve or not, don't kill your chances, work on improving you relevent weakenesses instead and get the job.My response is as follows:
Anonymous - thanks for the thoughtful comment. I can't count the number of times in interview prep sessions that clients have told me that their No.1 weakness is "confidence" or "communication"- the obvious problem being that saying those in almost any interview will kill your chances dead.
My advice to job-hunters is that the shortcoming you raise must be true, but if it is a core function of the job, you have problems. If it is something that you are well aware of and have been working hard to remedy, you may be able to safely raise it as a chink in your armour. In your case, I wasn't surprised that you were eliminated from the selection process for raising communication as a noteworthy weakness when (a) it was a core function of the job and (b) you were already an adult. You said it yourself - some years later, you now see yourself as having much-improved communication skills, but as an adult, you weren't going to be able to "fix" that problem in a matter of weeks or even months. So, harsh as it was, my thinking is that your boss was not wrong to drop you from the process seeing as you lacked a core skill for the role.
At a more serious level however, is a weakness that is something innate. For example, if you are a pronounced introvert and you are going for a business development role, then my advice comes down to a more fundamental level: Why are you applying for a round-hole job when you are so obviously a square peg? Which brings us back to the all-too-common "confidence" issue that I see client after client raising.
Bottom line, you need to know this stuff about yourself - you really, really do - and I don't just mean for job-hunts. This kind of fundamental self-knowledge is sorely lacking in the modern workplace and time and again I've seen it as a major impediment to career progression.
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in a sketch that seems very appropriate for the topic:
RSS Readers may need to click through to the post.
The original weakness post is here.
My thoughts on Impostor Syndrome are here.
Ask a Manager also has some great thoughts on the weakness topic here.
4 comments:
Howdy! I'm Don, and I'm just passing through on an epic journey, back-tracking the 123 meme.
Thanks.
Ta.
Yes, yes, yes! This gets at the point I often try to make, that job interviews aren't just about landing the offer. They're about landing a job that you'll excel at. If you're weak in a core area that matters, it's not the job for you. Good interviewers are doing you a favor by not hiring you for a job you won't thrive in.
I feel corporate propaganda using those ridiculous "motivational posters" and the politically correct mantra that "you can be anything you want to be" are to blame for deluding round pegs into thinking they can fit into square holes.
Don - Nice to see you and thanks for a great meme.
Ask - "Good interviewers are doing you a favour ..." How perfectly expressed! But you just can't tell people that - they have to find it out for themselves. Sheesh!
Declan - Detecting just a faint hint of sarcasm in your comment sir, but you are right - the "Gee aren't we great, let's give our kids mortar boards and parchment for completing their finger painting class!" culture is engendering a delusional mindset in people. Most of us are, by definition, average at most things. What fascinates me is how most of us are disinclined to take a bit of time to uncover those things we are above average at ...
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