How should you tackle the interview question what is your biggest weakness?

"What is your biggest weakness" is one of the challenging interview questions which interviewers raise frequently. How you address the response to the query may possibly wind up being as crucial if not more important than what you actually say.

The real question is how to address the question while not making it appear as if you have a weak point that could prevent you from becoming hired.

On the other hand, you don't want to refer to a weakness that's not really a weak spot and describe to the interviewer what you think they wish to hear.

Remember that a professional interviewer has already been told every single clichéd response to this question and they can tell when you are feeding them a line.

The aim of asking this question is probably for a start to observe how you tackle a difficult challenge not to mention also how you in fact deal with it. They want to see how you respond.

Here are several recommendations for the purpose of answering if an job interviewer asks what about your greatest weakness:

1. Respond to the query frankly. It's always wise to answer any interview question truthfully (needless to say) however this is a particularly critical one. Making up some sort of weakness which is not a real weak point is likely to wind up being very visible to the job interviewer. Should they believe you're lying, they can request yet another weakness from you that may cause you far more difficulty attempting to think about another one off the top of your head.

2. Don't refer to an important weak point that can cost you the job. Your primary goal here isn't to lie of course, it is simply to present yourself as well as you can. Everybody has flaws nonetheless it doesn't suggest we all reveal to an interviewer everything that we do wrong. If by way of example you're interviewing for a manager role, it is certainly best not to mention that you have difficulties getting along with people since you're likely to be consistently cooperating with other people and managing them in such a position.

3. By no means evade the question. Don't try to avoid answering the question. Be careful about supplying a clichéd weak point (for example "Sometimes I work too hard.") and then quickly stating how you deal with it. That looks very scripted and the interviewer has possibly heard it a number of times before from other people. Admitting a true weakness but then stating your work to better yourself is more effective. For example "My public presentation capabilities are not as effective as I'd like so I signed up for a presentation skills class and have found that it has helpe me improve my skills significantly." Bear in mind the actual role you're interviewing for will help to determine the way you answer the question.

4. Ensure that your answer is truthful as well as being concise. Commonly, stress questions like these which put us on the spot often cause us to ramble on and talk for longer than we should especially if we're tense. The simplest way to respond to the question is to be well prepared and to understand exactly how you will respond to the question before the job interview. This may prevent you trying to think off the top of your head and saying more than you have to which may damage your chances of obtaining the job.

5. Be careful about utilizing "my biggest weakness is my greatest strength" as your answer. Saying that "I'm a perfectionist" or "I'm a workaholic" is another of those clichéd answers that people often give to this question. It will probably come across as being scripted and the interviewer will most likely determine that you got the answer from an interview tips book.

Remember that while being honest and truthful is always your best bet, always using common sense will help you get the job you're
looking for.

If you'd like to read more about job interview advice, Carl Mueller has turned his experience as a recruiter into helping career-minded people get better jobs. He's put everything he learned as a recruiter into his website Bailout My Career.