How to talk about your weaknesses in a job interview

Tips on how to properly communicate your weaknesses in a job interview.

Attending a job interview is a situation that usually tends to tense and cause nervousness to most people, since we know that we are going to be valued and that this first impression may depend on whether or not we are selected.

For this reason it is important that you prepare well for such an event, to increase your confidence and security and to get an idea of what you may be asked.

A typical question that the interviewer usually asks is what we believe are our weaknesses, or our greatest weaknesses.. The need to answer such a question can be scary, since we are expressing a negative or not well valued quality in us, but if we know how to express it, it can play in our favor, increasing our credibility and benefiting us in the selection process against other candidates.

In this article we raise some questions that you should take into account before attending a job interview and how you should prepare yourself for the possibility of being asked about your weaknesses..

How to talk about your shortcomings in a job interview?

Who hasn't been through a job interview? It is normal that when we are looking for a job we have to interview with a recruiter or an employee of the company or place where I want to work, to assess whether we are valid and we have the characteristics they are looking for the vacant position.

In itself a job interview already gives an impression and tends to create anxiety and tension, It is normal that we feel nervous, since it is a situation where we will be evaluated and judged.. It is the first contact with a subject that works in the company where I would like to join and it will also be decisive to be able to get the job or not. For this reason it is important that we face the situation with confidence and prepared for the different issues and questions that may arise.

Although a question or topic may come up during the interview that we did not expect, normally these types of selection interviews follow a fairly similar pattern, i.e., they tend to be approached in a similar way. For this reason, it will help you to prepare how you would answer some of the points that are sure to come up, in order to increase your confidence and self-assurance and to adopt effective strategies. and try to ensure that you say everything you want to communicate to the interviewer.

Even so, by preparing the answers to possible questions we do not mean to give the answer in a concrete way, by this we mean that we should think about how we would like to answer what points we want to come out in our answer, but not what our answer will be as it is, with periods and commas, since it is better to leave room for flexibility and to be able to give the answer according to the question we are asked. Since we do not know for sure what the interviewer will ask us, it can be useful to think of different points that we want to emphasize and adapt to different possible formulations.

Not only in job interviews; in our life in general we find it difficult to express our weaknesses, to make our weak points known, since we believe that we do show or make known our negative traits or the worst valued traits. we believe that if we show or make known our negative or worst valued traits they will cause a rejection in the other person.. But contrary to this belief if we know how to properly communicate our weaknesses these can help us and benefit us even when we want to get a job.

Recognizing our weaknesses increases our credibility.We all have weaknesses and therefore knowing how to express them and raise them does not harm us but on the contrary, we present ourselves as someone aware of their traits and gives veracity to the other answers given, that we are not hiding information, since as we have said we all have negative traits and not saying them means that we want to hide them or worse, that we are not aware of them.

So, with the purpose of getting to know us better it is very likely that in a job interview we are asked about our greatest weakness, to try to catch us by surprise and see how we respond to this question, but as we have already anticipated this question, this can also play in our favor.

Recommendations for communicating your weaknesses in a job interview.

Below you will find some recommendations to prepare yourself and know how to face the typical question "what are your weaknesses" in a job interview.

1. Ask yourself what your weaknesses are specifically in relation to the job position.

It is obvious that in order to be able to adequately answer the question of what is our greatest weakness we must first know what our weaknesses are, but always having as a reference the job that is being offered.. The answer must provide relevant information in the context of personnel selection, because if not, it will denote problems to provide information that fits what the company is asking for, and that detracts from our value as candidates.

We must not lose sight of the fact that we are in a job interview and, therefore, what the interviewer is interested in is to know how we are in the workplace. So when you answer about your strengths and weaknesses it is important that you refer to issues or traits that you can apply or that are linked to the job, otherwise the answer will not make sense.

We must go further and look for a specific quality or characteristic of ours that is specifically related to the job we are applying for, as this will make it more relevant.

If you are not sure what these points are, it may help to write down in a notebook situations or events in which you think you did not act well and see why this happened. and see why this happened.

In this way, apart from getting to know ourselves better, we can also take the opportunity to consider what actions we could take to improve our weaknesses and how to adapt ourselves so that they do not affect us so much or do not have negative consequences. This leads us to the following advice.

2. Turn your weaknesses around

Knowing your weaknesses also gives you the option of being able to discuss how to improve them or how you have evolved and progressed positively, so that they do not harm you or hold you back. In this way, we also show the interviewer that apart from recognizing all our traits, we have solutions so that the negative or weaker aspects improve or do not affect us so much.not harm the job.

Showing that we are resolute and that we can have good ideas to solve possible problems will play in our favor and will help to get a better evaluation, since the important thing is not to not have weaknesses, but to know how to handle them. We are taking advantage of weaknesses to show a strength such as knowing how to face and solve problems.

3. Mention your weaknesses without overlooking the question

When you mention your weaknesses It is much better not to lie or try to hide them by answering the question with a trait that is actually a strength.. It is common to use answers such as "I am a perfectionist", with which you are really avoiding the need to talk about your own weaknesses by expressing a strength as if it were an imperfection, thus losing credibility.

It is better that you truly indicate what you think is your most relevant weakness, giving an example and context in which this characteristic is expressed in the workplace and, as we have said before, take the opportunity to discuss what solution you have found so that it does not affect you.

4. Know the position you aspire to

Being honest and expressing your weaknesses does not mean that you have to self-sabotage yourself. It is important that you know what values, characteristics, traits, are sought and prioritized in the company or position you are applying for, as this will ensure that your answer does not mean your elimination as an applicant. For example, if you want to get a position where order is very important, having everything organized, it may not be the best option to say that you are very messy.

Be skillful and pose a sincere weakness, but without this can harm you, for this reason apart from knowing yourself it is also advisable that you know the place you want to get and that you can combine both criteria. that you can combine both criteria.

5. First the weakness, then the strength

It is advisable that if you are asked about one of your strengths and one of your weaknesses, first state the weakness and then the strength. In different psychology studies about how memory works or functions in different situations, it has been observed that when it is relevant to remember the information in the present moment, just after giving it, it is better to give the important information at the end, since a recency effect is produced; we remember better what was said last.This produces a recency effect; we remember better the last thing that has been said. In this way, we ensure that the message that has the most force, redundancy aside, is the message of our strengths.

6. Do not use words that are too strong

Another point to consider when expressing your weaknesses is to try not to use words such as "always" or "never", since they are totalitarian words, i.e., they express that something is or is not given or not given. express that something is or is not given continuously in a certain way.. Therefore, it is better to use expressions such as "sometimes" or "from time to time", i.e., that do not assume that such behavior always appears.