[Closed] Interview Acceptable Weaknesses

Any? Just answer the question truthfully and say how you'r aiming to improve on it. The worst answer is either a lie (they will probably have observed your weekness' already in the day unless it realy is just a straight interview) or to say you have no weakness'.

I told them I felt i was rubbish at presenting, so I voulenteered to do the pub quiz on stage regulalry in the student halls infront of 400 people and did a module that requred some more formal presenting.

And the weekness I was currently working on was time management/estimating deadlines as i'm forever setting impossible deadlines.

Necrophilia.

maybe i should just say spelling and typing in future!

I told them older women in latex. In hindsight honesty wasn't the best policy on that occasion.

I'm too much of a perfectionist.

I was going to say the same as Thisisnotaspoon...something that can be improved such as presentation skills/confidence, even better if you can show you are addressing it.

From way back when I worked in recruitment for a while, I sent a candidate out to interview with a client and made it very clear that the client wanted someone with a sense of humour, a personality.

Client - "So, what are your weaknesses?"
Candidate - "Well, I don't really like cats all that much"

He got the job on the spot.

Many years ago I had another one of those tricky interview questions - "What are you worth?". My answer was "If you break me down into chemicals it's probably about a fiver". Got the job.

I'm too much of a perfectionist.

You might as well tell them that you're lying, but have no imagination.

What if you are too much of a perfectionist?

Slightly OT, but many years ago, I went for a sales job interview and the interviewer asked a load of 'normal' questions before springing, "Be a chicken" on me.

Bit taken aback, but I obliged.... Next up was, "Tell me a joke!".

My mind went utterly blank - apart from my old standby, "how do you crucify a spastic?" I explained to him that I could only think of one joke and that it wasn't appropriate - I was really squirming - sweat lashing down the face - the whole panicky works....

He pressed me, I asked the question and when he heard the punchline (On a swastika), he laughed for a good half a minute - a genuine belly laugh.

Got the job, but it was sh1te and I lasted about two months.....

Someone asked me what was my unique selling point. I told them I could lick my elbows. I hope later on they went somewhere private and tried it for themselves.

There are no acceptable weaknesses that will ingratiate you with the interviewer. They are recruiting you for your strengths.
You may as well lie as its what they want to hear.
Tell them you work to hard or struggle with the work/life balance as you seldom leave the office. Every one knows its rubbish but they dont want to hear "real" weaknesses such as I always struggle to hit deadlines or my project management skills are poor or I cant balance a budget.
No matter how hard you are working to overcome your weaknesses they are still just that!
Fudge the question, dont lie just dont tell them what they dont need to know thinking it will be a plus point for honestly!

I was once asked 'If you were a sweet, what sort would it be?'. It was totally tongue in cheek as the guy interviewing me was (still is) a really nice guy - he'd just heard the question somewhere else and couldn't resist trying it out!

I think I answered 'something hard on the outside and soft in the inside' or some such tosh... (which anyone who knows me will totally refute - nothing 'hard' about me - don't go there!) Got the job and loved it. Shame about the redundancy, though...

The best question I have been asked was 'Where did you last go on holiday?' (Bruges, actually - soon to be untrue!)

I was asked this and answered : I am intolerant towards people who ask stupid questions because they heard that someone else had asked them without ever bothering to find out how to interpret the answer.

A moment of silence.

Then I followed with, clearly you thought it through before asking which is why you have spent the last thirty seconds thinking about what I just said.

Got the second interview with someone else who started the interview with : So you are the mouthy one who made Justin look like the stupid cock he is.

I guess my first interview was with Justin.

"I've got the usual strengths and weaknesses you would expect from somebody who is going to be good at this role"

In other words don't expect a salesman to be good at paperwork, don't expect a compliance officer to be good at cold-calling.

At the last interview I attended: Why did you not accept the job we offered you before? My reply the pay wasnt great (still isnt), I've now been there 3 weeks.
Another one which was at a selection process for an internal promotion, was what animal would you be? apparently most answered Lion, tiger, cheethah and sharks, not me my response was a sloth, I take my time but get the job done properly, and don't rush in head first, got the promotion.

Then they wonder why the country's gone to the dogs............

Hi

Thanks very much this comment. You can see same topic at the side bar of this site. You can find out some thing same your questions.

Rgs

At my last interview I said that it was my attention to detail which some may see as being unnecessary to the point of near-OCD (if things are slightly out of alignment on say a website it really bugs me)! Seemed to like that one, said it was better than the usual "oh I work too hard!" 🙂 Didn't get the bluddy job though.

Last interview.

Them: "What three words would your current colleagues use to describe you?

Me: "er, Planner, Organised..."

Them: "They're the same"

Me: "No they're not" I then explained.....

For my third word I suggested "Pedant", but she didn't understand what it meant so that didn't work. 🙂

Got the job.

jaffa cakes.

I usually say something nice to the effect that I struggle when things are slow and boring.

Another way of saying I spend too much time on stw.

At the risk of repeating some others, no real ones can be admitted; anything relating to your basic work competence is an absolute no-no.

Ones that no-one likes are OK. For me as a finance guy, one that always seems to work for me, and the one I always use, is "I'm not great at dealing with HR issues. I can do it, I'm perfectly competent, but I really don't enjoy it. That can make me seem a bit cold when I'm dealing with redundancies and the like. It's just not my strong suit."

All perfectly true, by the way, but it's one that most people would admit to. After all, how many people can say they [i]enjoy[/i] giving people the bullet? And most people would admit that they're not that god at it and just want to get the whole unpleasant thing over with.

It also makes the positive point that you're tough enough to deal with it, but human enough to realise that it's a big issue in people's lives. One of those 'weakness but not really a weakness' type of answers.

Holy odd thread resurrection by incoherent newbie, Batman.

Holy cow I didn't realise how old this was! 🙂

Spammer! First time I've got to use the report button 🙂