{"id":340,"date":"2015-05-20T12:15:33","date_gmt":"2015-05-20T11:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/?p=340"},"modified":"2025-10-22T15:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:58:11","slug":"how-to-answer-whats-your-biggest-weakness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/2015\/05\/20\/how-to-answer-whats-your-biggest-weakness\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Answer \u2018What\u2019s Your Greatest Weakness?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2015\/05\/whatareyourweaknesses1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-341\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2015\/05\/whatareyourweaknesses1-300x162.jpg\" alt=\"whatareyourweaknesses1\" width=\"300\" height=\"162\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2015\/05\/whatareyourweaknesses1-300x162.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2015\/05\/whatareyourweaknesses1.jpg 740w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Every time I deliver a interview skills workshop, inevitably someone asks, <em>\"how can I answer the weakness question?\"<\/em>. If I charged a \u00a31 every time this horror question comes up in my training sessions, I would be a retired millionaire sailing in the South of France. Instead, here I am\u00a0blogging about how best to answer what I think is a dreaded interview question.<\/p>\n<p>Firstly, it is important to try and understand what the employer is looking for. They want to see:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How well you respond to pressure. Can you provide a thoughtful, considered answer without crumbling? Are you able to maintain your composure?<\/li>\n<li>Honesty and integrity. All of us have \u2018weak spots\u2019 but a strong candidate will take ownership of their weaknesses, showing both insight and self awareness.<\/li>\n<li>Evidence of personal growth. Being able to identify your weaknesses and take corrective action.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Secondly, in answering the weakness question, it is important to be honest!\u00a0<span style=\"line-height: 1.5\">Try to find something that you've struggled with in the past, but are now trying to overcome. You don\u2019t want to be too candid and start checking off weaknesses like a shopping list, so it\u2019s best to identify one particular area and share your \u2018journey\u2019 through a brief narrative. For example:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI\u2019m not the most confident public speaker and recently a number of my modules have involved course work requiring individual and group presentations. I have also been researching the placements application process and noticed that many employers expect candidates to deliver a short presentation as part of the selection process. I therefore decided to take practical steps to overcome this weakness. \u00a0I am also aware that being able to present with confidence is a valuable skill and one that I will need to use in my placement and future career. My first step was to\u00a0meet with my Careers Adviser, who signposted me to training workshops. I also undertook online research and identified tips such as using memory cards to help my confidence. Finally, I delivered two mock-presentations and asked for feedback from the careers team, which not only helped me improve and also pointed out areas of development. As a result of this, my presentations are much improved and I recently took lead in delivering a group presentation where I spoke for 15 minutes. I personally received excellent feedback and our group presentation was chosen as a winner by the judging employer\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Finally don't talk yourself out the job, therefore make sure you avoid the following mistakes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Don't play the perfectionist card, Warwick Careers summarise <a href=\"http:\/\/careersblog.warwick.ac.uk\/2012\/08\/27\/what-are-your-weaknesses-the-killer-interview-question\/\" target=\"_blank\">why<\/a>!<\/li>\n<li>Don't for example say 'chocolate' and expect the recruiter to have a funny bone.<\/li>\n<li>Don't refuse to answer the question or say, \"um, I don't have any weaknesses\".<\/li>\n<li>Don't reveal a weakness that raises a red flag which may jeorperdise your ability to do the job.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If in doubt, book a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bath.ac.uk\/students\/careers\/one-to-one#dropin\" target=\"_blank\">quick query<\/a> or a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bath.ac.uk\/students\/careers\/one-to-one#practice\" target=\"_blank\">practice interview<\/a> with one of our expect careers advisers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every time I deliver a interview skills workshop, inevitably someone asks, \"how can I answer the weakness question?\". If I charged a \u00a31 every time this horror question comes up in my training sessions, I would be a retired millionaire...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":384,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[748],"tags":[142,141],"class_list":["post-340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-interview-questions","tag-weakness"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/384"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}