Expert shares best ‘weaknesses’ to help ace job interview

Job interviews can be tough, especially when you’re thrown a question you didn’t prepare for.

You should do your research before you head into a job interview so that you’re ready for anything they might ask. It’s encouraged to have something prepared for any questions about why you think you’re a good fit for the role, what experience you already have, and why you want to work for the company.

But there’s one tricky question that trips us all up: What’s your biggest weakness?

You’ve probably been told before that the best thing to do is to find a weakness that can be construed as a strength, and while that could work, many of us will say we’re “perfectionists” or we’re just too hard working – even when that isn’t true.

So what should you say instead? Thankfully, a careers expert has shared some of the best weaknesses you can mention in any job interview, as well as the secret formula to create your own personalised weakness that will impress your employers.

Anna Papalia stated in a video on TikTok that the most important things to remember when thinking of a weakness is that “it needs to be true” and “professional”.

This means you shouldn’t claim you’re a perfectionist if the interviewer can clearly see some spelling errors in your CV, and you shouldn’t say that you’re a procrastinator or that you’re always late – as these are tricky to spin in a positive light.

She said: “Your weaknesses in a job interview need to be construed as strengths, but they also need to be real, true weaknesses.”

She went on to share some weaknesses that you could use in your next interview, but noted you should only use them if they do actually apply to you. Among her list were: ‘I have trouble saying no’, ‘It’s difficult for me to delegate and trust others with my work’, ‘I have a hard time asking for help because I want to figure things out on my own’, ‘I’m impatient and goal-oriented’.

If you lack specific experience for the job you’re interviewing for and you’d like an opportunity to address that in the interview, the weakness question can be a great time to do so. Anna said: “You could say something like, ‘While I have extensive experience in X, Y, and Z, I know I’m lacking in this other piece of experience, but let me walk you through the last time that I learned my role because I’m a very fast learner.'”

Commenters on the post thanked Anna for her helpful advice, although many said that recruiters should “retire” the weakness question from job interviews as they believe it’s “useless” and “wastes people’s time”.

One person said: “This is good advice and all, but it’s so painful that the acceptable answers are all [examples of saying] ‘here’s a good way to exploit my work ethic!'” Another added: “This question seems like a trap to see how they can take advantage of you.”