In the list of most hated interview questions, the question “What is your biggest weakness?” has got to be number one. You go into an interview attempting to showcase your strengths and they want to hear about your weaknesses. It’s a question that is designed to throw you off guard and put you off balance, and it works very well at accomplishing both. However, there is a third reason that the question is asked: To find out how well you know yourself. It’s a character question and most people fail miserably at answering it well.
When job seekers know that they are likely to be asked about their faults or weaknesses, they prepare a pat answer that attempts to turn a negative into a positive. The most common answer is also the worst answer: “I tend to be something of a workaholic.” This is the wrong answer because that shows you to be unable to strike a balance between work and life. Without that balance you are more prone to stress, being difficult to work with, and a candidate for making mistakes.
So what is your biggest weakness? Everyone has one and all most people need to do is think back over what types of criticisms they have gotten to find one. I tend to ask a lot of questions and over analyze everything. This can be annoying to some people, but it’s also an asset in my line of work. Figure out your biggest weakness and look for a positive angle on it. Then you will be ready to answer the most hated interview question of them all, and turn your most feared weakness into a selling point during the interview.
