Let's imagine for a second that you're in a job interview - and it's going pretty well as far as you can tell.

It's about half way through, and you're firing away, owning every question.

Tell us about yourself? boom.

What interests you about this job? booooom.

Why do you think you'd excel at this job? BA bOOm.

You're sitting up relaxed, breathing normally. Your resume is looking quite flawless in that interviewer's hand - with everything from that babysitting job you took up in the seventh grade to your RA position at your college sprinkled with a couple mentions of your untouchable street cred. You gave that firm hand shake. You're looking fly in your best clothes:

And as far as you see, it's in the bag.

And then it happens.

"What is your greatest weakness?"

*silence*

Everything is just TV Static from here while your mind keeps doing a pulsating, horrifying version of the cupid shuffle searching for an answer. Why is this question asked? And is this question really necessary?

Why do hiring managers even want to know about your greatest weakness?

This seems to pop up in about every interview I've ever been in. And honey, from scholarship applications to flat out job interviews, this question is a popular one. And I never really knew why people actually asked this until I had the chance to ask it myself.

The truth is, you get a lot out of this question.

The hiring manager really isn't looking at what you answer but how you answer. It's not like they're going to put "doesn't like confrontation" on a sticky note and look at it every time they see you around the office. Honestly, they might even forget it by the time you start. (This is because of the way you recover which I will get to later). Again, it's the way you answer this question.

When you answer this question your interviewer will learn 3 things about you.

Your self-awareness, your honesty, how you seek to improve this.

Also, this is simply just a hard question to answer. The way that you answer this and how you spin it is crucial.

Here is are 3 steps to answering this question without hesitation

1. Prepare in advance.

And you're already doing this by reading this article

This will most likely prevent you from staring blankly at the sky searching for your answer.

No matter how many times I'm in an interview, this question still sort of feels like a surprise. Preparing for these tough questions gives you an edge. My advice is to prepare a certain weakness, write about it, talk about it - and you should be able to stun that hiring manager with your answer.

2. Yes, you have a weakness.

Yes, they are looking for the perfect candidate for this position. But let me tell you, the perfect candidate has their weaknesses.

The worst thing to hear as a hiring manager are two things

I have no weaknesses and or a strength as a weakness - e.g.

"Weakness? Well, I guess you could say I just work too hard.. I just care so much about my performance and..."

Even if you were a perfectionist, this doesn't break the surface of the question. Both of these answers are easy cop-outs of answering the question thoroughly and thoughtfully.

Dig deeper. Remember #1 of what the hiring manager is supposed to learn about you - Self awareness.

These weaknesses can come in the form of, being too blunt, being impatient, shyness, procrastinating, being too sensitive, lacking experience.

These sound ugly, but here is how you make the best of these.

3. In order to utter this, use the confession and recovery tactic.

Confess your weakness.

Recover it.

I like to call this the yo-yo method. You drop the news and reel it back up to your hand.

How does the recovery work you ask? You reveal that this is a strength in weakness. Do this by not elaborating so much on your weakness. (I've seen that go inflames- we didn't get to even hear this poor girls' takeaway or recovery a good key would be to talk 25% on weakness and 75% on strength). And finally meditating on this weakness in positives.

Well this comes in a form of questions you must ponder yourself.

Did you learn from experiences having this weakness?

Can you view this weakness as a challenge? How will you overcome it?

How does this make you look as an employee? And how will you solve it?

You don't need statistics in this one.

Here's an example:

I have a few international students that come to me with this question and they almost always say that english being their second language is their greatest weakness. Confession.

What is the recovery here? They view this as a challenge. They approach the job with dedication to learning this language and tackling the ropes. Thus, it makes them very observant due to the effort that they put into recognizing and the extra weight that is added to their experience as employees.

Here are a few examples from job-hut.org

(Confession)"I feel that my greatest weakness is that I am very critical of my own work. I have always prided myself on producing excellent and error-free work. While this is beneficial to my job performance, it is possible to go to extremes.

(Recovery)"I have also found that I can easily waste time checking and rechecking. Now I am aware of what to look for in being such a stickler, so I am always making a conscious effort to trust myself and my quality focus more and not be so incredibly critical of my work. I know that there is a limit to proofreading."

(Confession)"Some people would consider the fact that I have never worked in this field before as a weakness. However, being highly trainable and open minded, I have no pre-conceived notions on how to perform my job.

(Recovery)"Working with your organization will give me the opportunity to learn the job the way you want it done, not the way I believe it is done. In addition, although I have no former on-the-job experience, I do bring with me extensive hands-on training and experience which can only enhance my ability to learn extremely quickly."


The only thing left for you to do is write your own story. So let me ask you, what is your greatest weakness?