"What is your greatest weakness?"

[brendan]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123361001775640785.html

[Eriny]

^ maybe saying that you're a perfectionist or a workaholic?

[ice_blockie]

my greatest weakness....chocolate...especially dark chocolate fudge

[username]

Reminds me of that TV ad.. The interviewer asked the lady what her weakness was and she said "Shoes." Mind you, she was trying out for a fashion design opening or something. I thought it was pretty smart.

[costargh]

my mortality

[mullums1]

kryptonite

[bubble sunglasses]

 could you cite something that "used to be a big weakness for me", but then go on to say you were working hard at improving in that area? [And maybe if it was appearance and you looked decent enough at the interview that would reassure them.]

[Collin Li]

I always plan to answer this by saying that I don't have enough time - I'm prone to coming up with new ideas and plans, but having such an interest in learning new things makes it difficult to keep up with all of these plans. (Enthusiastic and entrepreneurial)

I also have an item on my resume (and something I will quote) that demonstrates I have focused my energies successfully on such a project.

[Fyrefly]

I always plan to answer this by saying that I don't have enough time - I'm prone to coming up with new ideas and plans, but having such an interest in learning new things makes it difficult to keep up with all of these plans. (Enthusiastic and entrepreneurial)

I also have an item on my resume (and something I will quote) that demonstrates I have focused my energies successfully on such a project.

On a more practical side, a potential employer may doubt your ability to meet deadlines if you say this... if you weren't given a chance to explain the new ideas/plans thing, it would probably work against you to say something like that.

Anywayz... /bed

[Collin Li]

Ah, I would word it somewhat like this:

"I would say my biggest weakness is that I feel like I never have enough time to keep up with all the ideas and projects I come up with. [quick comeback] I'm enthusiastic about so many things and come up with new ideas all the time that I can't manage to pursue all of them. Recognising this, I've managed to harness my enthusiasm by focusing on my best ideas... currently devoting a lot of attention to..."

Workaholic and perfectionist are too cliche.

[excal]

^ maybe saying that you're a perfectionist or a workaholic?

What coblin said. It's probably what *everyone* says and it gets old really, really fast.

The best responses are framed around actual weaknesses or flaws that you had. You state what you're weakness really is - but also how you are mitigating it (think about framing your response to the S.T.A.R technique - Situation/Task, Action, Result).

I think I used a flaw of mine that I do not enjoy doing long, repetitive tasks but then also mentioned that a strategy that I was using to mitigate this issue was to break the task down into sizable chunks and 'splitting' up my day to reduce the risk of being bored of the work.

Of course the responses will vary from person to person - and that will make you more unique in the eyes of the recruiters...as opposed to 'I'm a perfectionist'.

[/0]

Lol reminds me of this ad that I studied for english language

[Collin Li]

Yeah, my interview was very situational, so I actually improvised on this question I got at the end, and talked about how the "group" element to my position would be something I haven't done regularly, but then I did add that I've had experiences before with team building.

[QuantumJG]

Reminds me of that TV ad.. The interviewer asked the lady what her weakness was and she said "Shoes." Mind you, she was trying out for a fashion design opening or something. I thought it was pretty smart.

Just get me to an electronics store (something with games) and I wouldn't be lying if I said that my greatest weakness is video games

[excal]

Yeah, my interview was very situational, so I actually improvised on this question I got at the end, and talked about how the "group" element to my position would be something I haven't done regularly, but then I did add that I've had experiences before with team building.

I would've thought behavioural questions were the flavour of the month.