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Employee’s weaknesses – how to talk about them?

An interview is in most cases a stressful event and it is difficult to find someone who goes there with real pleasure, even when it comes to the dream company. We never know what awaits us, what we will be asked about, what answer is desired, and whether or not we will shoot some terrible blunder. Therefore, it is worth preparing in advance and having a ready answer to the most frequently asked questions. Certainly, each conversation is different, tailored to the company’s requirements, but there are sentences that are almost always asked, e.g. the question about the weaknesses of the employee. How to talk about them?

Employee weaknesses – why this question?

Why do employers want to know our shortcomings? The advantages seem difficult and what we want to work on – even more. Sometimes we have the impression that the question about the weaknesses of the employee is asked so that the employer can find out firsthand why it is not worth hiring us. Nothing could be more wrong! The point is to check if we are aware of our flaws and try to work on them and eliminate them. This is a slightly twisted way to check if we are working on ourselves and have self-awareness.

Weaknesses of the employee – how to answer?

When a recruiter asks us about a weakness, we have several options for answering. However, we should definitely beware of those that are repeatedly repeated by everyone. Let’s avoid workaholism and perfectionism. Even if we do have this, hardly anyone will believe it. This is so often repeated and hackneyed that it will probably be considered a mistake in advance. Be creative and prepare a better answer. What?

It all depends on how you approach the topic. Remember that excessive honesty will not be well received. We are talking with a potential employer, so it’s better not to mention problems with alcohol, gambling, incurable laziness, beating up, playing The Witcher, and being permanently late to work for this reason. Nobody needs to know about it. It will be easier for us to fight it without an unnecessary audience.

First of all, let’s think about what we really think are our weaknesses and what we want to work on. Let’s prepare a list of such features and try to adjust them to the position in order to make them, in a sense, advantages. For example, if we know that the work will be independent or remote, we can say that we cannot work in a group if we are looking for a job in a service office, it is worth mentioning that we are talkative, and in the case of an accountant or editor, excessive meticulousness may become a “disadvantage”. Each bad side should be considered this way, it can really help and make the question about employee weaknesses a problem for us.

tell about something that is in no way related to the job you want to get. If we want to become an editor, still delaying the start of physical activity does not seem so significant.

Weaknesses are there to be worked on. So we can tell you about something that we have already eliminated. Perhaps our disadvantage was the poor organization of work, but we can immediately add that we have been working on it for a long time and at this point, we already know how to fight it and assign ourselves tasks better and better. Or maybe we had gaps in foreign languages, so we started courses to deal with it? The internet consumed our work time, but we have been using blocking applications for some time and thanks to this our productivity has increased significantly. We smoked cigarettes, but have said goodbye to the smoke for some time and we feel much better? There is certainly something behind us and we can tell you about it.

It can also be a good idea to make a joke, but first, we need to feel the atmosphere of the company and the conversation. If from the very beginning we feel that everything is done at ease, we can turn the answer to the question about the weaknesses of the employee into a joke and, for example, admit laziness, but for example add that we consider ourselves lazy because we have been starting a diet for years from tomorrow, which has not yet come. Of course, this is just an example, and the best jokes are spontaneous. However, let us not forget each other and let us not go from the extreme to the extreme. The jokes aren’t always there and you need to be aware of this.

When asked about weaknesses, some employees simply say they have them – like everyone else, but none of them will stop them from performing work in a specific position. Is this a good strategy? It’s really hard to say, after all, the recruiter may find it either a perfect breakout or a failure to prepare for the interview.

Proper preparation is the key to success

The interview is extremely important. The potential employer can verify the data included in the CV for the first time. If we care about work, we must carefully prepare. Not only information about the company will be helpful but also preparing answers to frequently asked questions, such as just employee weaknesses. Thanks to this, few things will be able to surprise us.

If we do not think about it in advance, our head will become a black hole during the conversation and it will be difficult for us to dig anything out, and it certainly won’t appeal to a potential employer. Perhaps, in the end, no one will ask us any of the always-repeated questions, but nevertheless, ready-made answers will allow us to get rid of some stress, which we will have too much anyway.

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