CAREERS NOW 05-16-04

Best Answers To Your Biggest Weakness Question

DEAR JOYCE: What is the best answer to "What is your greatest weakness?" -- F.M.

An unvarnished response is dangerous.

BAD ANSWERS. Although you'll want to be sure (just ask) what the interviewer is getting at -- general competencies, technical skills or teamwork situations -- some responses are universally ill-advised:

-- Say "I'm lazy" or "I have a low boredom threshold" and you ring dumbbells.

-- Reveal every shortcoming and the interviewer may turn his white collar around and offer you not a job but seating at a confessional.

-- Pair your weakness with a credibility-challenged accomplishment and you lose authenticity: "I'm shy before groups but that reminds me of the time I won a $250 million contract and saved the company from bankruptcy."

-- Mention risky personal traits like a tendency toward fast anger and you frame yourself in red flags: "I become too worked up at times but I took an anger management class and now I know how to quickly chill out."

(Exception: You're an ex-offender claiming that anger made you do it when pressed to explain your offense. You do need to demonstrate what you have done to achieve a successful anger makeover in your new life.)

-- Worse of all, refusing to admit to any weakness suggests that self-evaluation skills are in short supply in your neighborhood. You are not seen as objective about yourself and your limitations. You do not recognize your flaws and don't take steps to overcome them. You are not the one to hire.

PRINCELY PRINCIPLES. Employers ask the weakness question for various reasons. They ask on the off-chance that you're naive enough to spill what's really wrong with the otherwise perfect you. They ask to see if you can handle hard questions under pressure. They ask to find out if you have a willingness to grow personally and professionally. Sometimes they ask merely because it seems like a logical follow-up to the question's opposite number, "What are your strengths."

Answer the W-question with these guidelines in mind.

RESTATE. Rhetorically rephrase the question aloud: "What attribute when improved would make me perform even better in my career?" Pause. Then identify areas in which you want more training or guidance.

REDIRECT. Steer the conversation to actions and self-corrections that you've taken toward improvement: "I'm determined to complete whatever I start and occasionally I can see myself getting hard-headed about it. But then I step back and recall the difference between completing a project and committing an act of stubbornness and make a course correction. Shall I tell you about the time when I --?"

SPIN. Use the familiar positive-as-negative approach: "I sometimes become impatient when others don't work as hard as I do but before I react, I ask myself why my coworker is having trouble keeping up."

MODIFY. Take the edge off a trait that could be perceived as extreme: "Busywork bugs me but before I give any less than my usual 100 percent effort, I ask for clarification."

JOB FACTOR. Analyze the job to find a "weakness" that makes it click. When attention to detail is required: "I have to keep a third eye on the clock to be sure I meet deadlines because I'm a perfectionist."

Conversely, choose a weakness that doesn't matter to the job's success. When persuasion skills are required: "I'm a very organized person but you'd never know it from looking at my desk."

WORK IN PROGRESS. Have a plan for improving an imperfection you haven't fully overcome: "My biggest weakness is that English is my second language. But I'm taking a class and listening to speech on TV and my language ability is getting better every day."

MANY FACES. Before interviewing, think of three weaknesses with good answers and examples. The weakness question may come disguised: "What about yourself do you want to improve?" or "Which is the worst of your three greatest weaknesses and why?" or "Tell me about the biggest mistake you've made in your career and what you learned from it."

TURN THE TABLES. Should you use humor? Pretend you're the interviewer. How would you react to someone who said her biggest weakness is being a recovering pessimist after experiencing the terrible job market of the past several years? With a chuckle or rebuff?

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