With that in mind, here’s how to answer ‘what are your weaknesses?’ effectively in a job interview.

Alternative ways of asking the question

  • What is your biggest weakness?
  • What are your greatest weaknesses?
  • What are your weakest skills?
  • Describe a time you struggled at work and what you did to overcome it.

What is the purpose of the question?

If you’ve just pulled out all your best moves convincing your potential employers why you’re so great for the job, you may be concerned about explaining why you’re not such as great catch.
But that’s not what the interviewer is looking for.
Not exactly, anyway.
Firstly, they want to gauge an idea of your self-awareness.  Do you recognise the areas where you aren’t so savvy?
Secondly, they want to see how honest you are. Are you the type to disguise your strength as a weakness, or are you going to show them your character, truthfully?
And finally, your prospective employer wants to check out your ability to self-improve. Are you going to let your weaknesses get in the way of your new role, or are you the type to address them, learn and improve?
Therefore, it’s not solely about your flaws, but your ability to overcome and improve your shortcomings, and work effectively despite them.

How to plan your response

When answering this question, you need to remember it’s highly unlikely that you’re awesome at everything, but more importantly, that your interviewer doesn’t expect you to be either.
That should help dispel a lot of your fear about identifying your weaknesses.
If you want to impress your interviewer and answer this question the right way, here’s how to plan each part of your response.

Identify your weaknesses

First thing’s first: you need to identify your weaknesses. While it’s important to remain honest and realistic about your flaws, you need to try and pick out weaknesses that won’t jeopardise your ability to do the job.
For example, if the role requires someone who’s punctual and you struggle with your alarm every morning, it’s probably not the best idea to bring this up – or to have applied for this particular job in the first place!