[serious.sam]

Hi, so I've got an interview coming up and i'm dreading the question

"What is your biggest weakness", as I never know how to answer it!

THis is what I've thought of:

1) I'm a perfectionist - this is much too corny and they've probably heard it thousands of times.

[Clare~Bear]

What kind of job is it for?

if it's an ICT technician job you don't want to say technology.

if it's an accountancy job, you don't want to say statistics.

if it's a vetinary job, then you don't want to say, a fear of animals.

if it's in a shop/restaurant, you don't want to say that you hate people.

it needs to be vaguely relevant to the job, but not so relevant/ major that you couldn't do your job properly.

[Spence_LJS]

Whatever you do mention, just make sure you explain what you do to overcome it...

[linkdapink]

If its a shop job or something similar, they rarely ask that question. They're usually more interested in how flexible you can be. Say something honest - perfectionist is too much of a cliche. Something like "I tend to be shy at first, but when I've worked with a team a few times, I easily get into the spirit of the workplace" - equally as cheesy, but honest!

[serious.sam]

(Original post by Clare~Bear)
What kind of job is it for?

its a graduate marketing role

[Miracle Day]

My biggest weakness is impatience but I'll spin it around and say it makes me eager to get things accomplished.

[totell]

I think A LOT of people say that they are perfectionists :/

[Joinedup]

(Original post by totell)
I think A LOT of people say that they are perfectionists :/

ask a cliched question, get a cliched answer.

The trick imo is to give them something not too bad and show that you've recognised it as a problem and can work around it. the 'points' are for explaining the workaround in a positive way rather than having an original weakness.

[Clare~Bear]

The teachers at my newly built sixth form all got asked this question in their interviews I think - some of them told us what they said, or said something in the first few lessons that made it obvious how they would have answered it.

Answers included; learning names of students, ICT (especially the smart boards), fear of heights (this is from a teacher whose class is on the 3rd floor. There's also huge windows in the 6th form, so you can see most of the town. Plus it's all open plan so you can see right down to the ground floor, which isn't helped by the balcony walls not being very high and some of them being made from glass!)

Plus my biology teacher is the most unorganised person ever. Her desk was covered in papers and folders - so thats probably what she said.

[serious.sam]

(Original post by Clare~Bear)
The teachers at my newly built sixth form all got asked this question in their interviews I think - some of them told us what they said, or said something in the first few lessons that made it obvious how they would have answered it.

Answers included; learning names of students, ICT (especially the smart boards), fear of heights (this is from a teacher whose class is on the 3rd floor. There's also huge windows in the 6th form, so you can see most of the town. Plus it's all open plan so you can see right down to the ground floor, which isn't helped by the balcony walls not being very high and some of them being made from glass!)

Plus my biology teacher is the most unorganised person ever. Her desk was covered in papers and folders - so thats probably what she said.

I don't see how they could have got the job if they mentioned those weaknesses at all ...

[Clare~Bear]

(Original post by serious.sam)
I don't see how they could have got the job if they mentioned those weaknesses at all ...

Well they did! My geography teacher (the rubbish ICT person) just got students in the class who were good at IT to help him if something went wrong. Somehow, he never had to get an actual techy to help!

Well I know that there was only one candidate each for chemistry and biology. Unless you're completely useless, you've got the job. Plus the sixth form was moving from high schools to a new college. Any teacher whose timetable was at least 50% sixth form, automatically got an interview.

[thealpz]

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[MagicNMedicine]

They asked me this at my PGCE interview. I said schoolgirls

[Ham22]

"One day, probably in about a years time, I will hand in my notice, having been bored out of my mind at work for about 11 months and three weeks."

[Em_Huong]

(Original post by Miracle Day)
My biggest weakness is impatience but I'll spin it around and say it makes me eager to get things accomplished.

I say this too

[Good bloke]

(Original post by serious.sam)
THis is what I've thought of:

1) I'm a perfectionist - this is much too corny and they've probably heard it thousands of times.

Being corny is the best thing you can say about that answer. It is almost the worst answer you can give to an employer as it tells him, for instance, that you don't recognise when a task has been completed well enough for the purpose; that you waste time on trivial and useless improvements; and that are often unavailable to make proper progress on other important tasks. Perfectionism is a serious fault.

[Llamageddon]

My biggest weakness is wanting to punch the interviewer when they ask stupid questions.

So something in-between impatience and aggression.

[TurboCretin]

(Original post by serious.sam)
Hi, so I've got an interview coming up and i'm dreading the question

"What is your biggest weakness", as I never know how to answer it!

THis is what I've thought of:

1) I'm a perfectionist - this is much too corny and they've probably heard it thousands of times.

Be honest with them. They will have heard the "strength in weakness' clothing" answer a thousand times. Do you care too much what others think of you? Are you often too submissive? Everyone has weaknesses, they just want to know you're aware of yours.

[Miraclefish]

Reminds me of the scene in the original Office:

"Now, where it asks for your strengths, you've put 'accounts'."

"Yep."

"But you're an accountant."

"Yeah."

"Right.... and for weaknesses, you've put 'eczema'?"

[cloppy]

I remember being asked this once. I hadn't expected it at all and I ended up coming out with "a fear of moths, especially when they're big and white" (this is true though, I become a huge wuss if a moth comes flapping near me). Fortunately the interviewer found it amusing.