This Is The Perfect Interview Answer When Asked “What’s Your Weakness?”
by Audie Metcalf
Perhaps you’re thinking, JUST BE HONEST!
But how many jobs would any of us really get if we said “my weakness is that I stay up until 3am binging Friends so that I’m so tired the next morning I can barely get up. Oh, and corporate speak makes me want to throw myself into the sea so I have a hard time concentrating in meetings. And I honestly don’t even really want this job but I have to ‘pay’ for ‘food’ which is why I’m sitting across from you right now.”
So…perhaps full honesty isn’t the best policy on this one.
The key is of course to think of your most authentically good quality, and find a natural, but not too off-putting downside to it. The problem is that this tactic is often used in wildly obvious ways, so common answers like “I’m a perfectionist!” and “I care TOO much!” just sound phony. And when you sound phony, that also subtly communicates to people that you’re not unique. And finding ways to show your uniqueness is part of why you’ll be remembered at interviews.
So here is the one tried and true answer that feels authentic to almost all of us, but doesn’t reveal your darkest darkness. I mean, you don’t tell a first date that you’re eventually going to secretly find the password for his ring camera to check if he’s cheating on you, right? Of course not. You tell him you love old horror movies and make a mean Eggs Benedict.
So, without further ado…
“I have trouble maintaining a healthy work/life balance.”
Now, in my case this is absolutely true. And I would imagine it’s true for many of you. Maybe it’s for various reasons, maybe it’s because you can’t say no to some work that you know will go beyond the scope of your role, maybe it’s because you have terrible time management skills, maybe it’s that you’re actually a workaholic in the truest sense of the word.
But here’s why this answer is magic:
It’s implying you prioritize work. Companies want that. They just do. They will say they encourage life/work balance but their actions often don’t reflect that platitude.
It’s soooooort of a humble brag, but it’s very easy to explain why it isn’t if you give specifics that are true for you.
But the very best part, is that you’re telling the company that you think NOT having this balance is a weakness. Which implies that it would therefore be something you would be working on, which sets you up to actually do it. If (when) you get the job, and if you ever start to feel as though you’re being taken advantage of in terms of workload, you can enlist your hiring manager to help you maintain a better work/life balance, since that is something you’ve established from your very first conversation. People love to be needed, and it will result in other people ENCOURAGING you to have better boundaries so you can go home to see your kid/spouse/dog/F•R•I•E•N•D•S.
Happy hunting. Oh, and never write your resume in the third person. It’s ludicrous.
Audie Metcalf is the Editor-in-chief of The Candidly, and lives in LA with her family. You can find more of her articles here.
