Use this interview coaching guide to answer the question, What is a good weakness for an interview.
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This interview coaching guide provides you with everything you need to understand what is a good weakness for an interview.
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Develop interview skills, build interview confidence, and get the job offer.
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About the Author
Adriana Herrera is founder of Interview Destiny. She is an internationally recognized social entrepreneur. She has interviewed hundreds of job applicants for technical, creative, retail, manufacturing, design, customer support, inclusion and accessibility, marketing, communications, management, founder, and advisor positions. She has also built software to scale hiring, training, employee onboarding, and employee assessment for businesses in emerging markets.
She was inspired to create Interview Destiny after she came across unemployment data detailing how the pandemic has disproportionately impacted Latinos, African-Americans, and Native-Americans, and a talented friend of hers was laid off, became overwhelmed with the interview preparation process, and asked her for help to prepare for interviews.
She is passionate about creating access to tools that help others develop skills to achieve their goals. As the first person in her family to attend college and build a career in the United States she knows what it’s like to be qualified yet passed over for opportunities. Adriana is especially passionate about helping women, those who identify as underrepresented, under-resourced, and underpaid.
Her work building tech for social good earned her an invitation to contribute a column to The New York Times online, funding from Facebook to participate in an engineering bootcamp, and global features in media such as Entrepreneur Magazine as a “Do Good Business Entrepreneur To Watch”, NBC Universal as a “Top 10 Latino Innovator”, Forbes, Fast Company, TechCrunch, amongst many other media outlets.
What is a good weakness for an interview, Employer Perspective
What is a good weakness for an interview, Employer Perspective
A good weakness for an interview is a hard or soft skill you have identified you have and are actively working on.
As I shared in the Interview Preparation Checklist each employee I have ever hired has had one thing in common…
They were actively working on improving an identified area of weakness.
When presented correctly in an interview a weakness can set you apart as the best candidate to hire.
Hard skills vs Soft skills
Hard skills vs Soft skills
Every weakness can be classified as being either a soft skill weakness or a hard skill weakness.
Hard skills definition:
A hard skill is a teachable skill that can be measured through outcomes.
Hard skill examples:
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning
- Analytical skills
- Basic computer knowledge
- Bilingual language ability
- Customer service skills
- Graphic design
- High-level IT skills
- Marketing
- Presentation skills
- Project management
- Sales
- Video production
- Writing
Soft skills definition:
A soft skill is a skill that impacts the level at which a person positively or negatively interacts, and performs, with others in different environments in different situations.
Soft skill examples:
- Adaptability
- Cognitive empathy
- Communication skills
- Creativity
- Critical thinking
- Conflict resolution
- Decision-making skills
- Dependability
- Emotional empathy
- Integrity
- Leadership skills
- Persistence
- Personal-drive
- Positivity
- Time management
- Work ethic
What is a good weakness for an interview for you, Interview Answer Dependencies
What is a good weakness for an interview for you, Interview Answer Dependencies
What is a good weakness for an interview for you will depend on:
- What area you identified you need improvement in,
- What weakness you are actively improving,
- What progress you can share/ demonstrate you have made to improve the weakness, and
- How the weakness relates to the responsibilities of the position you are interviewing for.
Never provide a weakness in an interview without including what you are doing to actively improve the weakness. This is a huge interview mistake and will make you appear to lack initiative and drive.
What is a good weakness for an interview, Pro Interview Tip
What is a good weakness for an interview, Pro Interview Tip
When choosing what a good weakness for you to provide in an interview is always select a weakness that you can pair with metrics that demonstrate progress on the weakness
Interview Answer Example: What is a good weakness for an interview
“I have been weak in giving group presentations. I have a fear of public speaking. I don’t want this to hold me back or impact my team collaboration so I have enrolled in Toastmasters, a public speaking group. Over the last three months I have given 9 presentations and graduated from giving presentations to audiences of two people to 40 people. I am now working on a presentation for an audience of 100 people.”
Now It’s Your Turn
Did you learn something to help you identify what is a good weakness for an interview?
Have a question about the weakness you identified or will use in your interview answer?
Leave your thoughts and questions in the comments and I’ll get back to you!
