job interview: "what's your bad quality?" - Page 12
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krndandaman
Mozambique16569 Posts
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Sir.Kimmel
United States785 Posts
for instance One of my weaknesses is that although I'm an extremely hard worker (yada yada blah blah something about being great) I feel like I have a lot improvement to do before reaching my end goals (describe something about what you want to be doing in the future.. and don't say I want to own this place.. that's dumb). I really feel like this job (something something about being a part of that improvement) and I will be a valued team player during my growth. | ||
Trusty
New Zealand520 Posts
We are not stupid. We know what you're doing. You are trying to cheat the question. State a weakness. You will have a weakness. Don't give an example unless asked. By "example" I mean; don't go saying "yeah one time I failed an assignment because I handed it in late, due to poor time management". BUT, make sure you say how you try to manage this weakness. "I have trouble staying on task when doing multiple things at once, I'm currently keeping a 'priority pocket list' to help me work through this weakness". That is a really token example, but you get the idea. Everyone has a weakness, they want to see if you are aware of yours - and how you actively try to combat it. | ||
Linwelin
Ireland7554 Posts
"I'm terrible at TvT" | ||
hacpee
United States752 Posts
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tonz86
Australia6 Posts
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OptimusYale
Korea (South)1005 Posts
'I'm a little too focussed, and make my tasks a priority over personal issues' seems a little lame, but seems to work. or something like 'I care too much and if something is to go wrong I take it to heart and force myself never to repeat the same mistake' They're negs, a little on the negative side with a flip side of positivity | ||
Loanshark
China3094 Posts
I find it hard to say no to people, especially my friends. When I encounter a hard problem, my first instinct is to work at it alone until I find an answer. If I'm leading a group, I sometimes have a tendency to micromanage. Honestly, don't say "I work too hard". That's bullshit and everyone knows it. Plus, I don't think it would be good to memorize a big chunk of text and just regurgitate it out in one huge unnatural flow. Like someone above me said, state your weakness, then give examples if asked. | ||
Orcasgt24
Canada3238 Posts
Basiclly an admitiance that you've UNDERsold yourself through the whole interview. | ||
bertu
Brazil871 Posts
On April 04 2012 07:59 Trusty wrote: For god's sake do not try and 'say a strength as a weakness', or 'turn your weakness into a strength'. We are not stupid. We know what you're doing. You are trying to cheat the question. State a weakness. You will have a weakness. Don't give an example unless asked. By "example" I mean; don't go saying "yeah one time I failed an assignment because I handed it in late, due to poor time management". BUT, make sure you say how you try to manage this weakness. "I have trouble staying on task when doing multiple things at once, I'm currently keeping a 'priority pocket list' to help me work through this weakness". That is a really token example, but you get the idea. Everyone has a weakness, they want to see if you are aware of yours - and how you actively try to combat it. One thousand times this. I started interviewing intern candidates recently and it felt like 90% of them had problems because they "care too much about a task" or are "too perfectionists" or "can`t find enough time" to persue all their awesome interests. I know most of them are not saying those things in bad faith, they probably heard somewhere the "turn weakness into strenghts" hack and felt it was the norm. So I changed up a bit my interviewing process and lead the question by first telling them some of the weakness I had at my first job and what I did to overcome them, and from this point forward I heard some much more honest answers. I can`t speak for what goes on at HR in other firms, but when I ask the question I rarely care about what the weakness is (save some bizarre answers), but rather on his ability to auto-reflect and formulate solutions to self-improve. | ||
Emnjay808
United States10625 Posts
Some of you guys have really good answers. Really corny, but still, I can see that shit working. | ||
BuddhaMonk
781 Posts
On April 04 2012 08:50 DontGiveUp wrote: One thousand times this. I started interviewing intern candidates recently and it felt like 90% of them had problems because they "care too much about a task" or are "too perfectionists" or "can`t find enough time" to persue all their awesome interests. I know most of them are not saying those things in bad faith, they probably heard somewhere the "turn weakness into strenghts" hack and felt it was the norm. So I changed up a bit my interviewing process and lead the question by first telling them some of the weakness I had at my first job and what I did to overcome them, and from this point forward I heard some much more honest answers. I can`t speak for what goes on at HR in other firms, but when I ask the question I rarely care about what the weakness is (save some bizarre answers), but rather on his ability to auto-reflect and formulate solutions to self-improve. Have you considered not asking the question? This type of question is actually not useful in determining whether the given person will make a good employee. I'm very proud of my hiring record and I've never asked it, and likewise thankfully I've never been asked it in an interview myself. Edit: I would recommend this book if you are interested in learning more about how to hire well. http://www.amazon.com/Hiring-Attitude-Revolutionary-Recruiting-Tremendous/dp/007178585X | ||
uskel
United States30 Posts
This is basically turning a negative to a positive in one sentence. Making it seem as though your negative is actually something positive. | ||
Blasterion
China10272 Posts
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JeanBob
Canada295 Posts
I was wondering if saying that I am a stressed person would be a good idea, as it might be bad for the job I'm applying for, but not that much - or I don't think so. | ||
ralffriend
Germany112 Posts
Before i bring my ideas into a team discussion i prefer to study for myself i say something. When you want to be honest and thats what i would recommend you can always say that you work on your weakness. You should always argue like "i have this weakness but i work on it with doing... For example: if you are stressed out easily just take some minutes to calm down or try to make a working plan so it never gets stressful. | ||
BuddhaMonk
781 Posts
On April 04 2012 09:07 JeanBob wrote: I'm having a job interview tomorrow as a "scientific guide", basically my job would be to guide tourists through a strolling which recreates the solar system at scale, while explaining various things about the solar system and the Universe as a whole. I was wondering if saying that I am a stressed person would be a good idea, as it might be bad for the job I'm applying for, but not that much - or I don't think so. Definitely do not say you are a stressed person. You should always present the best aspects of yourself in an interview. How do you even define stressed? Everyone is stressed at some point or another, are they also all stressed people? Do you even truly believe that you are stressed more than your average person? That sounds like a fun job. | ||
Hoodlum
United States350 Posts
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synapse
China13814 Posts
On April 04 2012 08:18 Orcasgt24 wrote: I am terrible at talking about myself. Basiclly an admitiance that you've UNDERsold yourself through the whole interview. This is what I use in interviews. :D | ||
Vehemus
United States586 Posts
A simple answer that explains what your weakness is, but that you've identified it and are actively working on improving yourself is all you need. If you're failing your interviews it's probably not because you listed the wrong thing, it's because you weren't confident, had other poor answers, or simply weren't the type of person they were looking for. I'd hire someone who said "I have a difficult time multitasking sometimes and get tunnel vision on the task I'm working on sometimes. I've been working really hard on improving this though and ask for feedback on a regular basis for things I need to do better." over someone who says they can't think of anything or says something ridiculous like 'Sometimes I'm too nice' or 'I work too hard and try to do too much'. Those are garbage answers and are basically spit in the face of the person taking their time to interview you. | ||
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