03: What are your greatest weaknesses?

TRAPS: Beware - this is an eliminator question, designed to shorten the candidate list. Any admission of a weakness or fault will earn you an “A” for honesty, but an “F” for the interview.

PASSABLE ANSWER: Disguise a strength as a weakness.

Example: “I sometimes push my people too hard. I like to work with a sense of urgency and everyone is not always on the same wavelength.”

Drawback: This strategy is better than admitting a flaw, but it's so widely used, it is transparent to any experienced interviewer.

BEST ANSWER: (and another reason it's so important to get a thorough description of your interviewer's needs before you answer questions): Assure the interviewer that you can think of nothing that would stand in the way of your performing in this position with excellence. Then, quickly review you strongest qualifications.

Example: “Nobody's perfect, but based on what you've told me about this position, I believe I' d make an outstanding match. Everything in my background shows I have both the qualifications and a strong desire to achieve excellence in whatever I take on. So I can say in all honesty that I see nothing that would cause you even a small concern about my ability or my strong desire to perform this job with excellence.”

“Try to specify your weakness as your strength and also highlight it as a benefit.”

Your answers can be:

1) One of my weaknesses as I perceive is occasional compromise on time for quality and perfection.

2) I feel I am not very detail-oriented. I’m a person that wants to accomplish as much as possible. I realized this hurts quality and therefore I‘m trying hard to find a balance between quality and quantity.

There’s a saying –

“However small the thorn maybe it has the ability to pierce.”

So never highlight your weakness as far as possible