How to Tackle ‘What Are Your Weaknesses?’

When meeting with this impending doom of a question, “What are your weaknesses?”; every interviewee thinks about how to tackle this question without highlighting your weaknesses in a bad light. Ultimately, you want to discuss your weaknesses in a job interview in a way that strengthens rather than weakens your position. The hiring manager is interested in your ability to handle adversity at work.

The first step is to consider the limitations that have challenged you at work. The best way to gather information about areas for improvement is from past performance evaluations and notes from supervisors.

Here are some attributes recruiters and interviewees may be looking for within your response:

• Self-awareness: Recruiters want to understand how well you know yourself. A sense of self-awareness means that you are willing to acknowledge your weaknesses and work on improving them.
• Honesty: When you show your vulnerability in front of a total stranger, you’ll come off as an honest person. Your weakness will become your strength at that moment. 
• Emotional quotient: Just how your IQ matters, the same way your EQ or Emotional Quotient or Intelligence matters as well. It shows that you can observe and handle your emotions and identify your motivations.
• Self-improvement: Your answer can show that you are willing to improve specific aspects of yourself and learn new things.

It’s humbling to reflect on your own flaws. It is critical to consider your flaws before your interview so that you may provide an answer that demonstrates your awareness and desire to change. Instead of misrepresenting a strength as a weakness, utilize this as a chance to address abilities or personal attributes that might be improved.

As a software engineer, you should aggressively recognize your weaknesses since it demonstrates that you are constantly striving to improve yourself. Everyone should have weaknesses; the good candidates will likely discover what those are quick since it reveals whether or not they are actively working to improve their skills.

Few bad examples of bad weaknesses on the job

Weaknesses are only weaknesses when you make them your weakness. Don’t get it? Check out these weaknesses that you might be having on your ‘flaws list’. Note that these aren’t good choices for your answer if the job requires specific skills in these areas.

• Inexperience with specific software or a non-essential skill
• Tendency to take on too much responsibility
• Nervousness about public speaking
• Hesitancy about delegating tasks
• Discomfort taking big risks
• Impatience with bureaucracies
• Being too perfect 

So, check off these answers from your list forever! First, you need to think about why the interviewer is asking you that question. Either it can be to observe how you tackle tricky questions or whether you’ll fumble up while trying to find answers. The interviewer looks for signs that may make you panic, feel worried, or become flustered. Whatever your response, it’s critical that you retain the same degree of confidence, tranquility, and positivism as you would for any other inquiry.

With that in mind, let’s look at how to correctly answer the question in a true, thoughtful, and sincere manner without making it cliche!

When you go for an interview in a product or service-based company for an SDE role or any role for it matter, the interviewer will try to haze you as much as he/she wants just to know about your personal and professional background, experience, and your personality. This is where you should play a fair game. Interviewers will ask you about your strengths and weaknesses to gauge your ability to tackle the challenges. So, how do you manage to answer this tricky question without looking as imperfect and turning around your weakness into your strength?