Interview Question: What’s your biggest weakness?

I’ve found many job seekers giving the wrong answer to this commonly asked interview question"What is your biggest weakness?"

Before we talk about the right framework (along with a sample answer), let’s talk about how not to answer it.

Don't play up a strength as a weakness (“My colleagues tell me I work too much”)

Such responses have become clichéd and are considered unhelpful for interviewers.

Why though?

Interviewers can often see through insincere answers.

The question is designed to assess not just weaknesses but also your ability to recognize and address them.

You miss an opportunity to showcase resilience and adaptability. Sharing a real weakness and discussing steps taken to overcome or mitigate it can be more valuable and impressive.

Instead, use the following step-by-step framework:

You should identify a skill that you are actively working on to improve (not a core skill needed for you to perform the job though).

Describe the challenges you've faced with it.

Share the actions you've taken to get better.

Showcase the positive results you've achieved!

Sample Answer

If you are interviewing for a software development role and suck at team communication, you can answer like this:

"In team meetings, I wasn’t able to articulate my ideas properly. So, often times, I used to hesitate and not voice my opinions. To improve this, I took a communication workshop, practiced expressing my ideas and sought feedback. I have started noticing the improvement and am now more confident of talking in team meetings.”

Keep Blooming, 
Bani Singh