In our last blog we looked at how to start an interview well, from the first handshake to the way you answer, “tell me about yourself.” This time we take on the question most people quietly hope won’t come up: what are your weaknesses?
Talking about your weaknesses in an interview can feel uncomfortable, but the question isn’t there to catch you out. It’s really a test of self-awareness, less about the weakness itself and more about whether you can look at your own work honestly and do something about what you find.
Why they even ask
What they’re checking is self-awareness. Can you talk about a weakness without falling apart, without blaming other people, and without pretending it doesn’t exist? Claiming you have no weaknesses doesn’t make you look flawless. It makes you look like you haven’t really thought about it or aren’t being open.
The three answers that don’t work
The strength in disguise is the most common. “I’m a perfectionist.” “I care too much.” “I work too hard.” Interviewers have heard these hundreds of times, and they know exactly what they are: a way to dodge the question. And in the Netherlands, where people tend to be direct, it goes down especially badly.
The disqualifying weakness is the opposite problem. If you’re applying for a finance role, accuracy isn’t the thing to admit to. If the job is client-facing, don’t tell them you find people draining. Being honest is good, but offering up the one weakness that sits at the heart of the job isn’t.
The overshare is the third. An interview isn’t the place to list everything you find hard, or to get into personal problems that have nothing to do with your work. One weakness, explained clearly, is enough.
What a strong answer contains
A good answer has four parts, and you can get through it in under a minute.
- Name the weakness plainly, with no run-up.
- Show that you understand the effect it has, because a weakness only matters because of what it leads to.
- Explain what you’ve done about it, which is the part most people skip entirely.
That last part is what makes it believable “I’ve completely fixed it” sounds too good to be true. “It’s much better than it was, and I still have to watch for it” sounds like someone being honest.
Two worked examples
Take delegation. The weak version is “I struggle to delegate.” The strong version explains that you used to hold on too much of the work yourself, which slowed your team down because everything had to go through you. So you started handing over whole pieces of work instead of small tasks, and checked in at agreed points instead of looking over people’s shoulders.
Or take presenting. Instead of just saying you’re nervous in front of a room, explain how you used to avoid presenting to big groups, which meant someone else often shared your work and you missed out on the credit and the questions. So, you put yourself forward for the internal sessions first, then took on a client presentation last year.
Choosing the weakness
Pick something that’s true, that’s about work, and that isn’t central to the job you’re going for. The safest ones are usually the things that get better with experience: delegation, saying no, asking for help sooner, stepping back from detail to see the bigger picture, speaking up in big meetings, or chasing people for answers.
Avoid anything that sounds like a character flaw rather than a skill you’re building. “I’m impatient with colleagues” or “I find feedback difficult” creates a worry that’s hard to clear up in a short interview.
One thing to be clear about: not speaking Dutch isn’t a weakness, and it doesn’t belong in this answer. It’s a question about the role, and it deserves a straight, factual answer, which is something we come back to in the next blog.
The question in disguise
The weakness question often turns up in other forms. “What would your last manager say you need to improve?” “What feedback have you had recently?” “What part of the job do you find hardest?”
These are the same question asked a different way, and your prepared answer works for all of them with small tweaks. The manager version just needs to sound like something a real person once said to you, so keep it specific.
Next in the series
Weaknesses are just one part of the uncomfortable half of an interview. Next, we look at the harder questions: gaps in your CV, why you left your last job, your salary expectations, and the one that comes up for almost every expat in the Netherlands, whether you speak Dutch.
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