- When asked, "What are your weaknesses?" in a job interview, you are faced with walking the fine line between coming off as dishonest or straight up disqualifying
yourself for being too honest. This is Self Made Millennial,
I'm Madeline Mann. And today, you are going to
craft your perfect answer to "What are your weaknesses?" If you're new here, welcome. I'm an award-winning career strategist and human resources professional featured in all of these places and more. New videos on Thursdays. All right, here's the table of contents. You'll learn why employers ask this. The most detrimental mistakes people make when answering this question. Then we'll break down my highly
effective three-part formula to answer "What are your weaknesses?" And of course, I'll
finish up with an example of all of this in action. Why do employers ask,
"What are your weaknesses?" The cynical reason is that employers want to cut to the chase, and get some reasons why
they shouldn't hire you. (mystical music)
You are getting very sleepy. You're going to admit your weaknesses, like that you have an anger problem, you're always late, and that
you eat people's lunches that you find in the company fridge. No, "Get out of my head, Charles." Don't fall for this booby trap. The more optimistic
reason employers ask this is they want to understand
how to best manage you, how to set you up for success, and put you in a role that
plays to your strengths and isn't reliant on your weaknesses. It's completely normal to have weaknesses. And so they're simply
looking to understand different sides of you, and
also see if you're self-aware. Interviewers often ask,
"What are your strengths?" back to back with this question. So be sure to prepare
your answers for both. Of course, I have the video for you to answer "What is your
greatest strength?" So I will link that in the
comments and in the description. I am curious, have you
been asked the strengths and weaknesses questions before? Put in the comments,
both, one, or neither. I'm curious to hear how
many of you have gotten one or more of these questions before. Now, one way people answer the question, "What are your weaknesses?" is by stating a weakness
that sounds like a strength. - I work too hard. I care too much. And sometimes I can be
too invested in my job. - Okay. And your strengths? - Well, my weaknesses
are actually strengths. - Oh. Yes. Very good. - Do not use this approach. You must drive a glass
Durango because interviewers can see right through this Dodge. Do not try to dodge the question or say the most common answer, which is that you are a perfectionist. (pinging) Here's how you should actually answer, "What are your greatest weaknesses?" Treat it like it's
bedtime, and tell a story. If you simply state traits
or tasks you're bad at, you can be seen as
incompetent or one-dimensional with a fixed mind set. Not exactly an employer's
dream candidate, right? So instead tell a story
using my three-part formula. Part one, name something
that you're legitimately not great at, but don't
choose just any weakness, choose a weakness that you're
already working on improving. Part two, explain how
you're working on it. Describe the steps you are taking to improve on your weakness. Part three, articulate
the results of the work you did to improve. While doing this, you need
to make it perfectly clear that your weakness is not
an issue for the position. And then like a reincarnated Jane Austin, put all of this together
in a story format. Don't worry, I'll show you
an example in this video. So telling a story allows you to show that you are driven to improve yourself and it steers your answer
towards a positive conclusion. The best answers are
the ones that showcase your ability to take feedback well. Or, also demonstrate your self-awareness and they prove that you take initiative to level up yourself. This type of response also
plays an important role in exemplifying your growth mindset, a term coined by Carol Dweck,
a psychologist and author, which means your belief that
your skills and qualities can be cultivated through
effort and perseverance. Such as, growth mindset people say, "I'm an introvert, and I hate
speaking in front of people, but I'm going to practice and someday do a TED Talk on a big stage." This is in contrast to a fixed mindset, which is where folks believe
that their abilities are static and can't be changed
in any meaningful way. They say, "Someone like me,
isn't meant to do TED Talks. I am too introverted and
uncomfortable on stage." Therefore they won't strive to improve and they pretty much give up. Companies want to hire people with a, (cheerful music) growth mindset. Yes. Because they constantly improve, they take initiative and they adapt. So make sure your story
emphasizes those characteristics in the three-part formula. And if you've watch my other videos, you know I'm all full of
the three-part formulas for all different interview questions. The one that has gotten me
the most success stories is the three-part formula
for "Tell me about yourself." You can see here, one of
the many thousands of emails I've received for this worksheet. So I will link that in the
comments and in the description so that you can craft
your perfect response. So now that you know how to answer, "What are your weaknesses?" Let's jump in to a sample answer. Here it is, my weakness is that
I tend to work independently and need to be more focused
on working collaboratively. My boss in the past,
praised me for how detailed and thorough my work is
and how I put my head down and get things done quickly, but also mentioned that
I didn't request help from our business partners,
and collaborate with them. I was so used to working independently, that I realized I wasn't even
clear on their capabilities. Therefore, I made it a recurring
habit to connect directly with our business partners,
to discuss current projects. This dramatically increased our ability to communicate and collaborate. This isn't something that
comes naturally to me, but by building this into my workflow, my boss has seen huge
improvement in my ability to collaborate across the team. This is a good answer because it proves that you're able to
internalize feedback well, take the initiative to improve, and your efforts result in
real improvement over time. Like this video and
subscribe to this channel. You've got this. WiFi, high-five. (hand claps)
