How to answer at interview, ‘What’s your greatest weakness?’

There are some questions that every IT job candidate, no matter their sector, status or skills, should expect to be asked in a job interview.

Weakness follows Strength

In this mini-series exploring how IT contractors can answer common interview questions with technical prowess, which has already covered 'How to answer in interview ‘What’s your greatest strength?,’ it’s now the turn of ‘What’s your greatest weakness?’ writes Matt Collingwood of IT recruitment agency VIQU.

Why do employers ask candidates, ‘What’s your greatest weakness?’

Seasoned IT contractors are right to question why interviewers continue to ask this boring, rudimentary interview question, because they’ve probably heard and answered it 50 times over! And that’s despite it being more suited to interviews for full-time, permanent positions.

I agree that ‘What’s your greatest weakness’ – which you should prepare for as soon as you are asked ‘What’s your greatest strength?’ is unimaginative and dull.

Not a trick question

But I think it’s important to acknowledge that interviewers who use this question are not looking to trick IT contractors!

Instead, the interviewer who probes candidate weaknesses usually does so with the right intent of trying to understand developmental needs.

And whether the contractor is self-aware of what they need to improve.

Interviewers want the hard-soft combo, not the complete package

No contractor should be the ‘complete package.’

The interviewer wants to know that they are engaging someone who is honest and understands where they need to develop their expertise or competencies as a technology professional.

Looked at another way, the interviewer wants to understand if the contractor is competent in the soft and hard skills needed to successfully execute the contract.

What not to reply to ‘What’s your greatest weakness?’

I remember supporting a client with a series of interviews many years ago.

The interviewer asked this classic question and the candidate responded “Chocolate” with a straight face.

The client didn’t know what to say and moved on to their next question. It was awkward and uncomfortable, and the interviewee didn’t recover from it, resulting in no contract for that particular professional.

As well as the maverick, also avoid the generic

Then there are the generic answers that we’ve all heard 100 times in response to ‘What's your greatest weakness?’:

• “I’m a perfectionist.”
• “I work too hard.”

Tech job candidates who utter either of these responses usually think they are being clever, by answering a negative with a positive.

But the reality is that the interviewer has heard these same canned answers so many times that there is zero chance they will believe the interviewee is being authentic and truthful.

‘Clever’ answers get you three more questions when you could have just faced one

Good interviewers will respond to mundane replies like “I work too hard” by asking for an example.

Then be prepared for the interviewer’s follow-up:

• “What did you learn from the situation?” and;
• “How are you seeking to improve?”

I would estimate when an interviewer throws it back to the candidate to provide actual evidence in situations like this, 90% of the time the response will be rushed, not thought out, and will appear like the candidate is reaching to pull an answer together.

Worst interview replies include ‘Weakness. What weakness?’

I once witnessed an IT contractor candidate respond with, “I don’t have any weaknesses.”

The interviewer took such umbrage to the arrogance of the answer that there was a full-on argument as a result.  

An interviewer wants honesty, self-awareness and accountability.

Such an answer gives them the complete opposite impression.

And to any doubters, I promise that it raises FAR more red flags than sharing a simple flaw in how you go about things or a certain thing.

How to use ‘What’s your greatest weakness?’ to your advantage

“Weakness” is inherently a negative word.

When replying to the question, an IT contractor should always avoid using the word ‘weakness’ back to the interviewer, as it can have bad connotations.

So although I normally advise that candidates try to mirror the language of their interviewer, in this case, I would never respond to the question using the actual word “weakness.”

Include ‘improvement’ or ‘development’ in your reply

Instead, try to build in words to your reply like “improvement” or “development points.”

For instance:

• “I believe that an area of professional development for me is to…” or
• “I acknowledge that I need to make improvements in…”

To create a fuller answer, I would advise following these guidelines:

• Explain your skills and competency level in the area in question;
• Mention anything you have done to improve the skill/competency yourself;
• Provide reassurance that, with some support and personal development, this area will become a strength.

How developers might answer ‘What’s your greatest strength?’

For example:

“As a developer, I have a great understanding of and vast amounts of experience with code and clean coding principles. However, with the increasing focus on security, I need to understand threat vectors and develop code and releases to align with best security practices and fully implement the secure software development lifecycle.

“Therefore, I am actively focusing on improving my knowledge in this area through support from my peers and via self-learning in my free time.”

In most cases, IT contractors are hired to work on a very specific problem or project.

Don’t say your Achilles heel is an area critical to the role

Therefore, contractors should not focus their chosen area of improvement around a soft or hard skill that is CRITICAL to the role.

For example, a project manager would not say:

“A key area of improvement for me is in people and stakeholder management.”

If the IT contractor has done their research into the business and the role, they should understand what areas or skills won’t be CRITICAL to the role. And these might be the areas a contractor chooses to focus their area of development around.

Choose unrelated (but semi-relevant) tech or experiences

If you get asked ‘What’s your greatest weakness’ and you’re not brilliant with one particular technology that is not relevant to the role, you could share that, and say how you plan to get up to speed with it.

For instance, if a project manager contractor knew the client was not based in or related to the finance/banking sector, they could say the following, knowing this ‘weakness’ would not matter to the interviewer:

“My last couple of projects involved a number of stakeholders in finance departments. I did not have previous experience in cash flow forecasts, so I went and got some support to facilitate my knowledge and perform my role in the projects.

“So, if specific experience working with a sector that I have not worked alongside before is required, I might need a little bit of support coupled with me putting some personal time aside for self-learning.”

TL;DR: How to answer at interview ‘What’s your greatest weakness?’

The key to answering ‘What’s your greatest weakness?’ is to be prepared; don’t show your annoyance on being asked this question, don’t answer with ‘Nothing’ and don’t answer with ‘Chocolate.’ Prepare a couple of answers that can be chopped and changed to make them relevant to the interview question, with the key aspects of improvement, self-learning and development points.