Interview Advice

One of the most difficult interview questions to answer well is to list weaknesses. I find so often that in people's fear of answering wrong, they answer by blowing smoke. First, you must be honest with yourself and ask those close to you what weaknesses you have. Secondly, you need to sift through what is offered as possibilities to find those weaknesses that are most obvious to the person interviewing you, thus first impression weaknesses. You needn't give the interviewer fodder for passing on your candidacy, but you also don't want it to seem that you are dodging the question. For example, it is never appropriate to try to spin your strengths into weaknesses. To hear someone list being a work-aholic as a strength, and then turn it around into a weakness shows a lack of honesty with the interviewer and, quite possibly, a lack of honesty with yourself. If an interviewer feels like you are dishonest in the first meeting, they tend to think, and maybe rightly, that you wouldn't be straight with them when you get on board.