How to Answer: What are your weaknesses?
Advice and answer examples written specifically for an Expedia job interview.
30. What are your weaknesses?
Why the Interviewer Asks This Question
Your interviewer is curious to learn more about your professional development as you continue to "embark on this journey." One of their core values is "Trust Each Other. Stay accountable to each other to deliver on our commitments, and trust each other to get it done." So, your interviewer is curious whether they can trust you to take charge of your own development and continue to grow as a professional. How you answer will potentially offer insights into what a long-term relationship would look like with you on their team.
Written by Kevin Downey on January 11th, 2024
What You Need to Know
Another of Expedia's core values is, "Choose Fearlessly," which they define as "Own your decisions. Make mistakes. Move on. Start again." Also, Dara Khosrowshahi, who was president and chief executive of Expedia from 2001 to 2017, spoke about how he learned to be a better CEO, and why he felt failure is useful. "Speed gives you the luxury to fail. Failure can teach you something, and as long as you're moving very, very quickly, you're going to start piling up the wins. Speed gives you the luxury to be able to fail."
Written by Kevin Downey on January 11th, 2024
Answer Example
"I would say that my biggest growth opportunity is to better communicate my accomplishments. My previous boss often called me a stealth worker. Frequently, he'd notice something was done, and they thought it was great, but no matter who they asked, no one knew who got that work done or who did such an amazing job. The thing is, my time management skills are pretty strong, so I typically finish early and always find other ways to help out. I previously looked at it as just earning my keep and doing right by my team. So, it felt wrong to come across as a braggart. But, my boss said I should be spreading awareness because without knowing exactly where I am developmentally, they couldn't properly coach me or recognize the full extent of my leadership potential. So, even though it is difficult for me, I have gotten better with letting my leaders know what I've accomplished, and running my ideas for improvements by them before just jumping into them, in case they have a greater priority they'd prefer to trust me with."
Written by Kevin Downey on January 11th, 2024