What is your greatest weakness?

Avoid talking about weaknesses that are a red flag or potentially point to a more significant issue. For instance, if time management is a weakness, the interviewer might wonder if you can meet your deadlines or if you are frequently late to work. For this reason, it's best to choose weaknesses that will not impact your ability to succeed in the role.

It's also essential to give a thoughtful response. Avoid cliche or overused statements like:

- I work too hard
- I am a perfectionist
- I am a workaholic
- My weaknesses are also my strengths
- My greatest weakness is chocolate (insert uncomfortable chuckle)

The hiring managers at Intuit want you to be honest about your weaknesses. At the same time, they want assurance that you are proactive in improving yourself.

Choose a weakness that is not a core skill for the position. For instance, if you are interviewing for an administrator role, your greatest weakness should not be your Excel skills.

Perhaps you are watching YouTube tutorials to gain skills in a particular area. Maybe you are reading the latest-and-greatest books on the skills you wish to improve, or perhaps you are taking an online workshop to bridge a skills gap.

When discussing your most significant weaknesses, you must display your interest in professional growth. Be sure to maintain a positive tone, show confidence in your ability to improve, and demonstrate a desire for improvement.

The average HireVue interview takes approximately 30 minutes to complete. This one-way video interview typically includes 3-5 questions. Depending on the HireVue parameters set by Intuit, the asynchronous interview platform will generally give you 30 seconds to prepare a response and up to 2 minutes to answer each question. It's important to note that HireVue stops recording as soon as your time limit is up, so it's better to run under time than overtime.

"When it comes to my professional weaknesses, I struggle with delegating seemingly minor tasks to my team members. If the task is quick, my default is to do it myself because it saves time explaining the task, passing it along, and following up on the completion. Quite possibly, I do this to accommodate my team members, which isn't a negative quality. Still, I can find other ways to be an accommodating manager. I also realize that this approach inhibits my team members' professional growth. To move away from this tendency, I have spent more time training employees to take a task from A to Z. Rather than jumping in, I have started coaching them more often. Since changing my approach, my team members have been much more proactive, and our overtime hours have decreased, which is a pleasant surprise. By improving my delegation ability, I have become a much better leader. When hired at Intuit, I will come with a fresh mindset ready to empower others to be the best version of themselves through growing responsibilities and new learning opportunities."

Community answers are written by other candidates practicing this set. Reading how others frame the same question is one of the fastest ways to sharpen your own.

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