What is your greatest weakness?

Why the Interviewer Asks This Question
How to Answer
1st Answer Example
2nd Answer Example
Community Answers

This common interview question is an opportunity to demonstrate your self-insight. Interviewers ask this question to learn more about your self-awareness and ability to reflect on room for personal improvement. Further, it's an opportunity to screen out candidates who may actually have what the interviewer sees as a make-or-break weakness.

Give an honest answer about a real weakness you have been focusing on, and describe your plan to work on it. Just make sure the weakness isn't a core competency of the Red Bull job description. Reflect on traits you want to work on but won't affect overall job success.

Honesty and self-awareness are key for this question. Interviewers have heard it all and will see through phony attempts to present a trait as a weakness when it's not.

"I believe I could improve on some technical skills including Excel and PowerPoint. Currently, I am at a beginner to intermediate level; however, I would be more comfortable at an advanced level. I have enrolled myself in an evening/weekend workshop for the next six weeks. We will see how stellar my skills are after that course!"

"Sometimes I have difficulty asking for help from co-workers. I like having control over my daily tasks and taking on new projects, but I'm not always willing to admit when I have taken on too much. When I made a mistake because I was juggling too many projects, I learned that it's okay to ask for help. I'm learning how to organize myself better and communicate what I need from my team. This skill has helped me be more effective at my job, and it's helped my team work together even better than before!"

Anonymous Answer

"I like to think of weaknesses as areas of improvement. So my greatest area I'd like to improve on would by creating a good work life balance. Sometimes I can get overly invested in my work which might cause me to miss a family dinner but I really took the time to work on this back in March during quarantine and have really developed maintaining a good work life balance."

Cindy's Feedback

Nice! I like the way you turn a negative into a positive. Questions about a weakness are tricky, but ultimately, the interviewer wants to know whether you're self-reflective and improvement-oriented. Can you expand on what you mean by "over-invested" in your work and show concrete ways that you achieved the necessary distance?

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Anonymous Answer

"I can get frustrated by the lack of what I perceive as inaction. If KPIs are adverse and not addressed I can become frustrated/impatient."

Marcie's Feedback

This is a good weakness to mention because it can also be seen in a positive light (you want things to get done). What steps are you taking to improve in this area? The interviewer will want to hear what you're doing to address this weakness of yours. Great job!