So Tell Me, What Are Your Weaknesses?

This is one of the most dreaded interview questions, but if you understand
the reason interviewers ask it and what they're looking to uncover,

The question about your weaknesses comes fairly soon after the
interview begins and typically after such a question as, What are your
accomplishments? or What are your strengths? Those two questions—if
delivered correctly—let you sell yourself. They're positive questions.
Then—to contrast them—comes the awkward question about weaknesses. This
question is not easy for the interviewer to ask, and it's even more
difficult for most people to answer.
So, what is the interviewer after? He wants to test several things:
at face value, he hopes you won't be so very honest as to provide a
blatantly and hugely negative weakness that cancels your candidacy. An
example would be an accountant who admits not liking working with
numbers. The interviewer's also going to weigh whether your answer
could have a potential consequence in the future. You'll also be
watched carefully to determine whether the words you say and the
communication your body language conveys are aligned or are
contradictory.
Above all, the interviewer wants to see whether you present as an
honest individual with a capability for healthy reasoning. This is
probably the most important aspect of all. The reason is that a
dishonest person or a person who does not exercise good judgment puts
the hiring manager in danger. And that could have significant
consequences not only for the candidate but also for the hiring
manager, the hiring manager's boss, and probably several others in the
chain of command—all the way to the CEO, depending on the severity of
the issue.
Two concrete examples come to mind. The first incident happened in
2008, when a French trader at major bank Société Général caused a loss
of some $7 billion through an allegedly unauthorized trade. The trader
was tried in court, but beyond that, several of his supervisors got
dragged into the mess as well. The other example—which has just started
unfolding through the media—is the alleged sexual misconduct of a coach
at Penn State University. The issue caused the firing of a very
well-respected and long-tenured university president; the school's head
coach, Joe Paterno, who had been revered for decades; and several other
senior executives at the school.
So, the question remains: What is a good answer? Simply put, any
answer that conveys honesty and healthy reasoning is a good answer. But
to make your response even better, I suggest that between hearing the
question and giving your answer, you pause for three to five seconds,
take your eye away from the interviewer in order to pretend that you're
thinking of a reply, and then look the interviewer in the eyes because
that kind of body language projects honesty. Then you should recount an
incident that happened sometime in the past and that you've had a
chance to correct since. Then add that moreover, you're now so good at
whatever the surmounted weakness was, that others in your organization
seek out your advice on this subject. Turn lemon into lemonade.
by Alex Freund