In my article, I will try to explain why the employer asks such questions and what answers can be prepared for this case.

Periodically, one gets the impression that the employer at the interview is constantly trying to provoke, ask an uncomfortable question, and sometimes completely crosses the boundaries of the personal and the worker.

And yet, more often than not, the questions have quite a certain semantic load and aim to form both a portrait of personal competences and to evaluate the candidate as a professional in his field.

Question: “Tell me about your shortcomings/failures/mistakes/weaknesses?” also has its applied meaning.

Why does the employer, as it were, put you in an uncomfortable position in advance, highlighting your weaknesses?
Contrary to the seeming provocation, the answers to it actually carry important information.

Let’s consider examples:

Example #1. Your failure is a project that failed to launch on time or on budget.

How will your answers help assess professional and personal qualities?
Here are some of the competencies that the employer checks:

1) Professional qualities.

• Do you have analytical/introspective skills: Were you able to analyze afterwards where you went wrong when things went wrong?

• Can you assess risks ahead of time?

• Do you orient yourself generally in the stages of project implementation, or do you objectively assess the difficulties you may encounter at each of them?

• How do you work on bugs? To what extent are the lessons you learned truly viable and relevant to business realities.

2) Personal qualities.

• Reaction to stress

• The ability to navigate in a rapidly changing situation, to look for solutions;

• The ability to take responsibility: are you ready to admit your mistake, or do you see the cause in external factors.

Example #2. Your weaknesses: unpunctuality, hyperactivity, tendency to formalism (any qualities you know can be listed here).

In this question, of course, the emphasis shifts to testing your personal competencies.

Whose?

• Capacity for self-reflection: can you critically evaluate yourself?

• Do you have mechanisms to compensate for your shortcomings? How do you work with them?

How to respond to such questions?
You definitely shouldn’t be afraid of them, you shouldn’t try to give socially desirable answers and you definitely shouldn’t thicken the colors and persuade yourself too much)

But it is worth preparing in advance for the interview.

Let’s look at examples:

Example #1. If we are talking about failures and errors in the implementation of work tasks (continuing, using the example of a project that was not submitted on time).

Try to remember in as much detail as possible what the failures and mistakes were. It is desirable that it was not a complicated and obvious situation, such as: did not meet the deadline -> apologized to the customer, postponed the project submission date -> submitted the project.

Expand the entire picture completely. Say the opening introductions:

• what kind of project was that?

• what role did you play in it?

• how many people were in the team?

• who set the task?

• what was the deadline?

• what was the allocated budget?

• who was the customer?

• who negotiated with the customer?

And then give a clear and structured analysis of the situation:

• What did you immediately see as the difficulties of implementation?

• at what stage was the error made?

• how quickly did you realize it and react promptly?

• what resources were used to eliminate it?

Example #2. If it’s about your weaknesses/character qualities.

You don’t need to go too deep and talk about all your negatives right away – you’re not seeing a psychologist after all)

Highlight a few qualities that you probably know about yourself and work on them.

For example, if you suffer from planning, you should emphasize the fact that you have been keeping a diary for a long time and regularly, where you record all work tasks, set priorities and track deadlines.

And if, on the contrary, you are too pedantic – emphasize how it, on the contrary, helps you in your work.

Importantly! If your weakness is punctuality, then think about whether it is appropriate to choose a company with a strict work schedule, perhaps such cooperation will bring more mutual dissatisfaction than add energy for professional achievements.

Good luck with your interview!