Interview Time: What's your biggest weakness?

lunarsongbird

What's your REAL biggest weakness?

And then what do you actually tell an employer?

 

lunarsongbird

What's your REAL biggest weakness?
I care too much. I've had three of my bosses tell me that I care too much. It's a double edged sword- it makes me good at my job, but it also can double me over in anguish at times.

A month or so back I had a student take a 360 on me. All of a sudden he told me that working with me was a waste of time- and that I had made no improvements on his resume (which very much wasn't true.) Of course, as I care too much- I took this very personally.

This student just walked out of my office. He apologized. ::sigh:: I knew it was stupid to let that get to me. For days I was upset about it. And now my initial suspicions were correct- this had nothing to do with me- and everything to do with him.



And then what do you actually tell an employer?
I tell them about a particular weakness that I have with a software, but I will always let them know what my strategy is to become better at it.

leia1979

Hmm, I can understand being told not to take things too personally, but to care too much?

I sometimes take things too personally, for example, if my proposal is criticized, I sometimes take it as an attack and can become defensive. Whenever I read negative customer reviews of my products, I feel like I let them down.

I can't remember what I said the last time I had to interview. I know I actually have made the statement of taking customer reviews personally before.

eirwyn

Real Weakness: I get bored quickly and easily. I need a huge variety of tasks, or I'll start to slack off and my eyes will glaze over. Data entry is NOT for me.

What I Say: I sometimes get obsessed with small details and give my work a twice-over when it really just needs a once-over.

jaycee7389

I think too fast on my feet, and don't always say the best possible answer. This is mostly with the questions like 'tell me about a time when..' questions.

lunarsongbird

 

jorja86

Real: I forget sh!t sometimes. Not important things, but little things occasionally fall through the cracks. 

What I Say: Sometimes I try to do too much, and I would like to learn more about correlating lab values (that one would obviously be nurse specific, haha).

Peaseblossom55

A real weakness of mine I've learned is that I'm very book smart and sometimes not so much in common sense.  I will over think something and not realize the solution is so easy.  It's been over 6 years since my last interview.