Addressing Weaknesses

There is no such thing as a perfect candidate. They might not have enough experience, or the wrong experience, or too much experience. They might have had too many jobs, too few of jobs or not the right education, etc. The key for a candidate is to honestly look at their background and discover what their weakness is for the position. Keep in mind, this is the weakness as it relates to this specific job, not a general personal weakness. In addition, your Teldar Group recruiter should help identify what weaknesses you have. Once the weaknesses are identified, you need to craft a strategy to address them in the interview. Again, consult your Teldar Group recruiter on how to do this. Finally, one of the worst things that can happen is if you get a bad interviewer and your weakness never gets brought up in the interview. This happens often. Interviewers typically don’t like asking tough questions. We have had numerous experiences where the candidate had a great explanation for the weakness. However, the interviewer never asked the question in the interview and the candidate didn’t get the job because of it. So, how do you mitigate this risk? If the interview is winding down and they still have not asked about it, YOU need to find a way to introduce it in the conversation. Usually at the end of the meeting, the interviewer will ask you if you have any questions. This is the best time to bring it up. For example, we had a candidate that had three jobs in the last five years.

“One of things I want to bring up is that from my resume, you can see that I have had three jobs in five years. One of those positions, I left for a promotion. However, the other two positions, the companies laid off the whole department and outsourced it to India. I am not a job hopper. As a matter of fact, one of the key things I am looking for in my next position is stability and longevity. “

This is just one step in the overall process.  Remember to review the other five steps below to make sure you are fully prepared.

Six Steps to Prepare for an Interview

  1. Preparing & Answering Interview Questions
  2. Energy & Enthusiasm
  3. Pace
  4. Addressing Weaknesses
  5. Asking Questions
  6. Interview Checklist

Note: Click to download the entire Guide to Preparing for an Interview.