How do you answer what are your shortcomings?
John Hall
Updated on March 24, 2026
How to answer What are your greatest weaknesses?
- Choose a weakness that will not prevent you from succeeding in the role.
- Be honest and choose a real weakness.
- Provide an example of how you’ve worked to improve upon your weakness or learn a new skill to combat the issue.
What are good weaknesses to put on an application?
Examples of weaknesses on the job
- Inexperience with specific software or a non-essential skill.
- Tendency to take on too much responsibility.
- Nervousness about public speaking.
- Hesitancy about delegating tasks.
- Discomfort taking big risks.
- Impatience with bureaucracies.
What to do when a job application asks for?
Just hit submit already. Photo of nervous man courtesy of Shutterstock. Lily Zhang is a career counselor at the MIT Media Lab, where she works with a range of students from AI experts to interaction designers on crafting their own unique career paths.
What’s the good shortcoming to say in an interview?
If you rush to get jobs done and don’t like to wait on others for input, you may have difficulty working on a team or you may be the team member others turn to when they need something done quickly.
When do hiring managers ask about your weaknesses?
During job interviews, hiring managers will often ask about your weaknesses, in addition to your strengths, as a way to determine whether you are qualified for the job. In addition to learning about what you can do, the interviewer wants to know about what you can’t do, or what you have difficulty with on the job.
How to answer ” why are you applying for this position?
It’s one of the strategies I recommend in my job interview answer guide because it turns the interview into a back-and-forth dialogue, instead of a nerve-racking interrogation. They’ll respect you more. It’ll make the whole interview more conversational and less like an interrogation. The result? You’ll feel a whole lot calmer and less stressed.
