Hi, it's Duncan Brodie here from Goals and Achievements.
I just wanted to do a quick live this morning to talk about an area that I know is a struggle for many people, particularly people from professional backgrounds like Accountants, who I work with extensively.
And the topic I want to talk about this morning is how do you talk about your weaknesses in a job interview?
Often people worry that if they talk about weaknesses, it's going to be the thing that's going to let them down.
In a job interview, the first thing I'd say to you is it's really important that you actually acknowledge that you do have weaknesses.
We all have weaknesses.
There's some things that I know are a core part of working in finance like Excel that I'm absolutely terrible on. I'm not good at all when it comes to Excel.
I'm okay with technology. I use YouTube, social media platforms. I've got a website, I've got two websites, got plenty of stuff on technology.
But when it comes to things like Excel, financial modeling, etc., it's just not really my bag.
So the first thing I'd say to you is actually acknowledge that you are going to have weaknesses.
So don't say something like, well, I don't actually have any weaknesses, because quite frankly, if you say that in a job interview, nobody is going to believe you.
They are going to expect me to say something about your weaknesses in the job interview.
The second thing is, is to actually, you know, talk about your weaknesses as actually being areas for development.
So quite often when I'm talking to clients, one of the things I'll say to them is if you're asked to talk about weaknesses rather than say, I've got weaknesses in this area, this area, in this area, instead say to the person who is interviewing you, well, there's a number of areas where I'm not as strong as I would like to be and I'm actively working on those areas right now.
And then what you do is you talk about those actual areas you're actually working on in terms of your development.
The third thing I would say is to actually highlight how you can actually compensate for any weaknesses you might have.
So a classic example is you are probably going to be joining a team of people and those people on the team are going to have different skills, different experience, different knowledge, different attributes from you.
And in many respects, if, for example, you're a leader in finance or in a relatively senior role, and you're not particularly strong on the technical aspects of accounting, but perhaps are really strong on the business partner role, what you look to do is you look to make sure that you've got someone in the team around you who is equally good on the technical side and you complement each other.
So sometimes it's actually just about finding another person.
Sometimes it's just about actually making sure you don't do anything overly complex on an area that you're not familiar with.
I said earlier about Excel, you know, I can use Excel, but only a really basic level if I want something more complex done it's always going to be better to actually get someone else who's got more in-depth skills to do it.
And the final thing I wanted to say to you is what I would strongly advise you to is when you're talking about weaknesses, is to really think about the role you're being interviewed for.
You see, so often what I actually see is people talking about weaknesses which are actually core elements of a job.
So as part of your preparation, just think about the core elements of the job itself and then think about, you know, your weaknesses and are any of the weaknesses that you're talking about in the core areas of the job, because if they are, you're probably going to be have to be really careful what you say in the job interview itself.
So that's my four tips around how to talk about weaknesses in the job interview.
I hope you've enjoyed the video. I hope you've got some ideas, hints and tips. If you've enjoyed, please remember to subscribe to the channel. Thanks so much for watching and have a great day.