How to Handle the Interview Weakness Question

There are some terrible suggestions out there about how to answer this interview question. Possibly the worst one is the implication that a clever interviewee can trick the interviewing manager into accepting a non-responsive answer.

In this cast, we share one of the best interviewing answer templates you'll ever hear. It's simple, elegant, easy to deliver, and surprise, surprise: it directly answers the question.

Folks, erroneously think that "they" can fool "their" interviewer, but of course, if "they" were the one "interviewing", why, "that would be different."

One of our core tenents of interviewing is to answer the question. No matter what you want to tell the interviewer, answer THEIR question first. If you feel compelled to add something, that's okay but by gosh, you must begin with an answer to their question right up front. BLUF [Bottom Line Up Front].

Sometimes it's recommended that the way to answer this is to give a weakness that could be a strength - as if our interviewers are stupid. Cite a corrected weakness uhh, that wouldn't be a weakness anymore, right? And another theory is to "deflect" and then also, "address the unspoken question." In all cases, NO. Address the spoken question.

So, How DO we answer this question effectively?