The point of any question is to get information. But how good is the information if the answer is the best possible spin on a true weakness. I get fact that the interviewer wants to see that you have insight of your own limitations and weaknesses. But any true weakness will make the applicant look less competitive in the eyes of the interviewer and so this is why the applicant will try to spin it either in a way that "well it used to be a weakness and not I've improved and learned from it" or maybe by calling it "a challenge" and so by changing the name, the applicant lessens the degree of negativity. If the applicant uses the former option, the interviewers (having already seen this approach to get out of a tough question) then might say something like: "well tell me a CURRENT weakness that you have" and so we are back to square one.
Yes it's important to know one's own weaknesses as that's the only way we can improve on them, but do PD's really want to hear the true weakness and at what point do they start taking off points for said weakness.
Example: common problems applicants might have
Applicant --> (perception on behalf of the interviewer of the applicant)
(a) Difficulty speaking up for myself/hold my tongue eventhough I know I'm right --> pushover, will be a weaker resident as collegues/pts/family will take advantage of him/her.. applicant is not a leader
(b) Difficulty multitasking/want to finish one thing before starting another task --> in specialties like EM which depend on multitaking... well this applicant obviously lacks the key ingredient in becoming an efficient EM doc
(c) Perfectionist --> Go back to the multitasking arguement plus applicant might not be a good team player
(d) Any specific specialty of medicine or procedures or specific area of knowledge that the applicant might not know as well --> Yes, residency is to learn these things but now I might have doubts about his/her becoming an efficient resident and being able to be at par with the other residents. Shouldn't this applicant learned that in clinical rotations... isn't that basic?
(e) Difficulty dealing with difficult patients (i.e. frequent-flyer ER pts who are homeless/have BS complaints/drug seeking/annoying family) --> if this is an EM applicant or even FM.... well this resident will be seeing these type of pts every shift, now I have doubts about him/her being able to deal with them in an efficient manner and getting work done --> Maybe I should consider someone else.
EM interviewers sometimes ask a similar type of question and that is the "what is the most difficult type of pt to treat and deal with in your experience?" You also have to spin this as this will bring you back to scenario (e).
Maybe I have been overthinking this question and this issue. Maybe the interviewers don't always have negative reactions to these answers, but perception is reality and maybe sometimes the interviewer might not even know he/she is doing it but after this question, they now start to have doubts about the applicant.
Really, what exactly is an acceptable weakness answer without spinning it. Last year I had interviewers ask me this question at about 1/2 of my interviews. I think I said choice (a) and tried to spin it saying that I've worked on this during my clinical rotations and during my intern year and don't see it as a weakness anymore.
