Suggestions for a reasonable answer to the weakness question at interviews?

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I think ideally the best answer is a weakness that could be viewed as a strength in another light. It's also good to explain how you may be working on that weakness. I got asked this question at an interview, and I had a great answer, but I didn't get a chance to explain how I was improving; oh well.
 
Just don't say the cliche of "I'm a perfectionist" or "I work to hard"
At a friend of mines interview at VCU they asked this question and he answered honestly that he needed to work on patience. After his answer the interviewer said "I am so glad you didn't say you work to hard or are a perfectionist, that's what everyone says, who are they kidding that's not a weakness" The result is that my friend was accepted.
 
Be honest! Interviewers will be able to tell if you made something up just to sound good.
 
thedelicatessen said:
I think ideally the best answer is a weakness that could be viewed as a strength in another light. It's also good to explain how you may be working on that weakness. I got asked this question at an interview, and I had a great answer, but I didn't get a chance to explain how I was improving; oh well.
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This is the typical BS answer that interviewers will EASILY be able to see through. Like everybody else has said, BE HONEST!
 
the best answer is being a perfectionist, duh!
 
At one of my interviews I was asked this question and replied that I wish I was more optimistic. It was completely honest so you should say whatever you really wish you could change but I did explain how I have improved and my interviewer seemed really pleased at my answer. It looked like he also was used to people saying the same old perfectionist line.
 
I just confessed to being a procrastinator in the two times I've been asked. I made sure to note afterwards that I do still get everything done--and done to my liking--but acknowledged that it's something I need to reform. Ain't no thang.
 
Just be honest. As with above I said my time management skills. Then stated how I have been working hard on it and have nearly overcome it. And also said that I quickly adapt so I don't see it being a huge problem in med school. They want honesty.
 
stasy said:
so... anyone out there know a good response to this one?
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Just say, "my bladder", and then excuse yourself. By the time you return s/he will have moved to another question.

If you do a search, you will find many threads on this very topic. Actually, the cliche answer is to spin a negative into a positive, but not use one that everybody else will have used. (Hence stay far away from the too much of a perfectionist, work too hard, am too careful etc. type answers). The other school of thought is to pick a legit weakness, and outline how you have been endeavoring to correct it.
 
how about "sometimes I just care too much" 👍
 
Trismegistus4 said:
"I can't think for myself and have to solicit answers to questions I might be asked from strangers on an internet message board."
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👍 The only threads more obvious than these are the "write my secondary for me" threads.
 
Trismegistus4 said:
"I can't think for myself and have to solicit answers to questions I might be asked from strangers on an internet message board."
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wow....damn.


Its okay I think the questions was legitimate👍
 
Trismegistus4 said:
"I can't think for myself and have to solicit answers to questions I might be asked from strangers on an internet message board."
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Rafa said:
👍 The only threads more obvious than these are the "write my secondary for me" threads.
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Yet, you still take the time to put in your worthless two cents......
 
stasy said:
Yet, you still take the time to put in your worthless two cents......
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Honestly, there was a thread about this less than a month ago. It doesn't take 30 seconds to plug the word "weakness" into the search engine. And FWIW, the only thing more worthless than someone making a worthless post is someone calling out the first person for making said worthless post. Meta SDN sucks even more than 'same three threads over and over again' SDN. :laugh:
 
Rafa said:
Honestly, there was a thread about this less than a month ago. It doesn't take 30 seconds to plug the word "weakness" into the search engine. And FWIW, the only thing more worthless than someone making a worthless post is someone calling out the first person for making said worthless post. Meta SDN sucks even more than 'same three threads over and over again' SDN. :laugh:
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call the police rafa some one got al capowned!:laugh:
 
For me, I can be really shy when in a group of people I don't know well. I've worked to improve this by joining more campus organizations, spending time with different groups of people and generally trying to go out with my friends to places like concerts, movies, clubs versus doing something over someone's house.
 
stasy said:
so... anyone out there know a good response to this one?
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wrong approach. you're not trying to be someone else. be yourself. just state your biggest weakness (and if its problems getting "it" up, state your second biggest weakness).
 
idadoc said:
Just don't say the cliche of "I'm a perfectionist" or "I work to hard"
At a friend of mines interview at VCU they asked this question and he answered honestly that he needed to work on patience. After his answer the interviewer said "I am so glad you didn't say you work to hard or are a perfectionist, that's what everyone says, who are they kidding that's not a weakness" The result is that my friend was accepted.
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haha
 
Stolenspatulas said:
(and if its problems getting "it" up, state your second biggest weakness).
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But why? I mean, with the recent advancements in ED medications, you could easily impress the interviewer with your ability to overcome your greatest weakness.... 😛
 
BS Answers:

"I'm a perfectionist"
"I care too much"
"I'm a workaholic"
"I always try to do too much and end up overwhelmed"

Those are strengths masked as weaknesses, and anyone can see right through those answers. Just be honest, but always follow your sentence by the phrase "however, I work on overcoming that by X, Y, Z."

No one expects you to be perfect.
 
I responded by sayign that sometimes my ego gets in the way and I can be arrogant at times.
 
besides the silver bullet (and the one that comes in a can) my weakness is women in the summertime--makes me remember why i love bein a guy...
but, if somebody was to ask me my weakness in an interview, id tell them something like i always try to please errbody, and sometimes it leads to a conflict of interest..i dunno, i just made that up, but i mean as long as you dont say crack rocks or the underaged boys (cough mark foley), and it sounds like something that isnt really too much of a fault, something that can be easily changed, you should be kosher.
AK
 
I'm thinking of saying: I'm too externally motivated. By that I mean the effort I put into something depends largely on what my peers/friends are doing and my need to be just as good as if not slightly better than them. As such, my drive is largely dependent on the drive of others. What then happens is that I judge my personal accomplishments not on how hard I tried but on how well I did in comparison to everyone else. Although I would like to add that it definitely doesn't make me cutthroat in anyway and I want my friends to do just as well. kind of a paradox
 
kevster2001 said:
I'm thinking of saying: I'm too externally motivated. By that I mean the effort I put into something depends largely on what my peers/friends are doing and my need to be just as good as if not slightly better than them. As such, my drive is largely dependent on the drive of others. What then happens is that I judge my personal accomplishments not on how hard I tried but on how well I did in comparison to everyone else. Although I would like to add that it definitely doesn't make me cutthroat in anyway and I want my friends to do just as well. kind of a paradox
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That is another official BS answer. 😴
 
eternalrage said:
I responded by sayign that sometimes my ego gets in the way and I can be arrogant at times.
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How did that work out for you? That is a MAJOR weakness in my eyes, and I am not sure Id be willing to admit it.
 
I got asked this in a different way at my MCW interview...if I had anything that would keep me from succeeding in medical school, and I said that I'm very close to my family and I see them as such a priority that I can see family events coming before my studying and other medical school commitments.

That didn't work very well for him because he said that it was something that wasn't specific to medical school...but then I couldn't come up with anything else. I just keep thinking of how I felt kind of drilled at MCW..and I'm in 😀 😀
 
baylormed said:
BS Answers:

"I'm a perfectionist"
"I care too much"
"I'm a workaholic"
"I always try to do too much and end up overwhelmed"

Those are strengths masked as weaknesses, and anyone can see right through those answers. Just be honest, but always follow your sentence by the phrase "however, I work on overcoming that by X, Y, Z."

No one expects you to be perfect.
Click to expand...

i actually use the "i care too much" answer and it seemed fine. i typically say that i get too attached to the people that i'm helping (i have some experience in my psychology major and job to back this up) and that it really take a toll on me sometimes. When asked how i will combat this weakness, i tend to say that i will look to other doctors for advice on how they've managed to leave work at work and also i feel that experience will help.
 
Erina said:
i actually use the "i care too much" answer and it seemed fine. i typically say that i get too attached to the people that i'm helping (i have some experience in my psychology major and job to back this up) and that it really take a toll on me sometimes. When asked how i will combat this weakness, i tend to say that i will look to other doctors for advice on how they've managed to leave work at work and also i feel that experience will help.
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A smile and a nod does not mean an interviewer does not see right through an answer like that.
 
^ Agree. If I ever get on an adcom, I'll have a list of things to auto-reject applicants for saying during an interview. Trying to pass off a strength as a weakness will be at the top of the list - right next to "I'm in this for the money".
 
baylormed said:
A smile and a nod does not mean an interviewer does not see right through an answer like that.
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yep 🙁

I think this is way more of a BS-detector test rather than a test to tell them if you have a fatal flaw.
 
My greatest weakness is probably a lack of creativity. That and shopping and mountain dew. Haha, I actually have quite a few.
 
baylormed said:
A smile and a nod does not mean an interviewer does not see right through an answer like that.
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but i got accepted at all the schools that asked me that question...and i also got more than a smile and a nod. we tended to talk about it for a few minutes.

i'm not going to make up an answer just because my real one seems like "bs." it's not a strength for me. it actually really stresses me out and wears me down. and i think i was able to make the interviewers see that it was a real concern of mine.

you're coming across as a little harsh. i think if someone is just truly honest about what they feel is a weakness, it's fine. there is no "right" answer and there is no "wrong" answer unless you don't actually believe that what you're saying is a weakness (or unless you can't convince the interviewer of that).
 
Erina said:
but i got accepted at all the schools that asked me that question...and i also got more than a smile and a nod. we tended to talk about it for a few minutes.

i'm not going to make up an answer just because my real one seems like "bs." it's not a strength for me. it actually really stresses me out and wears me down. and i think i was able to make the interviewers see that it was a real concern of mine.

you're coming across as a little harsh. i think if someone is just truly honest about what they feel is a weakness, it's fine. there is no "right" answer and there is no "wrong" answer unless you don't actually believe that what you're saying is a weakness (or unless you can't convince the interviewer of that).
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C'mon, how could you not realize that caring about people is a STRENGTH, especially for an aspiring physician. I call bull$hit.
 
jota_jota said:
C'mon, how could you not realize that caring about people is a STRENGTH, especially for an aspiring physician.
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of course i care about people. we all do or else we wouldnt be going into this profession. my weakness is that i let it affect me TOO much and that's not good. if i don't learn how to separate work from the rest of my life, i'm going to have a hard time.

i don't understand what's so hard to see about this. when you get too emotionally affected by something, you can't perform objectively and it may affect other parts of your life. when i asked other people what they though my biggest weakness was, that's the response i got as well. they saw me as someone who stresses herself out too much, to the unhealthy point, because i get too involved.

and obviously this response has worked. i received no negative feedback from it and went on to discuss it with them for another 5 minutes, talking about my experiences and their experiences.
 
jota_jota said:
👍 👍

.....never thought that I would be thumbupping you, baylormed, but I honestly couldn't have said it any better.
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😱

So, have we reached a truce? 😉
 
Erina said:
of course i care about people. we all do or else we wouldnt be going into this profession. my weakness is that i let it affect me TOO much and that's not good. if i don't learn how to separate work from the rest of my life, i'm going to have a hard time.

i don't understand what's so hard to see about this. when you get too emotionally affected by something, you can't perform objectively and it may affect other parts of your life. when i asked other people what they though my biggest weakness was, that's the response i got as well. they saw me as someone who stresses herself out too much, to the unhealthy point, because i get too involved.

and obviously this response has worked. i received no negative feedback from it and went on to discuss it with them for another 5 minutes, talking about my experiences and their experiences.
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Sorry, Erina, I suppose that I don't understand because one of my weaknesses is that I am self-centered. Another one is that I have a REAL, REAL, REAL LOW tolerance for fakeness/fake people (NOTE: I am not calling you a fake person here.) Therefore, it's hard for me to see how someone could seriously be affected by others like this. Therefore, my "fake detector" goes off. Therefore, I tend to over-react. Sorry about that.

I think that most people that go with the "too <somethng>" are just spouting BS, however.
 
Erina said:
i actually use the "i care too much" answer and it seemed fine. i typically say that i get too attached to the people that i'm helping (i have some experience in my psychology major and job to back this up) and that it really take a toll on me sometimes. When asked how i will combat this weakness, i tend to say that i will look to other doctors for advice on how they've managed to leave work at work and also i feel that experience will help.
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I'm afraid my bs-detector might sound off unless this were phrased very carefully... although I think I know what you're talking about -- not so much with people, but the sight of a cat or dog that's been run over by a car can put me into a psychologically useless state that I have to talk myself out of. I could never be a veterinarian.

So I might say "trouble maintaining emotional equilibrium in the face of somebody else's distress" if I were you, which basically says the same thing but clearly as a problem that you need to work on. You don't want to rely on the adcom's ability/willingness to distinguish your sincerity from 1000 air-headed blond pre-meds who will say "care too much" and mean it as a complement to themselves. (Of course, they'll probably be the same ones who use the phrase "want to help people" so maybe they're not so hard to pick out.)

I used lack of energy. OK, I phrased it as sleepyheaded-in-the-morning, because I thought that sounded a little less dreadful (and I have clearly had experience working through the problem, having been in the military.)
 
Erina said:
i actually use the "i care too much" answer and it seemed fine. i typically say that i get too attached to the people that i'm helping (i have some experience in my psychology major and job to back this up) and that it really take a toll on me sometimes. When asked how i will combat this weakness, i tend to say that i will look to other doctors for advice on how they've managed to leave work at work and also i feel that experience will help.
Click to expand...


Wow... that's exactly what I said at my interview yesterday... If it's the honest truth that someone tends to become too emotionally invested in a patient, that is a legitimate weakness, and with honest conviction there's no reason any interviewer should doubt you.

Great minds think alike!
 
baylormed said:
That is another official BS answer. 😴
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why do u say that. i haven't heard this answer from other people before. ive heard of people saying they try their hardest yadda yadda yadda and i have a habit of trying just hard enough to match other people.
 
Erina said:
i actually use the "i care too much" answer and it seemed fine. i typically say that i get too attached to the people that i'm helping (i have some experience in my psychology major and job to back this up) and that it really take a toll on me sometimes. When asked how i will combat this weakness, i tend to say that i will look to other doctors for advice on how they've managed to leave work at work and also i feel that experience will help.
Click to expand...

I think the way you explained it makes it seem like a more legitimate weakness because you're acknowledging that there are people who are better at controlling their emotions than you and you wish to improve. If you said "I care too much and it means that I establish too strong of a connection with my patients blah blah" then I'd be a little skeptical. I don't think this is complete BS....
 
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