Handling Tough Job Interview Questions: What is Your Biggest Weakness?

You know it's coming during your job interview: "Tell us about your biggest weakness." This question is on the tip of every interviewers tongue. So how are you going to answer it? We have a plan for that.

Hi everybody I’m Brian Clapp Director of Content for WorkinSports.com and this is the Work in Sports podcast…

What a weekend. Notre Dame wins the Womens national championship, baseball is here, ESPN launched a new morning show, and sister jean got ousted from the tournament.

Good times.

This also means today is the final day of our #Jobmadness promotion – get two weeks full membership at WorkinSports.com for just $5. Yep $5. All you have to do is tell me you are interested and I’ll send you a personal promo code. You can contact me through [email protected] – or through my linkedin profile, or through our private facebook group…or by smoke signals. I’m very available.

It also means our bracket challenge is near a close – for those of you that didn’t enter this year – simple premise, beat my bracket, get a free month at workinsports.com.

Going into the final game tonight I am in 105^th place – which means 104 people are destined to get a free month at Work in Sports. BUT, I have Villanova winning it all so I could jump ahead many.

Most important to me is that I beat Kelsey Smith, one of the members of our private facebook group who is currently in 71^st place, but had Duke winning…which they will not.

Look like if Villanova wins it’s diems37 with the win, and if Michigan wins it’s King Luca III. One of them will get a $100 gift card so stay tuned.

Quick sidenote: I was driving down to the Philadelphia Airport Wednesday night to pick up my mother in law at the airport…we’re stuck in crazy traffic, all for a sudden motorcade sirens everywhere… left lane getting cleared out, everyone mad and honking… then boom, big bus passes by from Villanova with huge police escort. Immediately everyone went from mad to cheering. Just goes to show the only thing that can overcome road rage is sports.

Just saying.

Alright today’s question comes from Nathan in New York.

Hi Brian, I have a job interview in a week with a company I am very excited to work for, but I’m pretty nervous for two reasons. One, they told me I’d be facing an interview panel, which sounds intimidating. And two, in my last interview I was asked to describe two of my strengths and two of my weaknesses and I feel like I bombed that question. I could feel the interviewers disappointment in my answer. Can you help me with the panel idea and how to handle that question?

I love the way you put that Nathan – you could feel their disappointment. It’s so true, I’ve been there before when you answer a question and immediately sense the drop in temperature in the room, or the subtle body language change from the interviewer. It’s an awful feeling.

Let’s talk about that question because it comes up in every single interview. But first, let’s talk techniques for a panel, which is also very common.

The reason employers do panel interviews is to see how you handle pressure. That’s it. That is the purpose. Can you handle multiple people asking a myriad of questions, with a confusing array of thoughts in your head…and still remain calm, sound intelligent and exude confidence.

I began doing panel interviews when I was a News Director for a sports network, because the jobs I was hiring for required people who could react and respond under pressure.

Before you imagine a Law and Order style interrogation taking place, that’s not what a panel job interview is. What we’re talking about is around ten people in a room asking interview questions. A bright light and the threat of prison time aren’t necessary; the pressure is there just by the nature of the environment created.

Now that you know why they are done, you can prepare yourself for how to handle the event.

Listen in to Brian explaining three techniques for handling a job interview panel, and two ways to answer the question "What are your biggest weaknesses?"

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