It is the most dreaded question in any interview: “What is your biggest weakness?”
If you are a high-level Sales Professional or an Operations Manager in the Commercial MEP or Customized Manufacturing space, you already know the cliché answers. You know you aren’t supposed to say, “I work too hard,” or “I’m a perfectionist.” Hiring managers at top value-engineering firms see right through the “humblebrag.” When they ask this question, they aren’t looking for a reason to disqualify you. They are testing for two very specific leadership traits: Self-awareness and Coachability.
Here is how to answer the weakness question like a true professional.
- Pick a Real, But Non-Fatal, Weakness Don’t pick a weakness that destroys your credibility for the role. If you are applying to be a Director of Sales, your weakness cannot be “closing deals” or “public speaking.”
- The Strategy: Pick a weakness that is a natural byproduct of your strengths, or a specific software/process you are actively improving on.
- Example: “Early in my management career, I struggled with delegation. Because I came up as a Senior Estimator, I had a habit of jumping in and re-doing my team’s bids if we were on a tight deadline, rather than teaching them how to fix the errors themselves.”
- Explain the Impact Show that you understand why this weakness is a problem. This proves your self-awareness.
- Example: “I realized that by doing the work for them, I was creating a bottleneck. I was burning myself out, and my team wasn’t growing because I wasn’t letting them learn from their mistakes.”
- Show the “Fix” in Action A weakness is only a red flag if you are ignoring it. The most important part of your answer is the action you took to correct the behavior.
- Example: “To fix this, I implemented a mandatory peer-review process for all estimates under $500k. It forced my team to check each other’s work before it ever got to my desk. It took a few weeks to smooth out, but it ultimately freed up 15 hours of my week to focus on high-level strategy and improved our department’s accuracy.”
The Takeaway Nobody is perfect. Employers in the MEP and Manufacturing sectors want leaders who can look in the mirror, identify a flaw in their process, and fix it.
Ready to bring your leadership skills to a new team? At 2020 Search Partners, we prepare our candidates for every step of the interview process. Submit Your Resume to get started.
