My least favorite job interview question is “What are your greatest weaknesses?” I don’t think anyone likes that question, but it especially bugs me because it’s like saying, “Tell me about some superficial flaw that you claim to have, and spin it in such a way that you’re actually telling me how great you are.” Ugh.
In a way, that question exposes certain weaknesses that I have which I don’t normally consider weaknesses. For one, I try to be scrupulously honest, which isn’t that helpful when someone you’re trying to impress is asking you to talk about your flaws. I’m also not particularly ambitious, in the ladder-climbing sense of the word — my ambitions are focused on doing interesting things, not on impressing people, and while that’s something that I like about myself, it’s not necessarily helpful in a situation where the whole point is to try to impress someone into hiring you.
I had a job interview last week, and this question came up. [Edit: Actually, I brought it up, in response to the question, “What is your least favorite interview question?” Talk about shooting myself in the foot — there’s that honesty problem again.] I think I gave a not-too-embarrassing answer, but it was nothing all that clever. Then I was thinking about it this weekend, which was quite busy. (David and I spent most of Saturday moving stuff out of our apartment, with the help of my friend Mike and his girlfriend. We were supposed to go to a picnic on Saturday afternoon, but we were on a roll with moving so we skipped it. Then yesterday, I canned jam all day, and I mean all day, with some lady friends.) I’ve been kind of stressed out lately, between moving and looking for a job and all the other plans and errands that tend to come up, and I think that’s what inspired this thought: that my weakness is fear.
I don’t think any of my friends would describe me as timid or shy, but I have to overcome fear all the time, mostly over trivial things. I’m afraid to drive places where I haven’t driven before. I’m afraid to call people that I haven’t called before. I’m afraid of going to a new restaurant alone. I’m afraid of bothering people or disappointing people or screwing things up.
But more than I’m afraid of anything, I’m in love with life. And if I’m going to do the things that I want to do, then I have to overcome my fear. (It helps that the one thing I’m not afraid of is making a fool of myself.) For me, the key to this whole thing is that if I put my attention on my fear, it will bog me down — but if I keep my attention on the thing that interests me or inspires me, or that just plain needs to get done, then I can take a deep breath and muscle through the scary part.
Fear is definitely a weakness. But dealing with it has become such a habit that I don’t usually give it much thought anymore. And mastering my fear, even over the little things, has taught me that I can be brave. That’s a nice thing to know about yourself.