Why addressing your deficiencies in a job interview gives you a higher ranking

“My greatest weakness is my perfectionism and workaholism….” 

Seems like a good interview answer? Think again.

 Self-promotion is no longer the best strategy to land a job (thank goodness) as employers tend to focus more on life skills such as resilience and efficiencies, rather than overt efforts to impress.  In fact, studies show that interviewers give the highest ratings to applicants who are more concerned with being seen accurately than positively.

In a substack article, Adam Grant explained that executives who tried to impress board members with qualifications did not actually succeed in landing more board seats. He explained that in a pair of experiments, one found that self-promotion only paid off when the audience was distracted enough to remember the information but forget the source, and the other saw right through it. If you were that great, you wouldn’t need to boast about your greatness.

A healthy and appropriate discussion of your strengths is, however, required in order to land a job.  If you’re

uncomfortable with asserting your strengths in a confident manner, it’s understandable - especially if you’re female, where there is evidence of backlash towards self-promoters.

The best way to build rapport and make the right impression, is to discuss both capabilities deficiencies with confidence and humility.

Humour signals competence without arrogance. Job applicants and founders are usually more successful when they joked about their capabilities ie  I have a proven track record of turning caffeine input into productivity output….I may be 41, but I have the wisdom of a 42 year old…

If you would like more tips or advices for interviews, please email hello@act2project.com and we can connect you more resources and specialist coaches.