{"id":32209,"date":"2016-02-22T02:15:50","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T09:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=32209"},"modified":"2016-07-27T15:49:56","modified_gmt":"2016-07-27T22:49:56","slug":"6-tips-for-talking-about-your-weaknesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/6-tips-for-talking-about-your-weaknesses\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Tips for Talking About Your Weaknesses"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"For<\/a>
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Are you prepared to discuss your weaknesses?<\/p>\n

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What do you do when you read\/hear the weakness question? Schools are assessing how well you self evaluate. Like a business problem, they want to hear your plan of action, your implementation, and your success rate. <\/span><\/p>\n

Here are some tips to help you a) think about and evaluate your weaknesses, and b) be prepared to write about them in an essay or discuss them in an interview.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Prepare answers\u00a0in advance.\u00a0<\/strong>When an interviewer asks, \u201cSo Natalie, tell me about your weaknesses and what you did to overcome them?\" you don't want to be left silent drawing or blank, or worse \u2013 caught off guard and say something crazy like \"Gosh, there are so many, I don\u2019t even know where to begin.\" Ding!<\/p>\n

2. Be honest.\u00a0<\/strong>If you have been let go from a position, you need to discuss the lessons learned from this negative situation and how you overcame the situation. If you have a procrastination problem, you need to talk about ways in which you\u2019re working on boosting your time management skills. <\/span><\/p>\n

3. Remain professionally focused<\/strong>.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Don\u2019t discuss<\/span><\/a>\u00a0your addiction<\/a> to video games or your weakness for chocolate. It's also certainly not the time to talk about anything inappropriate. We're talking about work-related, professional weaknesses. <\/span><\/p>\n

4. Focus on your own weaknesses.<\/strong>\u00a0Don't talk about your cousin\u2019s attraction to arson or your mother-in-law\u2019s conspiratorial behavior. Don't discuss about how your boss is a jerk or how you can't stand your coworker's habit of nail biting or how your desk is unorganized because the guy your share your cubicle with always throws his garbage your way. This question is about YOU and your weaknesses \u2013 don't shift the attention or the blame onto someone else. <\/span><\/p>\n

5. Proactively address the issues<\/strong>.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>If you have a\u00a0<\/span>quantitative weakness<\/a>, take courses that address the weakness (accounting, statistics). Don\u2019t wait for the admissions committee to ask you to take a course. If you are uncomfortably shy, getting involved with an organization like Toastmasters can help you, and show the committee that you\u2019re taking steps to overcome that challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n

6. Avoid clich\u00e9s<\/strong>.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>\"Gee, I guess I just work too hard sometimes\" is a copout \u2013 the adcom\/interviewer will know that deep down you're proud of your intense work ethic. It is the life of a student to work hard \u2013 don't use that as your \"weakness.\" <\/span><\/p>\n

If you need help\u00a0<\/span>drafting your essay<\/span><\/a>\u00a0or framing your answer for your\u00a0<\/span>interview<\/span><\/a>, Accepted is here to help you. Please\u00a0<\/span>contact us<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for assistance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Download<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Natalie<\/a>By\u00a0Natalie Grinblatt Epstein<\/a>, an accomplished Accepted consultant\/editor (since 2008) and entrepreneur. Natalie is a former MBA Admissions Dean and Director at Ross, Johnson, and Carey.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Related Resources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 5 A\u2019s for Your Low GPA [Podcast episode]<\/a>
\n\u2022\u00a0Writing About Overcoming Obstacles in Your Application Essays<\/a>
\n\u2022\u00a0Can You Get Accepted After Doing Something Stupid?<\/a><\/p>\n

This article\u00a0<\/a>originally appeared on\u00a0<\/em>blog.accepted.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Applying to a top b-school? The talented folks at Accepted have helped hundreds of applicants get accepted to their dream programs. Whether you are figuring out where apply, writing your application essays, or prepping for your interviews, we are just a call (or click) away.<\/p>\n

Contact us, and get matched up with the consultant who will help\u00a0you\u00a0<\/em>get accepted<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What do you do when you read\/hear the weakness question? Schools are assessing how well you self evaluate. Like a business problem, they want to hear your plan of action,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1,939,775,113,243],"tags":[1189,600,759],"class_list":["post-32209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba","category-uncategorized","category-accepted","category-admission-consultants","category-applications","category-blog","tag-addressing-weaknesses","tag-mba-essays","tag-weaknesses","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32209"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32212,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32209\/revisions\/32212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}