---
title: What Is Your Greatest Weakness? | Hogan Assessments
description: As a recent alumnus of the job market, I can personally attest to the fact that while there is a shortage of available jobs, there is apparently no s
---
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## [What Is Your Greatest Weakness?](https://info.hoganassessments.com/blog/what-is-your-greatest-weakness)
Posted by [Hogan Assessments](https://info.hoganassessments.com/blog/author/hogan-assessments) on Wed, Feb 23, 2011
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As a recent alumnus of the job market, I can personally attest to the fact that while there is a shortage of available jobs, there is apparently no shortage of inane interview questions:
*Where do you see yourself in five years?*
*If you were an animal (vegetable, mineral, superhero, whatever), what kind would you be?*
*What would your last employer say about you?*
*If you were the size of a pencil and we put you in a blender, how would you escape?*
But my least favorite of all time has to be: *What is your greatest weakness?*
Hunting for my first job, I must have answered that question a dozen times – never honestly. My top three answers, depending on the situation, were:
1. I am so driven to succeed, sometimes I work too hard.
2. I have a habit of doing all the work and giving my boss all the credit.
3. I possess the agility of a spider and the strength of six men, but I struggle to harness it for the purposes of good.
And I’m not alone. A quick Google search yields thousands of blogs, how-to articles and even entire websites devoted to avoiding an honest answer to this dreaded question.
So it was a nice surprise when before I interviewed here at Hogan (I am now two weeks on the job), I was asked to complete the full line of our assessments.
For me as a job candidate, the fact that my then potential employer would know, and have a graphical analysis of, my greatest strengths and potential shortcomings meant two things: there was no need to dodge the question, and they were still taking the time to interview me, so I must not be so far beyond help. What resulted was a fluid, comfortable interview in which, instead of wasting time and energy beating around the bush and trying to conceal my flop sweat, I could relax and express what I thought I could bring to the table.
Granted, I am new to the world of HR, but that seems much more productive than trying to explain that while I possess psychic abilities, they are only good for predicting the first two Lotto numbers.
Topics: [assessments](https://info.hoganassessments.com/blog/topic/assessments)
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