The Interviewer Asked Me What My Biggest Weakness Was, and This Is What I Said.
Honest answer to the most cliche question ever.
All the Ivy-league wannabe people love this question don’t they? It’s a softball that you never really answer honestly because it doesn’t actually look good in an interview. There’s literally nobody who wants to hear back, “My biggest weakness? Well, maybe it’s my drinking on the job.”
But I’ll tell you guys what my biggest weaknesses are for a couple reasons. First, because there’s some kind of therapy in writing. Second, because, ironically enough my biggest weaknesses don’t affect my profession. Instead, they almost exclusively get in the way of my non-work interests. And third, because as you will see, writing about them helps me directly address one of those weaknesses.
1. Consistency
This one impacts so many things that I want to be doing, or should be doing. I start things, put a lot of energy into them, including making a plan to keep them going. Then somehow, a couple weeks later I’ve fallen off track. Reminder that this is not work. I’m talking about things like drawing regularly, writing regularly, exercising, etc. If anything, I’m a workaholic and often I drop my consistent habits in order to do work. If you wondered why I hadn’t written anything in about 2 weeks after writing something almost every other day, it’s because I needed to prioritize projects at work and signed up for some side projects in my free time.
It’s not work’s fault either. I’m just pointing out that lack of consistency in many things outside work is responsible for my failing to do several things I want to do: publish art books, start a set of video training series on project management, design, and marker illustration, build a social media presence, network, and get fit. In fact, I’m so inconsistent in these things that I’ve let about 7 years of solid conservative design work sit around without ever publishing about them on my own portfolio or social accounts. That’s bad.
2. I have a mind for processes, but not for metrics.
I studied economics in college and I still stay interested in it. I can describe all the economic and market dynamics you’d like, and I can tell you important concepts from basically any book on the topic (and which authors are worth reading). But I couldn’t tell you squat about the latest interest rates, or where the S&P 500 or the NASDAQ is at today. I can’t tell you what the current GDP is or what the CPI is at. I’m terrible at following stocks.
I played baseball and know pretty much anything you’d like to talk about as far as playing the game is concerned. So when I watch baseball, I’m super critical of the things the players are doing, the pitch selection, the strategy and these idiotic replay and pitch clock additions to the game. But I can’t tell you the name of virtually any player, and I don’t know their stats. I can’t even get interested in knowing those things.
What I’ve noticed is that being able to simply internalize the metrics and details is a lot more valuable than having any insight into why they change or what’s making them change. I know several guys who are encyclopedic about things like that and they can basically shoot the shit for hours. I’m terrible at that though, and it gets in the way of networking and it gets in the way of investing.
3. I’m ambitious and creative, but not creatively ambitious.
What the hell does that mean right? It means that I’m down to work hard and I do creative work. However, my approach to career and life advancement is basically brute force. I’m inclined to simply put in the hours and plow ahead. But I know people who have gotten further in life and made much more money without really any hard skillset, and without putting in 12 hours a day (like, ever). They are clearly taking a more creative approach to achieving their ambitions. Maybe it’s a combination of good networking, good negotiation, and good outsourcing. These things are not my strengths though clearly.
Conclusion
So there you have it. Those are honestly my top 3 biggest weaknesses — at least in my opinion. I am working on them though. Like I said at the beginning, one of the reasons I’m even writing this was to get back on track with consistent writing. I’ve also made a habit out of checking the stock market daily, begun studying ad performance data at work, and this year I’m planning to follow the Yankees game for game. Admittedly, the creative ambition part is a tough one to improve upon, but I am working on that although I won’t say how.
You should try reflecting on this question yourself. It’s a good thing to be able to turn over in your mind. However, in the Ivy-league tradition of turning that answer into a self-compliment, I want you to realize that all of these things are just a sign that you should hire me. I’m apparently game for sacrificing my own ambitions to help you achieve yours!
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