Interview Skills 7 - Describing Ones Weaknesses

Hello, everyone, and welcome to EnglishPod.

My name is Marco.

My name is Catherine, and today we've got one more episode in our series about interview

skills.

This is an elementary level series, and we're here today to talk about things that you might

not be very good at.

That's right.

Today we're going to talk about weaknesses, and that is our word for vocabulary preview.

So let's take a look at it now.

Vocabulary preview.

Okay, so what is a weakness?

A weakness is a thing or an activity or something that you're just not very good at or something

that you think you can improve.

Okay, so obviously no one is perfect, and like we saw in the previous lesson, we had

a lot of good things about ourselves, key strengths, and now we're going to talk about

our weaknesses.

Maybe you're a little bit lazy.

That might be a weakness.

That's right.

A weakness is the opposite of strength, and that is the topic today, so let's take a listen

to today's dialogue.

Okay, Rebecca.

Well I think you've given me a clear impression of your positive qualities, but let's talk

a little bit about your weaknesses.

Okay.

Well it's always more difficult to describe them, isn't it?

Definitely, but if you had to pinpoint one weakness, what would it be?

Well as I mentioned before, I do tend to get frustrated if I don't see progress in my work

or career.

I suppose I'm quite a restless character.

My father always taught me to be a high achiever, so...

So would you say if things don't go your way at work, it could easily get you down?

Well in a way, yes, but I must say that even if I'm not completely happy in my work, I

always give 110%.

I would never shirk my responsibilities.

I suppose sometimes I expect too much too soon.

Well you know journalism is a highly competitive world, so you do need to keep pushing yourself,

it's true.

Okay, well let's move on to talk about the job position here, shall we?

Yes, please.

Alright, we're back.

So obviously, Rebecca did a very good job at talking about her weaknesses in a very

positive way.

So before we get into analyzing that, why don't we take a look at a couple of words

she used on Language Takeaway.

Language Takeaway.

One of the first words that Mr. Parsons used was a clear impression, so impression.

Alright so I think this is a very common word when people talk about first impressions or

I get the impression.

So what is an impression?

Well an impression is like an idea or a feeling.

So I can have an impression about something, it means that I don't necessarily understand

it really well or I don't have experience with it, but it's an idea that I have about

something.

That's right, so for example, maybe you meet somebody new and you say I get the impression

that he is a liar.

But maybe then you get to know him and he's not.

So this is your idea about something or the way you feel about something.

So in this case, Mr. Parsons has a clear impression of her positive qualities.

That means that he has an idea or an understanding of the things that Rebecca is good at, but

he wants to know more about her weaknesses.

That's right and Mr. Parsons asked her to try and pinpoint one of her weaknesses.

So this word to pinpoint.

This is a great word, I'm not really sure where it comes from in English, but I think

it's very visual, you can see what the word means.

Pinpoint means to locate or identify or really be specific about something.

That's right, so maybe if you go to the doctor and you say that your back hurts, the doctor

might ask you to try and pinpoint where on your back you have the pain.

That's right, so it's a way to be specific or very exact about something.

Okay, so if she had to pinpoint something, she said, well, I do get a little bit frustrated.

Okay, so frustrated is a way you feel.

I feel frustrated, he is frustrated.

It's basically a feeling that you get when you have to do something, but you don't think

you can do it or maybe something annoys you and you get frustrated.

For example, when people tap like this and I'm working, I get frustrated because it's

a distraction.

Okay, so everyone has different things that frustrate them.

Now if we take a look at this word, it is actually an adjective and we usually use it,

you get frustrated or as you said, you feel frustrated.

So remember, it may look like a verb, but it's actually an adjective that ends in ed,

frustrated, to get frustrated.

He got frustrated or we feel very frustrated.

Okay, and well, apart from being frustrated, she also said that she is a restless character.

Okay, so someone is restless if they don't like to stay in one place all the time.

That means someone who wants to move around or to go places or to travel or to see new

things is restless.

That's right.

So she has a restless character, that means she likes to move around.

She doesn't like to stand still in one place.

Maybe she gets bored very easily.

Okay, so that's somebody that would be restless.

But moving on, she also said that she doesn't like to shirk her responsibilities.

Okay, you often hear these words go together.

So responsibilities are things that we need to do, right?

Things that other people expect us to do, to shirk a responsibility means to not do

something that you're supposed to do.

It means to avoid responsibility or to push it away.

Okay, so it's a verb, to shirk your responsibilities.

You shouldn't shirk your responsibilities.

That's right.

Alright, so a lot of interesting key words there.

Why don't we listen to the dialogue again and we'll be back with Fluency Builder.

Okay Rebecca, well I think you've given me a clear impression of your positive qualities,

but let's talk a little bit about your weaknesses.

Okay, well it's always more difficult to describe them, isn't it?

Definitely, but if you had to pinpoint one weakness, what would it be?

Well as I mentioned before, I do tend to get frustrated if I don't see progress in my

work or career.

I suppose I'm quite a restless character.

My father always taught me to be a high achiever, so...

So would you say if things don't go your way at work, it could easily get you down?

Well, in a way, yes.

But I must say that even if I'm not completely happy in my work, I always give 110%.

I would never shirk my responsibilities.

I suppose sometimes I expect too much too soon.

Well, you know journalism is a highly competitive world, so you do need to keep pushing yourself,

it's true.

Okay, well let's move on to talk about the job position here, shall we?

Yes please.

So we've picked out three key phrases for you on Fluency Builder.

Let's take a look at those now.

Starting with Mr. Parson saying, so would you say if things don't go your way at work,

it could easily get you down?

Two great phrases there.

That's right.

So the first phrase, if things don't go your way.

So this is kind of a funny phrase when you think about it because they go your way like

to me or what is my way.

This basically means if things do not happen in a way that makes you happy or in a way

that you expect.

Okay, so we could say he lost his job, he couldn't pay his bills, things just didn't

go his way.

That's right.

So things are not happening as he planned or as he expected.

You can also say the opposite.

So he won the lottery and he also met a really beautiful girl who wanted to be his girlfriend.

Things were going his way.

Okay, very good.

So if things are going your way, it's good.

If things aren't going your way, then it's bad.

That's right.

Okay, and so if things aren't going Rebecca's way, does that mean that it could easily get

her down?

Okay, so to get you down or to get someone down means to make you sad, upset or frustrated

like that where we just heard.

So you could ask someone like, Marco, what gets you down?

Rainy days.

That's a good one.

Yeah, rainy days get me down too.

So it's kind of a way of saying what makes you sad or depressed or what makes you unhappy.

Or in this case, if something doesn't happen as you planned it, if it doesn't go your way,

does that make you sad?

Does that get you down?

Okay, very good.

So a very good question there.

And she responded that kind of, yeah, that does happen, but she always tries to give

110%.

Okay, so this is a really funny phrase because you think I can give everything I have.

I can work really hard and that's 100%.

But we say 110% means you do more than you can.

It's like pushing yourself more than is possible.

That's right.

So this is a very common phrase in sports and business.

People are saying, for example, I always remember my coach saying, I want you guys to give me

110% out there.

That means I really want you to try very hard to do as much as possible.

Even more than your best, more than you think you can do.

Exactly.

So again, it refers to the effort that you put into something.

It can be in business, sports, anything.

And she's basically saying, I always do more than my best.

I do as much as humanly possible.

That's right.

Okay, so a lot of great stuff there from Rebecca.

Why don't we listen to her one last time and we'll be back in a bit.

Okay, Rebecca.

Well I think you've given me a clear impression of your positive qualities.

But let's talk a little bit about your weaknesses.

Okay.

Well it's always more difficult to describe them, isn't it?

Definitely.

But if you had to pinpoint one weakness, what would it be?

Well as I mentioned before, I do tend to get frustrated if I don't see progress in my work

or career.

I suppose I'm quite a restless character.

My father always taught me to be a high achiever, so...

So would you say if things don't go your way at work, it could easily get you down?

Well in a way, yes.

But I must say that even if I'm not completely happy in my work, I always give 110%.

I would never shirk my responsibilities.

I suppose sometimes I expect too much too soon.

Well you know journalism is a highly competitive world, so you do need to keep pushing yourself,

it's true.

Okay, well let's move on to talk about the job position here, shall we?

Yes, please.

Alright, so talking about weaknesses, I think one of the common mistakes when people talk

about weaknesses is they say they work too much.

And everyone says you should never say that in an interview.

Yeah, I think it's a bad way to talk about yourself because a boss or an employer really

wants to hear a real weakness.

And I work too hard is a way of saying, I have no weaknesses.

I'm actually really, really perfect.

I just think it's a lazy answer.

So maybe you should avoid saying I work too hard and really focus on things that you do

have to work on.

And then I think the key is to say that I know this is something that I have a hard

time with, I know this is a weakness and I'm trying to improve it.

Yeah, I remember in some of the interviews I've had, I think my common answer was sometimes

I'm very late, I'm not very punctual.

But you know, it's a real weakness and it may seem like difficult, but then you give

it a little spin by saying, yeah, I'm sometimes not very punctual, but then I try to make

up for it, maybe staying more time at the office, or sometimes I try to wake up a little

bit earlier and make it on time.

I don't know, something like that.

Right.

So the key there is just to show that you know it's a problem and that you're trying

to work on it.

Yeah.

So this is actually the hardest part for me of an interview, talking about yourself in

a negative way, because obviously you want to get the job.

So you want to make sure that the employer has a good idea of yourself, but it's hard.

I think it's the hardest part for everyone.

I don't think it's just you.

Yeah, it's hard.

So this is an interesting topic.

Why don't you practice and come to our website EnglishPod.com and on our comment section,

why don't you tell us what your weaknesses are?

That's right.

We hope to hear from you.

Of course, you can also share with us your strengths on our lesson about strengths.

But in this one, I recommend everyone practice this because it will come up at some point

and it's good to get the practice in.

So EnglishPod.com, we hope to see you there.

All right, guys.

Bye.

Bye山本太一.