What is a good response to this interview question?

Question

"What is your least favorite characteristic/quality of yourself?"
"If there were a personal quality of yourself that you could change, what would it be?"
Or something else that effect.

I thought maybe I could respond with perfectionism because they could still view that as a good thing.

Any other ideas? Or would that not even be a good one to begin with?

If it makes any difference, I'm interviewing for a commercial lending internship.

Answer 1

I am a boss and and own my own company and if I heard you say perfectionsim..I would skip over you and hire someone else. Its a very snotty attitude to have and no one is perfect. It just means you will be a butt kisser.

They are looking for a personality trait truely. Like..I get jealous when others do better than me but then I like it as well since it pushes me to do better and apply myself harder to work so I am not certain if that is something I would truely take away from my personanity.

Or they are looking for. I am quiet person so I would change it to be out going but I believe this job if you hire me will help me improve upon myself to be more outspoken.

Try that.

Answer 2

Well perfectionism can be a double edged sword , it could mean that you're inflexible and won't do anything else until one thing is absolutely right or that your standards are so high that no one , not even you will ever be able to meet them and employers really don't want to hear that. Sometimes perfectionism says I don't really care about anyone else 's needs except mine.

Only you really KNOW or hopefully you KNOW what you need to change.

I might answer that the quality I need to change is learning how to maintain a realistic balance between my work life and home life as I sometimes can be a pleaser and want to do my best for you so , I might have a tendency to back off from my family and home obligations to do what you need and not necessarily what my family needs of me.

That answer tells the boss that you're enthusiastic about as willing to nututre your family and home life as much as you're willing to do the best job you can for him/her. Since stress is one of the biggest factors for both management and employees management then realizes you have a realistic approach to work and you may be far less stressed than others in the company.

Answer 3

I think you are right to look behind the question to see what they are asking for here.
It sounds as if they want to see that you can critically evaluate your own performance, I think your perfectionist idea is good.

For instance,
I make friends easily but I think I am too trusting.
Maybe I should be more discriminating......
or..
Once I get started on a problem I tend to put all my energy into it, maybe it would be good to be able to ration my energy a little.
or..
I find that I can be too customer oriented and need to pullback and focus on service delivery from a provider point of view.

An honest answer here would be best as interviewers can be very experienced at spotting un-truths.

Good luck,

Answer 4

Well a quality of yourself would not be a bad thing for one. Least "favorite" would imply that you favor this characteristic in some way too. This question in my mind is a rather stupid question to answer because if they ask this they are testing your self-confidence or to see if you are dumb enough to reveal your weaknesses for them. My answer would be: I have a pet peeve and/or difficulties with co-workers or team-players who do not follow through with what they say they will do within a project, especially when their is a deadline involved. (Turn any question around to your advantage and do not disclose your shortcomings. Let them know your strengths.)

Answer 5

My least favorite characteristic is that I talk to much I tend to start talking to a customer or someone and lose track of time. I try to stop but can't.