What are your strengths and weaknesses? Your answer to this question can eliminate you from consideration, or help you obtain a job offer.
When outlining your strengths, follow each strength with an accomplishment showing how you utilized your strength in the past and the impact it had on past employers. Providing an example is more powerful than merely sharing a list of your strengths. In addition, list strengths that you know would be most desirable to this potential employer.
Listing your weaknesses is more challenging. Even if you state that you are a “recovering perfectionist” the interviewer heard the word “perfectionist” and if that is not a desirable trait, you could be screened out.
I believe it is very effective to list a weakness that is NOT really a weakness. A great response would be “I know how my (current/last) company wanted things done. When I come to work for you, I will need to learn your systems, policies and procedures, so there will be learning curve.”
No matter who they hire, they will have the same learning curve, but your answer proved you follow systems, policies and procedures. You also talked about yourself in the first person “When I come to work for you” which displays your confidence and interest level. This answer could influence the interviewer to also begin to envision you in the job.