The job interview process has evolved into a comprehensive evaluation of the professional individual.
While reviewing talents and qualifications is still important, today’s interviews are often a 360-degree assessment of the candidate.
One common topic is – weaknesses and strengths. Although seemingly innocent, these questions can impact the interview outcome significantly. Unfortunately, many job seekers fail to adequately prepare for these questions and lose the opportunity as a result.
Weaknesses and strengths are tricky questions in job interviews.
A true answer may jeopardize the candidacy, while a false response may come across as insincere.
However, answering these questions appropriately is an important aspect of the job interview process, and it is vital to prepare for them beforehand to increase the chances of success in the interview process.
How to answer the question, “What is your greatest strength?” during a job interview?
In job interviews, it is common to be asked about your strengths.
It is important to prepare a response beforehand, as employers want to know about your abilities and potential for the job. If the job requires specific skills, focus on discussing your strengths in those areas.
Present your strengths confidently without sounding arrogant. Providing positive information about your strengths can increase your chances of being hired.
Preparations
When responding to the question, list skill sets that are directly related to the job in question, and avoid personal characteristic strengths, such as values or attitudes.
Instead, focus on those things you do well and are related to your area of expertise. Be specific and provide examples of how your strengths have helped you in previous roles.
It’s important to strike a balance when discussing your strengths.
You don’t want to come across as boastful, but you also don’t want to downplay your achievements. Interviewers want to see if you have self-awareness and can keep your composure while you assess your professional strengths.
Therefore, make sure that your answer is grounded in real self-assessment and is genuine.
Examples of Key Strengths
In today’s business world, these three personal strengths are highly valued:
- Adaptability to change: Being able to adjust to changes and lead change is an even greater strength.
- Communication skills: Possessing strong verbal and written communication skills, being people-oriented, friendly, loyal, a team player, a good listener, respectful, honest, empathetic, flexible, tolerant, caring, and always willing to go the extra mile to help out.
- Self-motivation and learning agility: Having a headstrong personality, being intelligent, and loving to learn new things and be challenged. Being a determined personality, a quick learner, and having a high level of energy.
Strengths by occupation can be categorized as follows:
- Sales/marketing, customer service, managers, and leaders’ positions: Self-confidence, effective organizational and prioritization skills, negotiation, presentation, initiation, planning, persuasion, adaptability, patience, cooperation, goal-driven, stress tolerance, effective decision-making, and problem-solving skills.
- Technical or financial positions: Analytical skills, strong in math, programming and engineering, accuracy, attention to detail, and handyman skills.
Tips for Answering Interview Questions about Your Greatest Strength
When asked about your greatest strength, keep your answer professional, and related to the job requirements.
Here are some tips to help you answer this question:
- Conduct a self-assessment: Before the interview, evaluate your key skills, past achievements, and professional experience to identify your greatest strengths.
- Read the job description: Carefully analyze the job requirements to determine the key skills required for the job.
- Translate your strengths into job-related language: Use job-related benefits that are relevant to the job requirements to express your strengths.
For instance, if you are good at public speaking, highlight how this strength will make you a good salesman or influencer in a sales or managerial position. - Avoid personal characteristics: Avoid listing personal characteristic strengths such as values or attitudes. Instead, focus on those things you do well and are related to your area of expertise.
- Be genuine and grounded on self-assessment: Keep your answer grounded on real self-assessment to avoid coming across as boastful or ego-driven.
Interviewers want to see if you have self-awareness, and your answer should reflect that. - List strengths related to the job: List skill sets that are directly related to the job in question, such as your education, experience, and area of knowledge.
- Categorize some strengths per occupation: Identify strengths that are relevant to the specific job you are applying for.
For example, for sales/marketing positions, customer service, managers, and leaders’ positions, list strengths such as self-confidence, effective organizational and prioritization skills, and negotiation and presentation skills. - Use examples: Use examples to illustrate your strengths. For instance, highlight how you have used your strengths in your past jobs to achieve success.
By following these tips, you will be able to provide an excellent answer.
Remember to keep your answer focused on the job requirements, be genuine, and provide examples to illustrate your strengths.
Examples of Answers About Your Greatest Strengths:
- Leadership: “I am a leader who can share a sense of vision and common purpose.
I can inspire loyalty and commitment and believe I have an adaptable leadership style depending on individuals and circumstances. I can create and build teams, transform strategic objectives into firm actions, implement change with others, and take responsibility for driving things forward while clarifying and avoiding ambiguity.” - Customer Service: “I have great customer service skills that can be demonstrated by my ability to meet and exceed customer expectations.
I recognize the prime importance of the customer and even anticipate future customer needs.
I always go the extra mile for the customer and take responsibility for developing long-term relationships with customers and forging partnerships that contribute to future growth opportunities for both the customer and my organization.” - Decision-making: “I can make high-quality decisions based on the information at hand using logic and analytical skills.
I break complex issues into component parts and consider the outcomes of varying courses of action.
I draw reliable conclusions from disparate and often conflicting sources of data and make sound decisions in a timely manner.”
Mastering the Dreaded Interview Question: What Are Your Weaknesses?
During an interview, one of the most challenging questions that can create an uncomfortable atmosphere is when the interviewer asks about your weaknesses.
Many job seekers are afraid of this question because they do not want to reveal any shortcomings that could jeopardize their chances of getting the job.
However, it is crucial to answer this question honestly and tactfully.
Why do Employers ask this question?
So “What is your greatest weakness?” While this may seem like a negative inquiry, it’s important to understand why employers ask this question.
They want to know more about you and get a better sense of your strengths and weaknesses in order to determine if you would be a good fit for the job.
The interviewer is interested in hearing how you handle challenges, whether you can honestly assess yourself, whether you take corrective action, and whether there are any risks in hiring you.
How to Answer this Question Tactfully?
It is important to avoid listing a key element of the position as your weakness or providing a weakness that could harm your chances.
Also, do not pretend to be perfect or adopt the famous advice of speaking about a strength as a weakness. Instead, state a true weakness that you have already worked on fixing, and provide examples of how you have improved yourself.
To make a good impression, you need to pick a minor weakness that is not critical to the job and tell the interviewer how you are working to overcome it.
When answering this question, it’s important to maintain a positive attitude and avoid any negative thinking. Never list a key element of the job as your weakness, as this could potentially harm your chances of getting hired. Instead, focus on weaknesses that are not related to the job or that you are actively working to improve.
Turning Weaknesses into Strengths: Tips for Answering the Job Interview Question, ‘What Is Your Greatest Weakness?
Examples of Answers
Remember, the goal is to communicate your awareness of your weaknesses and your commitment to improving them in a positive way.
By doing so, you can demonstrate your enthusiasm and optimism to potential employers and increase your chances of landing the job.
Here are some examples of good responses to the question:
- Weakness which is not related to the job: “I find accounting (or mathematics) to be my major weakness. Even at home, my spouse is in charge of our books.
However, I recently managed to learn some basic functions to better understand accounting principles.” - Weakness the interviewer already knows: “I lack general work experience because I spent many years advancing my education.
However, my education has prepared me for the job and I have gained skills that wouldn’t have been possible through a regular job, such as research experience that helped me develop important skills.” - Weakness that can be considered a positive attitude: “I struggle to balance my work and personal life.
While I love my job, my family has occasionally felt neglected as a result. I am actively working on better time management skills to improve this balance.” - Critical thinking: “As a decision maker, critical thinking is an issue everyone should work on, including myself.
For improving that aspect as much as I could, I have recently taken an online critical thinking course to help me become a better decision maker.” - Technical skill: “I have to admit that I am not a born mathematician, and I’m weak in math [or computing].
However, I found that it is an acquired skill if you take an interesting course in this area. I have used computers, but it is still something I would like to improve.
So I found computer graphics to be my area of interest and took some computer graphics sessions to improve my skills.” - Presentation skills: “I have confidence speaking in front of a group, but I have to admit that my presentation skills are still far from perfect.
So, I took classes on public speaking and [any other course] to become more convincing as a presenter.” - Being too focused: “I am too focused on my career. I believe I should always be improving myself.
My work life and personal life were out of balance as I was too focused on my work lately. Nowadays, it is easy to dismiss the boundaries between work and home, so I need to find more time for my family and to develop other interests.
Though I always put my all into everything I do, knowing how to balance things is an important quality that I must improve.” - Time management: “Time management is a problem for me.
However, I’ve improved myself by learning from my former supervisors how to prioritize daily tasks and how to plan my schedule more effectively.”
Remember, it is important to be honest and show that you are actively seeking ways to develop yourself.
Do not provide a weakness that has an impact on your job, and do not be arrogant by pretending that you have no weaknesses.
Providing a minor weakness and discussing how you are working on improving yourself will help you make a positive impression on the interviewer.