Talking about your strengths and weaknesses in a job interview is like tackling an intimidating list of chores at home. No one likes handling the dirty laundry, taking out the trash, or even the menial idea of sweeping the floor Similarly, talking about this in a job interview, your weaknesses especially, can seem just as tedious and laborious. But when it comes to acing the interview for a new job, it is the task that needs to get done. Like all lists though, it’s easy to go through the points line by line, one task at a time. Below are three tasks to consider.
Task 01. Preparation:
How to answer the strengths and weakness question in an interview.
Interview questions on strengths and weaknesses can be handled professionally when interviewees prepare. Knowing personal accomplishments and identifying opportunities for growth demonstrates introspection in candidates – a highly valued quality in the workplace. In previous articles, we mentioned the importance of being honest and taking on goal-oriented conversations in interviews.
When chatting about your weaknesses and strengths, this still holds true. The question usually elicits a wild sense of dread that makes most people sluggishly approach the topic and this shouldn’t be.
Preparation is key. Knowing your top three strengths and acknowledging your top three greatest weaknesses, for example, can make a marked difference between a candidate who is ready for the challenges in a new job from a candidate who is not. By knowing your own strengths and weaknesses and then defining actions on leveraging/ improving on those ideas can determine who is likely to leave the job interview with their names on the payroll.
Task 02. Focus:
Making a list to discuss strengths and weaknesses
Reflecting on the idea of “chores”, one must make a list to get things done in preparation for an interview. Candidates shouldn’t revel in conversations about their strengths without acknowledging their weaknesses too. It’s like expecting a clean space without having prepared for the work to be done in the first place. You can’t wing it with interview questions like these, so a list will help you focus your answers so that you position the conversation in your favor.
To draft this list, take a pen and draw a line down the middle of a sheet of blank paper. In one column write your strengths, and then write your weaknesses in the other. When compiling this list, it would help to think of your strengths as the qualities you have learned through your experience or the skills and abilities you are inherently good at. In the case of building your list of weaknesses, you may want to focus on areas that you wish you could become better at or any opportunities that you would like to grow into.
Thinking back on our analogy of house chores once more, it’s very important to assess the job to be done (understanding your weaknesses and strengths), then manage the associated tasks (acting on those ideas) to complete that job. To help you with your list, look at the below for a list of some common strengths and weaknesses.
Some common strengths include:
● Enthusiasm
● Trustworthiness
● Creativity
● Discipline
● Patience
● Respectfulness
● Determination
● Dedication
● Honesty
● Versatility
Some common weaknesses include:
● Domineering; too focused on doing it “my way”
● Conforming to wishes of others
● No time boundaries; things do not get done
● Not assertive or directive
● Talkative
● Comes on too strong
● Dreamer; unrealistic
● Perfectionist
● Too demanding
● Excludes feelings from decisions
Task 03. Action:
Examples of what to say during the conversation about strengths and weaknesses
A recruiter in a job interview wants to understand a candidate’s personality. By asking an interviewee about their strengths and weaknesses, recruiters can draw out examples, scenarios, and histories about the candidate’s ability for accountability, self-management, integrity, and so on. Here is a scenario about the harder half of the strengths versus weaknesses question with the following sample answers:
Let’s say we have a candidate applying for a cashier’s job in a company and he has reached the stage of the interview where he needs to talk about a personal quality that can be improved.
What not to say:
Candidate A answers: “I guess I’m not really good with technology and I’m intimidated by the machine.” Now, that isn’t a great answer at all. Firstly, he isn’t sure about his response by opening with “I guess…” Secondly, the weakness identified is deeply entrenched in the core requirement for the job as a cashier and the candidate presents no solution or plan for improvement.
What to say instead:
But, if Candidate A is eager to learn and hold a position at the company, his answer should be shared thusly: “I am not very good with technology and software but with sufficient training and support, I am confident that I can master the register in no time to begin working independently.” Despite his weakness, Candidate A proves to the recruiter that he has already rolled up his sleeves and is prepared, focused, and ready to do the job.
Now, let’s look at the lighter side of the strengths versus weaknesses question with the following sample answers:
Candidate B is looking at a new job in a warehouse where she will be required to meet a certain daily quota with her team. How can she highlight her strengths without coming across as arrogant? She may answer: “My greatest strength is my determination. I like being set goals, it helps me to feel more accomplished with the work I am doing. Working alongside the team, I can set new standards for myself and hopefully inspire the others to do the same towards our common goal.”
It is a clearly communicated response accented with a future-focused statement. However, if she were to answer with: “I am determined to close the jobs assigned to me and I will do whatever it takes to complete my work,” then the candidate can appear impersonal or too assertive and may be perceived as lacking empathy. Heavy use of subjective pronouns, especially with team-oriented work, can negatively impact a recruit’s chances in this kind of scenario. So, it is important to also be careful when describing your strengths too because they can be misunderstood based on the delivery.
What we can learn from the differences in replies is that preparedness, honesty, and action-oriented responses are vital to ensuring a recruiter’s confidence in the prospect. Again, interviewees need to demonstrate that they are accountable, self-regulating, and can be trusted with the responsibilities assigned to them in the job’s description.
How you may be asked about your strengths and weaknesses? What does the recruiter want to find out?
Conversation into these questions can flow naturally in interviews. If you are having a good session where the chit-chat is a little more casual, they may simply ask: Can you give me an example of when you handled yourself badly in a work situation?” or demand that you “Share one accomplishment you have achieved in work, recently.”
If the interview is more structured and formal, a recruiter may ask: “Give us three examples of a time you used your strength in X to solve Y” and “Can you highlight a moment when you handled yourself unfavorably with a senior manager? What did you learn from that situation and how did you resolve the issue?”
There are many ways in which recruiters can ask candidates about their strengths and weaknesses. It can be a sneaky one popping up when you least expect it, or it can be direct and to the point. It really depends on the tone of the meeting.
To prepare for either of these instances, consider these reviewing points if you are looking for job. These can help candidates to prepare, focus, and act on their interview:
You should not be:
● Too critical about your abilities.
● Unaware of the latest technologies relatable to the job remit.
● Lacking in focus on the immediately assigned tasks to the role.
You should focus on:
● Qualifications and passion projects that link back to the information on the resume.
● Key learnings adopted from previous employers,
● Unique qualities that define their personal working style.
With the smallest effort, the mountain of stress you associated with the conversation about job-related strengths and weaknesses is reduced to nothing more than exercise in self-improvement that will help you not only for a single job interview, it will also help your own job search and career.
