What Are Your Strengths and Weaknesses?

Transcript

Presenter: It's the question you know you're going to get asked, but one of the trickiest to answer, "What are your strengths and weaknesses?"

On the one hand, you don't want to sound arrogant. But on the other, you don't want to reveal any dangerous chinks in your armor. So it's vital you have a strong answer prepared.

Be honest about your weaknesses and avoid cliches like perfectionism or worse, claiming that you don't have any.

Avoid highlighting anything that might worry the interviewer. Keep your comments short and positive and focus on what you're doing to overcome your weaknesses. For example, you might say, "My biggest weakness used to be my communication skills, but I've been working on developing these. Now I make sure that I touch base with colleagues every morning to share project updates."

When you talk about your strengths, keep your answers relevant, focus on the ones that most apply to the role and demonstrate how your strengths have a positive impact. For example, you could say, "I have particularly strong organizational skills. This means that I have a great track record of managing and delivering key projects to budget and on time."

If you want to learn more about how to tackle tricky interview questions, check out our website at mindtools.com.

How to Talk About Your Strengths

Talk about your strengths confidently and clearly. Focus on one or two of the strengths you're most proud of and provide specific examples of how these strengths have helped you to achieve success in your career.

Highlight, in particular, the strengths that best match the key competencies the recruiter is looking out for. Some key strengths often cited by job descriptions include qualities like:

• Collaboration
• Leadership
• Strategic thinking
• Creativity and innovation
• Attention to detail
• Communications
• Integrity and ethical decision-making
• Self-motivation
• Active listening
• Analytical and data-driven

How to Talk About Your Weaknesses

It can be much harder to talk about your weaknesses. You need to be honest, but not too honest. A good way to identify your weaknesses is by analyzing past situations or experiences at work that you've found particularly difficult or challenging. In other words, tasks that have pushed you outside of your comfort zone. This might include things like giving presentations, managing conflict, or dealing with difficult customers.

Employers aren't necessarily judging you on your weaknesses, but more on what you are doing to work on them. For example, are you undertaking training or putting yourself forward for projects or tasks that will help you develop the skills you've identified as weaknesses?

Avoid talking about weaknesses that are directly specified as key competencies in the job description. Choose ones that will help you to demonstrate your desire to learn and grow. Some common weaknesses you could discuss include:

• Public speaking
• Perfectionism
• Delegation
• Self-critical
• Conflict management