How To Answer "What are your strengths and weaknesses"?

Table of Contents

How To Answer “What are your strengths”?
What are your strengths: Examples
How To Answer “What are your weaknesses”?
What are your Weaknesses: Examples
Conclusion

List of Strengths and Weaknesses in the note. — Listing down Strengths and Weaknesses in a note.

In today’s article, we are going to understand how to answer the most important question which most job applicants face i.e what are your strengths? So, how do I answer this question?

This question is the most commonly asked in a job interview in every field and every position. The reason behind this question in a job interview is to understand what you can do for the company and also understand why the company should hire you only, not anyone else.

Sometimes, it happens that the job interviewer doesn’t ask you this question but you should answer it by yourself only to get the job and to create a good impression on the interviewer. So, while going to an interview you must be prepared to answer about your strengths and can talk about them.

Many of the job applicants don’t do well in this section and lose the opportunity to make themselves different and outstanding in comparison to others. Many of the job applicants don’t do well in this section and lose the opportunity to make themselves different and outstanding in comparison to others.

Now let’s start with how one should respond to this question when an interviewer asks you what are your strengths or what are your greatest strengths? or something similar to this question.

How To Answer “What are your strengths”?

Reason Behind Asking This Question

The reason behind asking this question to a job applicant is because the company wants to ensure that the selected candidate can perform well in the given position and can easily get along with the company’s team. By asking these questions to an interviewee, the interviewer wants to seek and find out these basic things which are as follows-

Can you perform well in the job and be like a rockstar?
You are the best candidate for this job. The company should not wait for someone else who can perform better than you.
Your strengths can be an asset to the company.
You can be an amazing addition to the team.
Your qualities, experience and skills make you out of the competition.

Common mistakes made by the candidates

The common mistake that most of the candidates make is that they take this question very lightly and don’t pay much attention and importance to this question. But this approach is wrong because by this question only the candidate can tell the interviewer that he is the best one for this job and fits in the given job role.

Unfortunately, this answer is not properly given by the candidates in an interview room and sabotages themselves. Some of the mistakes that are done by the job applicants are as follows-

Lack of self-awareness- Most job applicants don’t spend much time on this part so that they can analyze their strengths. Identifying your strengths will not only just help you to get a job but also will prove beneficial for the rest of your life as well. If you are unable to identify your strengths then you can get some advice from this article.
Being modest- Many of the candidates try to be so humble or they are not comfortable in articulating what makes them great and different from others. These candidates have to get over their hesitation and need to tell nice and great things about themselves to others. For this, you need to prepare yourself in advance which will make you more confident and comfortable.
Telling lame strengths- If you try to tell very childish strengths ,then you will not be able to get the job and in return, it will create a bad impression on the job interviewer and will make the interviewer hire someone else who has the greatest strength and can show up it on correct time.

How one should talk about their strengths?

Now to answer this question that how anyone should talk about their strengths is, the most important and first thing the person should do is to take time and identify his or her strengths and then practice about them that how you are going to talk about your strengths in advance. So, in this way, you can prepare yourself for your dream job. Now let’s get started by identifying your biggest strengths and how we can do this, we can do this by the process which is given below-

Firstly sit down and make a list of top 10 strengths and remember that you have to be creative.
Then write down everything that comes into your mind and afterwards, if you feel like any of your strengths are not relevant you can delete it.
Your strength should include like –

Experience-In this, you can include your work experience in any company or experience of working with any software or any type of work, etc.
Talents-In this part you can include your abilities like organizing different events, knowledge of different computer languages, knowledge of different speaking languages, sales quality, etc.
Soft skills-This should include competencies like team building, problem-solving, decision making, etc.
Education In this part, you will showcase your educational background with your academic achievements.
Training In this section, you can mention the training seminars which you have attended, internships, etc.
Stay focus-Now you can eliminate all the rest of your strengths and make your list a bit smaller and this list should contain at least five strengths on which you can discuss, talk comfortably with everyone.
Prepare for an example- Make at least one example or story that showcases your strength to the person in front of you. Well, you can make your example from your past experiences.

How to choose correct strengths?

While choosing correct strengths for yourself should keep these points in your mind which are given below-

One should be accurate, that means you should possess this strength in you. Don’t ever try to lie just because it suits your job description. You need to be just yourself in an interview. Just be the best version of yourself.
You should be very relevant while talking about your strengths. For this, you just need to analyze the given job description and identify your strengths according to that.
One should be very specific while telling his or her strengths to the interviewer so that it doesn’t become boring for the listener.
One should always be prepared to demonstrate his or her strengths if asked.

Also Read: Top 10 telephonic interview questions

What are your strengths: Examples

Some examples of strengths that you can mention are:

Enthusiasm
Creative thinking
Trustworthiness
Task prioritization
Discipline
Analytical thinking
Patience
Communication skills
Respectfulness
Interpersonal skills
Organizational skills
Determination
Dedication
Multitasking skills

How to answer “What are your weaknesses?”

This is probably the hardest question to answer as it requires outlining your weak side. Everyone has weaknesses, but not everyone admits to them. The best way to answer this question is to minimise the trait and focus on the positive. It is important that you know how to overcome this negative. Also, focus more on professional traits rather than your personal qualities.

You may be asked about your strengths and weaknesses in one question or you may be asked about it as a separate question. If both of them are asked in a single question, answer about your weaknesses first so that you can end on a positive note.

Discussing weakness can be comfortably cruised through if you attach a story to it. This will give your potential employers an idea about the level of self-awareness you possess. When addressing your weaknesses, give examples relating to either habits/skills or personality traits.

What are your Weaknesses: Examples

Some of the examples of weaknesses that you can mention are:

Self-criticism.
Public speaking.
Shyness.
Taking criticism
Lack of knowledge of particular software.
Taking on too much responsibility
Hesitancy about entrusting tasks
Inpatient with bureaucracies
Discomfort taking a big risk

Conclusion

Job applicants should walk in the interview room with a clear mind and goal that they have to communicate well with the job interviewer on the question of what are your strengths. The candidate should have a clear picture of his strengths and should be relevant. The candidate can easily discuss it and can emphasize it.

Let’s see one example which is given below to give you a clear and better understanding-

If the interviewer asks the question

What are your three strengths as a team leader?

Your answer would be something like this-

“I think one of my greatest strengths is as a problem solver. I can see a situation from different perspectives and I can get my work done even in the face of difficult obstacles. I also feel that my communication skills are top-notch. I feel just as comfortable presenting to senior executives as I do to mediate a conflict between junior team members. I worked as a programmer in the past so I have that perspective of a developer and I think that they respect me for that.”

Great learning academy provides you with an opportunity to up-skill your knowledge with free online courses & certificates.