Your focus should be on being self-aware, and wanting to improve, its best to be honest and not to be too humble or over exaggerate, ensure your strengths support the job description and show you as the stand out candidate; the one to hire.
Preparing for the question, even if you aren’t asked specifically about your strengths and weaknesses will help you think clearly and objectively about what you bring to the table and why you are the right person for the job. You may only be asked what are your strengths or be asked about what is your greatest weakness and what have you done to overcome it.
However, the interviewer phrases the question the focus of your answer should be on recognising your professional strength or weakness and talking about how you have capitalised on your strength or worked to improve areas of weakness.
TOP TOPS ON HOW TO ANSWER STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES INTERVIEW QUESTION "WHAT ARE YOUR WEAKNESSES?"
Remember that you are in a job interview and you should focus on how your weakness effect you in a professional setting
Always start with your professional weakness first so that you can end on a positive note and that the answer ends on a high
Always use examples when answering this question, it brings the answer alive and helps the interviewer relate to you as a person
Use the STAR method structure your interview question answers, using the STAR interview method will help you formulate your response, ensures that you give an example and stop you rambling and veering off the point and keeps your answer concise.
Following the STAR model will also make it easier for the interviewer to hear your answer follow the narrative more easily.
STRUCTURE YOUR ANSWER IN A WAY THAT’S IT IS EASY TO FOLLOW THE STORY
- Outline your weakness.
- Give an example of when your professional weakness has impacted on your work
- Talk about what you did to overcome the issue and how that played out at work
FOR EXAMPLE, NOT BEING ABLE TO SAY NO – "I HAVE TROUBLE SAYING NO"
While from an employer’s point of view a member of staff who wants to help colleagues and clients is an asset, it can be a weakness when you end up neglecting your own work since you’ve been spending time helping others rather than completing your own work. Your answer should focus on how you are working on improving how you organise your own work and setting boundaries with colleagues and clients in how much time you can spend to help them
WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST WEAKNESS EXAMPLE ANSWER:
My greatest professional weakness is that on occasion I have trouble saying no colleagues or clients when they ask for help which is outside of my normal scope of work, which means that I end up taking on more work than I have time to complete. I have. While working at X one of my regular clients would call on a weekly basis claiming not to know how to access data on their payroll system. Initially I would do the task for them, which took me 30 mins each week meaning I got behind with my own work. I got to a point where I was not delivering on my targets. I did not want to let my client down so the next time they called I explained how I was not able to do their work for them but offered to give the 121 training via a video call so that they would be able to carry out the tasks themselves. This meant that I was freeing up the time that I was using up each week on their work to get my own work back on track.
WHAT ARE YOUR STRENGTHS
When talking about your strengths is hard not to feel that you are bragging, but this is a job interview and the interviewer has asked you to tell them about your professional strengths so go for it! Try not to exaggerate, but find a balance between humility and boasting. Strengths can be skill based or personality based and transferable from one job to another.
Again, in the same was as you reply to a question about your weaknesses, always use examples when answering this question, it brings the answer alive and helps the interviewer relate to you as a person
Use the STAR method structure your interview question answers, using the STAR interview method will help you formulate your response, ensures that you give an example and stop you rambling and veering off the point and keeps your answer concise.
STRUCTURE YOUR ANSWER IN A WAY THAT’S IT IS EASY TO FOLLOW THE STORY
- Outline your strength
- Give an example of when your strengths have positively impacted you professionally
- Talk about how what you did to maximise the impact using your strength at work played out – both for you and members of your team and the organisation
Review the job description to choose your strengths so that they are relevant to the role. Follow the same format as weakness explain your strength and give the context. Provide the context for your strengths, be specific about which qualities you bring to the job and make you stand out as the best applicant
SKILL BASED STRENGTH
Choosing a skills-based strength with your interviewer will allow you to highlight your technical experience directly with the jobs requirements, share specific examples of how you’ve used your strength to improve your performance in a previous company
WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST STRENGTH? SKILL BASED STRENGTH EXAMPLE ANSWER
One of my greatest strengths as a Front end web developer is my expertise using a variety of coding languages, including React and JavaScript. Also using CMS such as WordPress to develop user centred designed web sites taking a mobile first approach. While working at X the development team relied on older technologies, I introduced them to current coding languages and I trained the team to use responsive templates using modern CSS techniques and JavaScript libraries particularly on how to use React which resulted in improved functionality of the web pages and a better Google ranking.
WHAT ARE YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES? TOP TIP
Preparation is key to success for anyone who wants to ace a job interview
Preparing for common interview questions and practicing your answers will reduce your nerves and help you shine at your next job interview and result in a job offer.
- Explain your professional weaknesses as learning opportunities and challenges that you’ve overcome
- Position your professional strengths into the reason you’re why the candidate the company should hire