Common questions in many interviews include asking about one's strengths and weaknesses.
Tips for talking about strengths:
- Choose strengths that match job description – tasks or outcomes
- Choose 3 of the most relevant or important strengths
- Tell a short story one strength or all three strengths in one story
- Close with how this relates to the position under scrutiny
How to Answer Tough Interview Questions: What is one of your weaknesses? (from Capella Career Center)
How to Answer: What is Your Greatest Strength? (from SparkHire)
An overview on how to answer What is your biggest weaknesses? (from Dice)
Tips for talking about weaknesses:
- Don't take a strength and make it a weaknesses
- Talk about a real weaknesses
- Name something you want to improve, and how you are improving it
- Don't mention weaknesses that are major components of the job being hired for
- Stick to tasks over personality traits
This is not a trick question with the right strategy to answer it, as discussed in this video.
Make a WAR on Weaknesses!
W – State the weakness / Pair it with a strength if possible
A – Action – what have you done to overcome it
R- Results – what result have you seen or do you plan to see after the change?
For more on how to take on this WAR in a positive way, using the sandwich approach, watch this video.
Jennifer Kumar works with offshore and onsite teams to prepare them for client facing interviews and job responsibilities in a global arena. Contact her to learn more about learning the leadership and communication skills for cross-cultural business success today.
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