Blog

img

Strengths and Weaknesses Interview Question

Posted On: October 11, 2015

If you are preparing for an interview, it’s time to think about how to answer the strengths and weaknesses interview question. Let’s take a look at a few strategies to answer this question.

 

Tips for talking about Strengths and Weaknesses – Interview Question Preparation

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

 

Take a look at these videos –
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

 

Many of us may struggle to identify our strenghts and weaknesses. Maybe we don’t think about them often. I suggest to track your own career progress somewhere as you are the best person who can talk about all of your experience. See this post on tracking your career progress for more information.

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.


Related Posts:

Talking about accomplishments  
Creating positive messages in English – an important tip if you talk in long sentences 
Start here to learn more about US culture and be successful in business with Americans 
Image credit: vectorjuice at freepik

Share

Find your Program!

Find your ideal program in just a few clicks.
Select Industry > Learning Level > Skill, to see 1-3 suggested programs.