“What are your strengths and weaknesses?” One way or another, you will have to hear this question at one of the interviews. At this moment, the main thing is not to get confused, but to give an honest and thoughtful answer with the right subtext that will emphasize your professionalism and impress (in a good way) the employer.
The question about strengths and weaknesses is one of the most common interview questions. Therefore, try to prepare an answer to it in advance.
Why is it important to prepare for an interview?
Even if during the interview the question “What are your strengths and weaknesses” is not asked in this way, it will indirectly affect all the topics of your interview with the employer. Therefore, a pre-thought-out answer will be very useful to you.
Read the articles:
“How to correctly answer the question “Tell me about yourself” at an interview: what to tell the employer, examples of successful answers.”
“Why do you want to work in our company: 5+ best answers to the employer’s question.”
“Why should we hire (choose) you: 7 examples of answering an interview question.”
“What questions can and should be asked to an employer during an interview: 10+ correct questions.”
In any case, an interview is a kind of advertising, only you yourself are the advertised product. Therefore, you must be able to present yourself to the employer, focusing on your strengths and professional qualities.
Further in the article you will find tips on preparing the correct answer to the employer’s question, a list of strengths and weaknesses, recommendations and examples of successful answers to the question “What are your strengths and weaknesses?”
Do you have any children?
Another one of the “inconvenient” questions. It is most often asked to women. And the answer here, of course, must be truthful, but at the same time satisfy the recruiter. How to do it?
If there are children
Please note that there is someone to look after the child (nanny, grandmother), that at your previous job there were no problems with this and it did not interfere with your duties. At the same time, if you know that you will really need to often take time off or sick leave for the sake of your child, it is better to admit it honestly - after all, this will happen anyway, and then you will have to set priorities.
If there are no children
In this case, the recruiter may be concerned about your possible maternity leave. The standard answer here is “I don’t plan to have children in the near future.”
“What are your strengths?”: a list of strengths and examples of answers to an employer’s question
Surprisingly, many people find it difficult to talk about their strengths. After all, maintaining a balance between modesty and self-confidence is not easy, especially during such a stressful situation as an interview.
The first thing you need to do before you start preparing a story about your strengths and weaknesses is to study the basic requirements for the position. You will use these requirements as the basis for your answer in the future.
Instead of telling the employer the banal phrase “I am very hardworking and responsible,” try to prepare a short story about yourself. Emphasize those strengths and skills that are necessary for this position. Be sure to provide specific examples from your professional activities.
During the interview, tell us what your strengths are, what skills and knowledge you have as a professional, and don’t forget to mention your personal qualities.
Convince the employer that you are not only an excellent specialist, but also a good person.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Traditional interview question. Instead of 5 years, there could be 3 years or 10, but the point here is the same - to find out about your plans, about the presence or absence of a career strategy. Here, when answering, you need to be as specific as possible (without vague formulations like “I may change my field of activity” or “It all depends on the circumstances”), but not be unshakable (“I must get a promotion within 2 years”). And, of course, you definitely cannot say that you are not planning anything in the long term.
What can you tell us about your plans for the coming years:
- what duties would you like to perform;
- what skills to master/improve;
- what position do you plan to grow to;
- what courses do you want to take;
- What benefit can you bring to the company during this time?
Also, remember to keep your answer realistic.
You shouldn’t say that you want to achieve some exorbitant heights, so as not to appear too self-confident. It is also worth studying information about the company to understand the speed at which you can advance in your career and what opportunities are generally available for employees.
List of strengths
Your strengths may include qualities such as:
- Ability to make decisions;
- Creativity;
- Integrity;
- Honesty;
- Communication skills;
- Performance;
- Initiative;
- Ability to work for results;
- Hard work;
- Integrity;
- Punctuality;
- Discipline;
- Self confidence.
There is no need to list all the qualities from this list at the interview. You must clearly understand which strengths are necessary for the position you are applying for.
To learn about what skills and abilities to include in your resume, read the article “Guide: how to write a resume for a job correctly (resume components, examples, sample resume).” And to create a presentable and high-quality resume, try using the Canva program. This is a very convenient and simple visual editor with many ready-made templates.
What else should you pay attention to in your application or resume?
During the interview, we recommend that you also indicate “general” strengths.
- Be sure to indicate in your resume that you always set goals for yourself and achieve them, that is, you are a goal-oriented person. At the same time, you show persistence and always follow the pre-drawn plan.
- It is also worth pointing out that if unforeseen circumstances arise, you will be able to find a way out of the current situation - you have creative thinking.
- Another important component of any successful applicant is self-confidence. This will characterize you as a confident person who is not afraid to take a step forward. You are not inclined to panic due to unforeseen circumstances; you are calm and confident in your abilities.
- The ability to communicate with people is also very important. Let it be clients, colleagues, subordinates, suppliers. You just need to be able to find a “common language” with them, accept their point of view and correctly present your opinion.
- Another positive character trait that must be indicated in the employment application is responsibility. Whatever position you apply for, you must always be responsible for your actions. Otherwise, you will become a burden to the company, which will ultimately lead to your termination.
Also, when applying for a new position, indicate that you are highly trainable. You can give examples from your past work or university practice. When you come to a new company, at first you will need to study: learn about the company, the features of its activities and learn how to fulfill your direct responsibilities.
Examples of successful answers to the question “What are your strengths”
Example 1
Strength: leadership qualities
“I have always shown myself to be a born leader. I have 10 years of experience in finance and sales and have exceeded all key performance indicators at the end of each reporting period. Over the past 4 years, I have been promoted three times.
Of course, this is not solely my merit. I always select only highly qualified specialists for my team. And I am proud of my ability to see potential in an employee.
I never stand still, I work on myself and develop my management skills. In this position I plan to further improve my leadership skills.”
Example 2
Strengths: communication skills and result-oriented:
“I prefer to work in a team, I make contact easily, I know how to collaborate and work together with colleagues.
At Company X, I worked in various project teams that were creative and performed a variety of technical tasks. But this did not stop me from achieving a promotion - for the last 2 years I was in charge of the technical department. During this time, I was able to achieve an increase in the company’s production capacity by 20%.”
Example 3
Strengths: responsibility, organization and discipline:
“I consider my strengths to be responsibility and discipline, I easily obey the rules, and I work conscientiously. I just can't do it any other way.
I remember there was a case when my colleague forgot about the project, and there was only one day left before the deadline for submitting the material. The editor-in-chief asked me to at least try to somehow rectify the situation. Since the article was important for our newspaper, I immediately set to work and was able to complete it on time. By the way, the article turned out to be of high quality and our reader received it with a bang.”
How do you develop yourself as a specialist?
It is believed that a good specialist never stops learning. Think about the ways in which you maintain your skills at the proper level. It can be:
- courses, private lessons;
- professional literature;
- specialized articles;
- trainings, conferences;
- industry news.
Perhaps in your career you prefer to take on non-standard tasks and master new approaches - this can also be indicated, preferably with examples.
“What are your weaknesses? ": what to answer to an employer at an interview
The question of strengths and weaknesses is quite complex. You are already prepared for one part of this question (about strengths) and know what to answer to the employer.
But what do you say when you are asked to talk about your weaknesses? After all, if you answer that you have no shortcomings, you will seem arrogant to the interviewer. Conversely, name too many negative qualities and it will ruin your chances of getting the job you want.
In the eyes of the employer, you should look quite modest and at the same time show that you are working on yourself. For example, tell a relevant story about what steps you are taking to turn your weaknesses into strengths.
Organize your answer using the following outline:
“weakness - > context, example, or story of how this aspect manifests itself in your professional work”
That's all it seems
I have given only some ways to find your talent. As for me, everything is quite logical. If you know other ways or disagree on something, write in the comments, let's discuss!
Have you ever had a time when you unexpectedly discovered a strength you didn’t know you had? I think such cases can inspire others, so share.
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See you later! Yours Alexander Gorokhov
Examples of answers to the employer’s question “What are your weaknesses”
Example 1
Weakness: self-criticism
“I can be overly critical of myself. Throughout my career, I have noticed the same pattern: no matter how well I complete the task, I still feel that I could have done it even better. The result is burnout.
I decided I needed to do something about it and started working on my self-confidence. Therefore, over the past two years, after I finish working on a project, I try to take a break: I celebrate my achievements and praise myself for the work I have done. This also helped me in that I began to treat my colleagues differently, notice their successes and rejoice in common victories.”
Example 2
Weakness: procrastination or tendency to constantly put things off “until tomorrow”
“I have a negative character trait - putting everything off for later. I used to always think that procrastination was just my problem. But while working as an engineer at company X, I realized that my entire team began to suffer because of my habit. Colleagues were stressed about whether we would be able to complete the project on time. And, as a result, the atmosphere in the team became tense.
At that moment, I realized that it was time to change something, it couldn’t continue like this, otherwise I would lose my job. I began to make myself a list of tasks for the day and complete them in strict sequence. Thanks to this kind of planning, I became much more organized.”
Example 3
Weakness: fear of public speaking
“Completing a project and preparing a presentation for it is a piece of cake for me. But when it comes to speaking in front of colleagues or potential investors, all my confidence evaporates.
Our department head knew about this problem and usually asked someone from the team to come forward and present the project. And then one day, listening to the speech of my colleague, I realized very clearly that only I myself, its author, can present my project, my brainchild in all its details, with all the details and nuances.
I began to prepare for the performance in advance, rehearsed and even recorded myself on video. This helped me look at myself from the outside and notice mistakes - my voice trembled, my intonation was wrong, there was no eye contact, etc. Now, the more I speak in public, the more confident I become.”
How do you rate your past place of work?
As we already mentioned, you cannot say anything negative about your past companies, teams and bosses. Even if they were really out of the ordinary. Any unflattering comment can work against you.
But it’s also not advisable to talk too “sweetly” either. As in many other cases, we are looking for a middle ground. Just note that the atmosphere in the company was friendly. If you want to tell us in more detail (or if you are asked to do so), note a couple of pleasant things: for example, that the employer gave adequate feedback to employees or that tasks were always distributed correctly, and everyone in the team tried to support each other.
List of weaknesses
Of course, it’s not at all easy to admit your shortcomings, much less tell a stranger about it. But still, nothing can compare with a truthful and sincere answer.
It is important to follow one rule here :
talk about a shortcoming that will not directly affect the performance of job responsibilities at a new place of work, or about a negative quality that you are actively working on and trying to improve.
Examples of shortcomings or weaknesses:
- Disorganization
- Perfectionism (if you notice negative consequences)
- Self-doubt, shyness, fear of public speaking
- Procrastination
- Increased anxiety
- Excessive scrupulousness
- Self-confidence
- Emotionality
- Lack of experience
- Fear of air travel
- Excessive trust in people
- Restlessness
Some weaknesses for one profession may be advantages for another.
But it’s better not to talk about the fact that you are lazy, unpunctual, don’t take responsibility and don’t like making decisions at an interview with your potential employer.
What salary do you want to receive?
This is one of the questions that needs to be approached carefully and wisely. You need to not only name the amount of your desired salary, but also justify it. And to do this, you need to study the labor market, evaluate your abilities, find out how much people in your specialty are paid in your region.
If you overestimate the number, it may cost you a job offer; if you underestimate, you will end up not receiving a decent salary or will create the impression of a not very valuable employee who is ready to work for pennies.
Some recruiters themselves name the amount they are willing to pay you, but this does not always happen. Most often, they ask to know whether they can “afford” such an employee.
Your task is to think in advance about the fair amount of the desired payment for your work.
What's your hobby?
Personal questions of this kind may also arise during the interview. Here you can tell us what you do in your free time, what your hobbies are. It will be an additional plus if your hobby emphasizes any of your qualities or helps maintain your skills at the proper level. For example, for a proofreader or copywriter, a passion for reading or composing prose/poetry, or blogging is useful.
What not to say:
- that you are not interested in anything;
- that you like something socially negative (drinking in bars or gambling);
- that you love something to the point of fanaticism.
It will be a plus if you have achieved something in one of your hobbies (for example, won a prize in a competition or published a book).
This will demonstrate your dedication and hard work.
What questions do you have?
It’s a very good form when you not only answer the recruiter’s questions, but also ask your own. This shows your initiative and interest.
It is recommended to ask questions about:
- Your potential responsibilities;
- corporate culture of the company;
- features of some individual projects, tasks;
- future plans of the company.
You should not immediately move on to questions about the social package or salary, so as not to get the impression that you came exclusively for them.
Finally
We've covered the 20 most common interview questions. But some recruiters may ask completely unusual or even provocative things.
If suddenly you don’t know the answer to a specific question, you didn’t expect it, the main way out here is to reason.
Don’t be silent, don’t say “I don’t know,” rather demonstrate that you are ready to communicate and think openly. And this will definitely make a good impression on the recruiter.
