Job interviews are always unpredictable. Unlike the university-level exams, when you know the syllabus of the course for which you are appearing at the term-end exam, in interviews, questions are a bit tricky.
In fact, HR managers are trained and skilled in it. For a single post, multiple candidates apply, and HR managers are the best professionals to judge a candidate’s suitability for the post. They use various skill mapping techniques and tools to judge a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses.
Among various interview questions, ‘what are your strengths and weaknesses’ is quite common. Unless you have a clear-cut strategy to deal with the question, you’re most likely to get confused while answering it. Whenever this question comes up, candidates either get too thoughtful or too shy.
And to answer this question, well, we have an in-depth blog post that you’re going to want to read!
The Best Answer to – What Is Your Weakness?
When the HR manager or a company professional asks this question, he or she actually wants to gauge your personality, thought process, and suitability for the job you are applying for.
Freshers who are facing a job interview for the first time will especially find it extremely difficult to count their weaknesses. But this question can stun even experienced candidates.
A lot of doubts will revolve in mind as counting weaknesses in front of your prospective employer can’t be easy and simple. So, knowing how to appropriately and confidently answer your strengths and weaknesses can help ease off pressure during a job interview.
Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. But how well you justify them and maintain a perfect balance between these two eventually matters in any interview. When your employer wants to know your weakness, it means they want to gauge your honesty and personality traits.
Talking about strengths, start from:
- Creativity
- Versatility
- Flexibility
- Focus
- Taking initiative.
And when talking about weaknesses, well start from:
- Self-criticism
- Insecurities
- Too-detail oriented
- Public speaking
- Presentation skills
Looking to upskill youself and impress your recrutier?
Explore our exclusive internship courses and get ahead of your peers!
Answers like,
- I don’t have any weaknesses
- I am a perfectionist
- I’ve not found any weakness yet,
can badly backfire and come off as arrogant.
The more you try to show you’ve no weaknesses, your employer would count them as nothing but self-exaggeration or overconfidence.
The correct approach is to discuss your genuine weakness while reflecting on how you are overcoming the same. But you should never disclose more than one or two weaknesses in an interview.
Real-life scenarios while describing your weaknesses in an interview
Example #1
I’m a confident guy. However, I find it a bit difficult when I need to ask others for help. As they have to invest their precious time towards helping me. I feel it’s always better that when I ask others for help, they should also reach out to me when they need any work-related help.
Example #2
It’s difficult to count on my weaknesses. Because I’ve always focused on my core strengths throughout my life. Everyone has certain weaknesses, but they still get success in their life. As far as I’m concerned, I sometimes get too worried about my project when the deadline approaches. However, I am trying to cope with it. Now, I regularly go to the gym, yoga classes, and music concerts to stay calm and stress-free.
Thus, answering your weakness in an interview may be difficult but not impossible. You’ve to thoroughly prepare for it. Before appearing for an interview, you should read out the full description. Your weakness can’t be anything that is directly related to the job profile. For example, if you are an introvert, you may not be suitable for the post of a sales professional in which you have to meet hundreds of people day in and day out.
Don’t forget that answering your strengths can be equally difficult. There is no hard and fast rule for dealing with such a type of question. You still have to exercise maximum caution while answering it.
Here’s how you can do it!
What Is Your Strength Best Answer?
Answering your strength requires a certain degree of caution and honesty. While describing your strengths, you shouldn’t go on and on.
Describing three or four strengths is more than enough.
For example, if your employer asks about your strengths, you can humbly say that you are creative, confident, self-motivated and flexible. Having said so, don’t forget to end your sentence by saying I know I still need to learn a lot and I hope under your esteemed company’s immaculate guidance, I’ll achieve much more in my life.
Your answer should add value to the job profile you are applying for. Don’t forget to go through the job profile at least once before you attend the interview. Most of your strengths should relate to the job profile.
For example, if you are applying for the post of a data scientist, describing your non-technical strength such as proficiency to sell or good convincing skills may not hold much relevance here.
These examples can help you answer you confidently answer your strengths:
Example #1
I am confident and collaborative. I thank my school and college for helping me become who I am today. Through my confidence and collaborative approach, I along with my team was successful in helping the client grow their ROI by 150% when their company suffered a 50% loss a month before that.
Example #2
My strength is my writing. I’ve been in love with writing ever since my childhood. As soon as I saw your job requirement for a content writer, it immediately resonated with me. I’ve won numerous awards for my writing skills. However, I do still feel that every time you write—it’s a fresh test and a new challenge.
Summing Up
We hope you got the idea of how to tackle questions relating to strengths and weaknesses in an interview. You can go through the above strengths and weaknesses examples one more time to know what you should disclose and what you shouldn’t when an interviewer asks you similar questions.
Questions like what are your strengths and weaknesses are psychological. You can neither appear too modest nor too confident. You have to answer the question with a balanced approach. It means that the employer should find you confident and honest when you answer their questions.
Looking to upskill youself and impress your recrutier?
Explore our exclusive internship courses and get ahead of your peers!
