We hear a lot about the “What are my greatest weaknesses?” question that often comes up in interviews, though I believe it to be a dull-beyond-belief question. We don’t hear as much about the strengths question.
If you’re asked to list your strengths, you may be tempted to come over all coy and bashful. While we wouldn’t urge you to do the total opposite of that, you should resolve to give an answer that not only outlines your strengths, but also links those strengths to the job at hand.
Highlighting relevant strengths for the job
Let’s say they’re looking for somebody to manage people and you’ve done that, then people management should be a strength. If they’re looking for somebody to manage a social media campaign and you’ve done that, then social media management should be a strength. If you were a teacher in a past life and they’re now looking for a painter, your teaching skills are not a strength.
To be clear about it, they are a strength, but they’re not particularly relevant to this role. When you go into a job interview, you should have five or six key and relevant strengths identified to suggest you for the role in question.
Our key mantra
Without that, you could be flapping around in the dark when asked the “What are your strengths?” question. A key mantra for job interviews is to link what you have done with what they are looking for. I call this the meeting of the past and the future.
The past is what you have done, the future is what you will do for them. You may be tempted to hope that they see how your past achievements and your strengths relate to the job they are now trying to fill, but I would not leave it to chance.
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If you’re asked to list your strengths, you may be tempted to come over all coy and bashful. While we wouldn’t urge you to do the total opposite of that, you should resolve to give an answer that not only outlines your strengths, but also links those strengths to the job at hand.
