What do you consider to be your greatest
strengths and weaknesses?
Discussion:
Tailor your strengths to the position and the hidden
needs of the manager in terms of making their job easier and making
them look good. Whatever you do, don't claim that you don't have any
weaknesses. List your strengths first, and list many. You will want to
list the desirable Behavioral Competencies that hiring managers are
looking for. Then speak to your weaknesses, but only name one.
You can identify a weakness that is actually a strength, but be careful
with this – you don't want it to be too obvious or transparent.
Keep the description of your weakness short, and finish with a pause
as if you are ready to move onto the next question.
"I think my greatest strengths include my determination to get the job
done, my ability to focus, stay on task, maintain quality, and my ability
to create enthusiasm and motivate a team. I am also very good with
people in terms of maintaining agreement and consensus. I am also
very customer service oriented. I treat everyone as a customer. My
clients, bosses, and coworkers included. I keep my customer service
level high by following through and actually doing what I say I am
going to do. FOR EXAMPLE, at my last job …
"I would say that my biggest weakness is that I don't like to miss
deadlines, so sometimes I get impatient with colleagues that lag with
their piece of a project."
"Well, I have had to learn that different people are motivated by
different things, and people have different degrees of motivation in
general. This has been a weakness of mine, but I have been improving
it over time, and it has really paid off, and made me a better
manager."
"I would say my greatest weakness in the past has been over-
committing to too many tasks. With too much on my plate I was
sometimes not able to do the most important things, if you know what
I mean. However, I've taken steps to correct this by consciously
thinking through what I agree to in order to make sure it contributes
to my most important goals for the job. I try to make sure I am
completing the critical stuff that really makes a difference."
strengths and weaknesses?
Discussion:
Tailor your strengths to the position and the hidden
needs of the manager in terms of making their job easier and making
them look good. Whatever you do, don't claim that you don't have any
weaknesses. List your strengths first, and list many. You will want to
list the desirable Behavioral Competencies that hiring managers are
looking for. Then speak to your weaknesses, but only name one.
You can identify a weakness that is actually a strength, but be careful
with this – you don't want it to be too obvious or transparent.
Keep the description of your weakness short, and finish with a pause
as if you are ready to move onto the next question.
"I think my greatest strengths include my determination to get the job
done, my ability to focus, stay on task, maintain quality, and my ability
to create enthusiasm and motivate a team. I am also very good with
people in terms of maintaining agreement and consensus. I am also
very customer service oriented. I treat everyone as a customer. My
clients, bosses, and coworkers included. I keep my customer service
level high by following through and actually doing what I say I am
going to do. FOR EXAMPLE, at my last job …
"I would say that my biggest weakness is that I don't like to miss
deadlines, so sometimes I get impatient with colleagues that lag with
their piece of a project."
"Well, I have had to learn that different people are motivated by
different things, and people have different degrees of motivation in
general. This has been a weakness of mine, but I have been improving
it over time, and it has really paid off, and made me a better
manager."
"I would say my greatest weakness in the past has been over-
committing to too many tasks. With too much on my plate I was
sometimes not able to do the most important things, if you know what
I mean. However, I've taken steps to correct this by consciously
thinking through what I agree to in order to make sure it contributes
to my most important goals for the job. I try to make sure I am
completing the critical stuff that really makes a difference."