WHAT ARE YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES?

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. We, humans, try to work on our flaws to get better every day. Knowing your strengths will help you to majorly choose your life around those lines where your strength can also add a monetary value to your life. On the other hand, knowing your weaknesses will help you to acknowledge them with the vision of how to improve it. In simpler words, strength is SELF–AWARENESS knowing what you’re good at and weakness is figuring out ways for SELF–IMPROVEMENT.

During the interview process, it’s likely that the hiring manager will ask you this question “WHAT ARE YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES?”. It’s important to answer the question without bragging too much or risk appearing narcissistic. Below is the formula which works all the time.

STRENGTHS:

For strengths, always keep the job description in mind. Remember that these questions are essentially the same from different angles. The interviewer wants to know if you have the skills and attitude necessary for the role. While talking about the strengths, there are some elements which you should include:

• Make sure that your strengths align with the goals and work culture of the company you are being interviewed by and goes along with the job description.
• Be honest and talk about something which comes naturally to you because that will sound authentic.
• Support your answer with some incident.

Here is one quick example for Test Automation Engg role

I am very passionate for test automation and new tools and technology. Last few years I have automated multiple projects with Selenium and other automation tools. During this journey, I have came across many problems and each problem gave me different way of learning and exposure to different tools as well. I always explore new ways to automate the scenarios and will make sure automation works as expected.

For instance, here is another example of a SALES job which will give you a better understanding of how to frame your answer.

“I’m a people person. As a salesperson for the last 2 years, I’ve learned how to deal with a wide variety of personalities.  I enjoy handling a variety of cases as it gives me a chance to think in all dimensions. Last month for the third time in a row, I was the top seller of my company and increased the revenue by 10,00,000. It was great!

WEAKNESSES:

Weaknesses are something that can be worked on. They are just your weaknesses because you haven’t worked enough on them to convert them to your strengths. With hard work, dedication, and determination you can improve your weaknesses.

In an interview, Ensure that the weaknesses you say are not related to the job description cause this can hamper your chance. Also, do not, under any circumstances say short-tempered/impatient, etc as your weakness that would kill your interview because nobody would hire someone with those traits.

For example, you can say that during this automation journey I had to learn multiple things parallel and I could explore end to end functionality of specific tool but whenever I am getting free time from my office and personal work, I am always exploring new area or functionality of existing tools.

For example, you could say, for the same sales position, My weakness is sometimes I get too friendly and pushy with the customers and some of them don’t like it which in turn affects my sales. But with time I have learned to give people space and let them browse by themselves.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Don’t brag.
• Don’t give unrelated examples.
• Don’t ramble.

This is just a scenario. It could be different with you with the job description and requirement. Just remember your strengths and weaknesses are your own. You don’t have to brag or find a perfect answer for this. All you got to do is to sound genuine, unique, and believable. This could be a great opportunity to win the interviewer and thus getting the job.