Not long right after JobsBlog began in 2004, Gretchen answered a reader who wanted to know what he should say when an interviewer asked him to explain his strengths and weaknesses. 6 years later on, that publish is nevertheless one of the most preferred articles on this web-site. Gretchen’s advice remains relevant, of course, and we encourage you to read it – but we thought we’d give you an update from varying viewpoints. Check out what Kenji, Lisa and Matt have to say about this infamous interview question! I used to ask this question as part of my regular morning interview, though it has mostly faded from my rotation. My best advice is to be up-front and honest. When I asked this question,
Office Pro Plus 2010 Key, I was primarily looking for three things: confidence (What are you proud of?); self-evaluation (What do you want to improve?); and desire (What do you plan to do about it?). Sometimes candidates became agitated, maybe because they thought I was trying to trick them or get them to self-select out of consideration. In these cases,
Office Pro Plus 2010, I tried to rephrase and provide context: Nobody’s perfect,
Office 2010 Code, but I want to understand what are you good at, and where you think you could improve. On the flip side, the worst responses are: Not saying anything, giving a canned response, or changing the subject and trying to avert the question. I’ll admit; I used to ask this question. For me, the “greatest strength and weakness” question determines whether you can give an honest assessment of your skills and yourself. What I looked for in the answer was a true weakness, however, I also was looking to see if the candidate was working on the weakness or found a way to overcome their weakness. For example,
Office Pro, a weakness could be that you’re afraid of speaking in front of a large audience. A couple of ways to mitigate it might be that you’ve been taking public speaking classes or presenting at brown bags to build your confidence. Remember though, you don’t want to sell yourself out with the position, so be sure the weakness is something that, when worked on,
Office Pro 2007 Key, can turn into a strength. I’ve had a lot of heated debates about this question as its one of my least favorite to ask or answer. Nonetheless, since not answering is a less than ideal option, I recommend for your strength, to come up with the 1 word that best personifies your personal “brand” – what makes you who you are – and share an example of how you’ve delivered that. For weakness, my advice would be to mention a past challenge you have lengthy since overcome. As long as you address any weakness with “and this is what I did to overcome that” you’re showing growth – and awareness!