The 5 best responses to ‘What are your strengths?’

: phone interview 190916

Imag­ine this: You are sit­ting in an inter­view, and you get hit with one of the most com­mon ques­tions that hir­ing man­agers ask their can­di­dates. 

“What are your strengths?”

And, there are ways to answer this ques­tion to make the best impres­sion. Answer too con­fi­dent­ly and you might come across as arro­gant. But, weak answers can indi­cate that you don’t believe in your­self and your abil­i­ty to do the job. 

Here are the 5 best respons­es to that com­mon ques­tion. 

1: I’m especially strong in [insert specific job skill here]

Just as tai­lor­ing your resume for the job is a good idea, so is answer­ing this ques­tion in a way that direct­ly address­es the job .

If you are strong in sev­er­al dif­fer­ent areas, then focus on those strengths that most close­ly what the employ­er is look­ing for. For exam­ple, if they are look­ing for a pro­gram­mer who knows C++, then focus your answer on that tech­nol­o­gy first and fore­most (if you know it). 

2: My greatest strength is my ability to the sale 

Spe­cif­ic strengths are clear, direct, and easy to under­stand. For instance, “I’m great at sell­ing” is a weak­er response because “sell­ing” is a much more open-end­ed phrase than clos­ing the sale.

And, clos­ing the sale is what all suc­cess­ful sales nego­ti­a­tions need. This spe­cif­ic response comes across as strong, unequiv­o­cal, and tar­get­ed.  

3: I am adept at multitasking in a constantly changing environment

Although the evi­dence clear­ly indi­cates that most of us are NOT great mul­ti­taskers, every thinks they need some­one who can do just that.

Switch­ing between is a skill that is very much in demand. This is a strong and point­ed way of indi­cat­ing that you are com­fort­able in an envi­ron­ment that changes often which, of course, is very com­mon in

4: I have always been a natural leader

Most busi­ness­es like hear­ing about your abil­i­ty to lead, but only when you up this state­ment with an exam­ple or two to help back up your claim.

For exam­ple, briefly describe a sit­u­a­tion where you lead a team through a dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tion. Or, talk about con­sis­tent pro­mo­tions and how your style influ­enced your upward mobil­i­ty.

5: I am a very empathetic person and relate well to those around me

More and more are focus­ing on EQ as much as IQ. intel­li­gence and inter­per­son­al skills are super , espe­cial­ly dur­ing an inter­view. Use a strength like this to help per­suade your inter­view­ers that your strengths stretch beyond just your abil­i­ty to do your job, but also to be a pos­i­tive influ­ence in the office. 

In a typ­i­cal inter­view, we will all get to talk about our strengths and weak­ness­es. It can be nerve-rack­ing at times, but the more we prac­tice, the bet­ter we will be at deliv­er­ing an elo­quent strengths pitch dur­ing the inter­view. 

Be con­fi­dent, yet hum­ble. When­ev­er pos­si­ble, tai­lor your pitch to the exact qual­i­fi­ca­tions of the job. Know how your strengths match up with what the employ­er is look­ing for and hit on those things in the inter­view. This sim­ple trick will improve your chances of get­ting the job. 

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