Friday, December 13, 2013
Interview
Question: What are your Strength and Weaknesses? This is another very popular interview
question which is
asked in all kinds of interview and today we are going to tell you how one
should answer such question.
Purpose
of such question: The
purpose of asking this question by the interview board is to check how can you
handle a direct question about your traits and how confident you are to speak
about your strengths as well as weaknesses.
How to
answer such question? It is
always good to prepare well in advance therefore you should prepare and
practice a well structured answer well in advance so that you can handle this
question easily at the time of interview. The purpose of providing most common
questions and methods of answering them is that you can prepare well in advance
about these questions. Questions given in our
Interview Preparation Series are frequently asked in various interviews.
How to
prepare the answer? You
should prepare an answer for this question for every interview before you go.
The answer will depend on individual traits as every person is having different
strengths as well as weaknesses. First of all you should think deeply about the
strength and weaknesses you possess and should note down. Take care to avoid
traits which are highly personal in nature. Please remember that the purpose of
the questions is to check your qualities which are likely to affect your
professional environment so do not discuss strength and weaknesses which are
highly personal in nature.
Justify
your answer if required: While
replying such question the board may also ask a counter question about examples
of yours strengths and weaknesses. So if required you should justify your
strengths and weaknesses with suitable example.
Prepare
a list: Create
an honest detailed list of what you think are your strengthsor weaknesses and then select a few of them you can
remember. Practice your responses so that they sound natural and you are
prepared for the question. Do not reply with statements such as I am a
perfectionist or I have no weaknesses. Do not try to show that you are
absolutely perfect as weaknesses are also natural and every human being posses
a few.
Example of a few strengths: good communication skills, enjoy working with teams,
punctuality, strong will power, determination, confidence, commitment towards
work, caring for seniors and elders, believe in oneself, highly energetic, well
organized etc.
Example of a few weaknesses: Try to tell weaknesses which are quite common and the weaknesses
which are actually good for your professional life, for example:
- I am over friendly.
- I give too much priority to my
work.
- I lose patience sometimes when
I am not in a position to complete the assigned job in time.
- I am too focused on my work and
I need to find more time to relax.
- I am too focused on work and
need to develop some after-hours hobbies.
Therefore try to think
of a weakness that can actually be seen in some sort of positive light.
Be honest in your answers: Whatever you do during the interview do not try to fool the
board as they are experienced people. So try to prepare a very positive answer
based on your traits only.
Hope you will find
this Interview Preparation Series very useful. Now you can answer the question,
what are your Strength and Weaknesses, in our comments section and our experts will review it.
