Determining Your Strengths and Weaknesses Before Heading for a Job Interview

The basis of an interview is for the interviewer to find the best out of the best possible candidate for the position advertised whereby the hiring manager makes the selection by merely interviewing with a set of selected questions for the job. The interviewer will try to play with your mind to see how comfortable and composed you are at dealing with situations that are at your disposal and reparation is key to being successful with your interview, and you can deal this by simply determining your strengths and weaknesses. First, you need to understand what your weaknesses are and work harder on improving and secondly, your strengths.

By understanding your weaknesses and strengths, you essentially sharpen your mind for the task when you present yourself before the interviewer. Sometimes the interviewer will pose the question as ‘what are your strengths and weaknesses?’ as a single question while others will break it into two so that you deal with them one after the other which is generally the norm. In a situation where the question is posed to you as ‘what are your strengths and weaknesses?’ as a single question, it is better when you begin with your weaknesses and summarise with your strengths. A good thing always covers the bad, and it will somewhat give the interviewer a positive attitude towards you, adding flavour to your weaknesses too.

When dealing with your strengths, you consider things that make you outstanding from the rest like your creativity, versatility, how flexible you can be if hired, your focus, how honest you are and how you remain dedicated to your position. You should show and prove to the interviewer that you have a sense of continuous learning and how capable you are in taking the initiative. When you have all these at your disposal, it will make it easier for you to answer a question concerning your strength before the interviewer.

On the other hand, dealing with a question concerning your weakness might seem tricky, but you will have to answer it before the panel of interviewers. It is hard to describe your weaknesses, and perhaps you won’t ignore you don’t have flaws, everybody has faults, but the way you express our weaknesses matters a lot. The best way to challenge your interviewer about your weaknesses is to vividly express them and show how you are working on them to become your strength. It might be hard to determine your weaknesses compared to your strength but if you have a person who understands you better can help you know them.

Some of the weaknesses include how to express yourself in public especially when asked to talk before the audience, how you present your skills while at work, how you deal with self-criticism and sense of insecurity.

Practising between your strength and weaknesses before any interview is critical for you to succeed as you will have humble time in responding to the questions set before you and the interviewer will be impressed with your composure.


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