Answering Strengths and Weaknesses

June 5, 2019

What is your biggest strength? Tell me your greatest weakness? Answering the strengths and weaknesses questions in an interview can be difficult, especially when they catch you off guard. I am not convinced about the value of these questions in job interviews, but since my responsibility is to help people prepare for interviews, this is often one of the areas we’ll spend time on.

Unfortunately, these types of questions still exist, and applicants come across them. For whatever reason, hiring managers like to put candidates on the spot with these. The good news is that these questions are easy to predict, and with practice, you can have reliable answers.

How to answer Strengths and weaknesses at an interview

What is your biggest strength?

First- listen to the question. How many strengths does the hiring manager want? If they ask, “What is your greatest strength,” you only want to provide ONE. Please don’t talk about 15 talents if the hiring manager only asked for one. Rambling about your multiple skills will come across as overly confident and is a huge turn off for hiring managers.

The best strategy is to pick a strength that relates to the job posting and then provide a brief story that shows those behaviors in a positive light. The more you can demonstrate the strength, the more believable it becomes to the hiring manager.

What is your greatest weakness? How does it manifest at work?

How to answer what is your greatest weakness question

The weakness question is a bit trickier. For years the advice has been to pick a weakness that is actually a strength, like “I take on too much work,” or “I can’t say no.” Bad news, hiring managers are on to this trick, and they’ll keep asking for weaknesses until they’ve gotten you to cop to a deep dark secret, or they’ve written you off as a candidate.

I tell my clients to choose a real weakness, not one that is career-damaging, like an accountant with poor attention to detail, and go with it. Hiring managers are looking for a couple of things: first, can you acknowledge your weaknesses? What have you done to help mitigate them in the workplace? To help clients find this weakness, I’ll often ask them what they’d tell a friend over coffee. They tend to think that these weaknesses are too personal for an interview (hint, rarely they can be), but more often than not, they are the best ones for this type of question. A word of caution, however, don’t disclose any protected information (relationship status, religion, sexual preference, children, political beliefs, etc.) in the interview. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule, but generally, you want to avoid triggering any unconscious or conscience bias with the interviewing panel.

answer strengths and weaknesses during job interview

Finally, practice your answers. Anticipate Strengths and weaknesses questions at every interview and know what you’re going to tell the hiring manager. That way, you’re far more prepared and equipped to be successful. As always, please reach out with any questions to amie@soundinteview.com.

June 1, 2019July 17, 2018

The Seven Most Common Interview Questions

Most Common Interview Questions

How nice would it be to go into an interview already knowing all of the questions you were going to be asked? Unfortunately, most employers won’t give you the interview questions in advance. Today we’re going to break down seven of the most common interview questions that hiring managers ask.

Now, here’s the deal, we don’t recommend memorizing canned answers to these questions. The hiring manager can tell when you’re giving them a script and it comes across as insincere. Instead, use these interview questions as prompts to help you prepare. Keep notes on the topics you’d like to cover and practice talking about your accomplishments. Today we’re focusing on traditional interview questions, and next week we’ll concentrate on behavioral interview questions.

Tell me about yourself (Why should we hire you for this job)

notepad-691250_1920 There are a lot of ways hiring managers can ask this question. It’s a great first question because it gives you the chance to focus the interview on the areas you want to highlight. Think about this question like your executive summary. Focus your answer on work history, education, and training or certifications. Assume that the hiring manager or interview panel hasn’t had a lot of time to review your resume, so give them the rundown on who you are. Keep your responses professional and avoid providing a lot of personal details.

I got a Bachelors of Science in Accounting and Finance from UCLA and then went on to finish my MBA there as well. Once I graduated, I started my career working in accounts payable at GE. While I was there, I was recruited to participate in an accelerated employee development rotation program where I had the opportunity to rotate through four different organizations as a finance specialist. After the program finished, I was placed as a manager and received extensive leadership training. I worked at GE for two more years before I moved to Deloitte. I’ve worked at Deloitte for four years and had the opportunity to work in various leadership roles.

Why do you want to work here?

Here’s where doing your research on the company will pay off. Try to avoid the canned responses that applicants tend to give and come up with something creative. It’s an excellent opportunity to demonstrate your passion and talk about how you connect to the brand or company values.

I want to work here because I’m passionate about the outdoors and the environment. I’m an avid cyclist, and I’ve been skiing since I was six years old. Working at this company will allow me to use my technical skills as a developer while also supporting an industry that I love. Additionally one of the things that I appreciate most about this company is their approach to environmental stewardship and sustainability. I’m an active volunteer for the Nature Conservancy, and I want to work at an organization that aligns with my values.

What is your biggest strength?

Interview Questions: Your Greatest Strength I’ve seen this question go south for a lot of candidates who weren’t prepared. If you haven’t thought about a response to this question, it can catch you off guard. When you’re talking about your strengths, be sure to tailor it to the position you’re interviewing. Hiring managers don’t want to hear that you’re an excellent baker unless it’s connected to the skills you need to do the job.

Another pitfall is balancing humbleness and confidence. You want to avoid coming across as overly confident or arrogant, but still, give yourself enough credit to recognize the places you excel. To tackle this question, I recommend focusing on one or two specific strength and selling them well. Provide a brief example that demonstrates your strength as it applies to the position.

I am analytical and enjoy digging into data. Several months ago our team was trying to identify ways to improve our customer satisfaction results. I took the data from our customer surveys and cross-referenced it with the data from our vendors and noticed that the results were lower when customers had opted for a specific component in their product. When I looked deeper, it appeared that this product had a higher number of warranty claims when it came with this component. I took this information to leadership with the recommendation that we switch suppliers for this component. Since making the switch, our customer satisfaction results have increased by 15%.

What is your biggest weakness?

Ok, let’s admit it, everyone hates this interview question. Hiring managers ask it because they’re looking for people who can acknowledge their shortcomings, and find ways to make up for them. Prepare for this question, so you don’t just blurt out the first weakness that comes to mind. Don’t choose a flaw that’s completely unrelated to work, like “I’m a terrible cook.” The other one hiring managers are sick of hearing is the “I’m a perfectionist” weakness. Find a real fault that isn’t detrimental to the job and talk about what you do to mitigate it.

Coming from a technical background, I tend to get caught up in the details of a project. As a manager, I am aware that I need to trust my team and keep focused on the big picture, so I do a couple of different things to help me from getting too caught up in the small details. First, I’m very open about this with my team, and I ask to bring it to my attention when I get too deep. Second, Anytime I start working on a project I do my best to remind myself to stay out of the weeds. It’s something I am continuously reflecting on and trying to improve.

Why are you looking to leave your current position?

Regardless of how you answer this question do not badmouth your current or past employers. When a candidate badmouths an employer, it’s a huge red flag for hiring managers. Even if you’re in the worst possible job and you’re utterly miserable, think of a different approach. You also don’t want to lie to the hiring manager either. If you don’t have anything nice to say about your previous employer, you can focus the attention on how great the new position is

I’ve been in my current role for just about two years now, and I’ve had the chance to learn a lot about the industry. Since my current company is a small organization, my scope has been broad. Your position offers the opportunity to focus on a specialty within the industry that I find exciting.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Hiring managers aren’t expecting you to predict the future here, I promise. This question helps them know that you’re thinking ahead and you have long-term goals. Again, be sure to focus on your professional life and avoid personal details like starting a family or getting married. It’s illegal for companies to use this information in their selection process, so they’d rather not know. Instead, tell them what kind of work you’d like to be doing, what problems you would like to have solved and whether you see yourself moving toward a path towards a technical expert or management.

Five years from now I see myself further developing my career as a subject matter expert. I enjoy the working with people. I want to build more skills as a to grow into a Senior Project Manager role. By then, I plan to have my Project Manager Certificate, and I would like to have completed the Six Sigma Black Belt certification as well. I feel like I have a strong grasp on project management and I would like to lead some large cross-functional projects. Finally, I trust my team and acknowledge that mistakes are a part of the process. By letting go of some of the control, they learn and become stronger employees.

Do you have any questions for us?

hands-460865_1920 At this point, the interview is almost over! It’s your turn to ask the questions of the panel. This the most important and most common interview question asked, so don’t get caught empty-handed. Here is where you get to learn about the organizational culture, day-to-day work and most importantly, build rapport with the hiring managers.

Stay away from questions about money and benefits of the position; the interview isn’t the place to discuss those topics. When you show up for an interview asking about salary, it tells me you’re only interested in compensation. Asking how you did in the interview is another awkward question that makes interviewers uncomfortable. Instead, ask the hiring manager open-ended questions to get them talking. A few of those might be:

What do you like the most about the company/job/role?
What do you see as the biggest challenges for this position?
How do you define success?
What would you like to see accomplished in the first 90 days?

Thanks for taking the time to read through our tips! If you found this information helpful, we’d love for you to share it with your network. As always, let us know if you have any questions or thoughts. If you’re interested in learning more about our customized resume and interview coaching services, please reach out. Stay tuned for next week’s post about the behavioral and situational interview questions as well.

November 30, 2016October 25, 2016

Video Interview Tips: How to Get the Job

Imagine an interview where you record your responses into a camera with no one watching. You’re given a question to respond to and a countdown to start talking. You give your best response to your webcam and then hit stop. You might see your face on the screen as you are recording or the question you’re expected to answer. If you’re lucky, the software will give you the chance to re-record, but that’s not always the case. Then you’re on to the next question. You might never hear back from the company, or you could be invited in for a face to face interview. If you haven’t noticed the video interview trend, get ready, they’re becoming much more common as a tool to screen applicants. We’ve got our best video interview tips to help you get ready.

Why Video Interviews

Companies like SparkHire and HireVue provide technology that allows employers to use video interviews as a way to both screen and interview candidates. These technologies claim that they make it easier for employers to hire higher performers and streamline the hiring process. More and more companies are starting to use these tools in their hiring process; GE, Honda, Ikea and even USPS are listed as clients. Conducting a video interview is much easier than a phone screen since applicants can do it on their own time and the recruiter can just review the tape later.

Video Interview Challenges

Lighting, sound, internet connectivity and even the lack of feedback are all things you have to be aware of in a video interview. There’s no space for you to ask questions or ensure that you answered the question they’re asking. Without an encouraging nod or even eye contact from another human being, it can be pretty hard to make sure you’ve hit the mark with these types of interviews.

As an HR person, I wonder about accessibility and fairness of a video interview. I’m curious if it creates additional opportunities for bias to enter into the hiring process. However, I can see the benefits from the employer’s side. It allows them to quickly move through a large number of applicants without having to worry about scheduling around time zones and meetings. It lets them narrow down the candidate pool much quicker and hopefully, helps the hiring process move along faster.

Video Interview Tips: Getting Ready

Congratulations, you’ve been invited to record your answers for a “virtual interview.” The company sends you an interview invite with a link to the site and some instructions on how to get started. Spend some time preparing before you sit down to record and treat this just like you would a regular job interview. Research the organization and the position so you’re ready to talk about why you want to work there and what skills you’ll bring to the job. In the initial screening, the questions are most likely going to be traditional or behavioral interview questions. If you are lucky, they’ll give you the questions are ahead of time so you can think through and prepare your answers

home-office-336377_1920

Find a Quiet Space & Prepare

The benefit of video interviews and screenings is that they happen on your own time and in a place you’re comfortable. There are a lot of stuff to consider when getting set up for your video interview. Choose a time when you’re not likely to be interrupted and mute your cell phone. Set aside about an hour to record and turn in your responses. Some of the companies require a software download to use their tools, so make sure you’re not waiting until the last minute to turn in your responses in case you run into any technical difficulties.

Set the Scene

Do a test run with the lighting and volume on your webcam. You want to make sure they can see and hear you clearly. Your light source should be in front of your camera, not behind you for a clear image. Be sure to check that your background is professional and not distracting. A blank wall works fine, but if you can use an office setting it will send a more professional message. Also, remember to plug in your charger since recording video can drain your batteries quickly.

Dress for Success

It can be easy to get a little lax when it comes to video interviews since you may not be leaving your house. It’s still critical to dress as if you were going to the office for an interview. Dressing professionally tells the hiring manager your serious about the job. It will also help you feel more confident and polished. Wear solid colors since patterns can come across as fuzzy and distracting. It’s a good idea to keep the jewelry to a minimum to avoid reflections into the camera.

Answer the Questions

Chances are you’ll need to record answers to between 3 and five questions for an interview screening. As you are answering, do your best to look at the camera and speak clearly. If you make a mistake, do your best to move on and don’t dwell on it. It might help to imagine that the hiring manager is in the room with you. One nice thing about the recordings is that you usually have the chance to collect your thoughts before starting on the next question. Once you’ve finished answering, take a moment to collect your thoughts. Have a drink of water and review your notes before getting started in your next response.

Having the ability to review and re-record your answers might be harder than just having one chance. For the perfectionists out there, this can be a major pitfall. Don’t spend hours trying to perfect an answer. Chances are it will be visible to the recruiter and come across as rehearsed or insincere. Unless you’ve made a major mistake, it’s best to move on without recording multiple times.

Waiting Game

Once you hit submit on the interview, the waiting begins. Usually, you’ll get some notice that it has been received by the company, either via email or right after turning it in. One downside is that it’s hard to follow up with anyone to see where you stand or even get an idea of what the next steps are in the process. Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell if or when you’ll hear something from the company after submitting your answers. The best advice I can give is to keep applying to other positions while you wait to hear back from the video screen.

If you’re ready to build your interview skills in a virtual environment, we offer web-based interview coaching services that will help you prepare, either in person or over the web. To learn more about our interview and resume coaching services get in touch via email or at (206) 289-0358.

November 30, 2016August 19, 2016

Three Common Types of Interview Questions

There are three basic styles of interview questions used by HR and hiring managers. Today, we’re going to explain them so you can prepare for your upcoming interview. We’ll start with behavioral interview questions since they are the most common and then discuss traditional and structured questions as well. When scheduling your interview with a recruiter, HR or the hiring manager, there’s no harm in asking what category of interview questions that you should prepare for.

Behavioral Interview Questions

Behavioral interview questions are by far the most common types of questions asked during a non-technical job interview. These questions are asking for candidates to tell a story about something that has happened in the past. The reason these are so popular among HR is because studies have shown that the way people behave in previous situations is a really good indicator of how they are going to act in the future. Because these behavioral interview questions are so widely used, it is where we focus most of our interview coaching practice.

A few examples of behavioral interview questions:

Tell me about a time you had a disagreement with a co-worker.
Describe a complex problem that you fixed with a single solution.
Talk about a time when you had to work in close collaboration with someone whose personality was very different from yours.
Tell me about a time you had to juggle multiple competing deadlines? How did you prioritize them? What was the result?

Behavioral questions can be simple or contain multiple questions that you need to answer. Take notes on the question to make sure you hit all of the questions the interviewers are looking for and answer the questions completely. The STAR format is an excellent way to organize your response.

Structured Interview Questions

Structured questions are very similar to behavioral interview questions except they aren’t asking about past performance. These questions are more forward-looking and ask ‘what you would do’ instead of ‘what have you done.’ These are beneficial for entry-level positions and internships where people might not have as much background to draw from.

A few examples of structured interview questions:

How would you handle a situation where your supervisor asked you to do something unethical?
Imagine you are very busy with a large company project, and your manager asks you to take on additional, unrelated work. What would you do?
A furious client walks up to your desk. He believes that his being over-billed for services your company provided. After reviewing his information, you learn that the bill was, in fact, valid. How would you handle this situation?

Traditional Interview Questions

We call these the ‘mirror’ questions because they are the answers that candidates can rehearse in a mirror and fine tune their answers. These are pretty straight forward and easy to draft an answer. There isn’t any particular formula for responding to these questions. Traditional interview questions also don’t add a lot of value to the hiring managers, so we are seeing a lot less of them in the interview process.

A few examples of traditional interview questions:

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
What is your greatest strength/weakness?
Why do you want to work for this company?
Why do you want to be [insert job title]?
Tell me about yourself?

The one exception, is the ‘tell me about yourself’ question. In most interviews this question, in some variation is used to break the ice and move the discussion forward. Another variation of this question is ‘tell me about your work experience and education that has prepared you for this position.’ With few exceptions, we recommend that applicants focus on work history, education and any relevant training or experiences that relate to the job. This is not the time to talk about your love for the tuba, favorite cooking shows or your son in cub scouts, unless of course you’re interviewing for an orchestra, the food network or the forest service respectively.