In an interview, many different questions come up. Still, if you’ve studied interview questions or attended a couple of them, you’ll notice there are some questions that almost always repeat themselves. One of such questions is, “what is your greatest strength?”
Did is somewhat an odd question; I mean, people shy away from talking of themselves in this light, so they don’t look boastful. It doesn’t matter whether you shy away from the question or embrace it; it’ll keep coming up in interviews. Preparing yourself beforehand for this question will help you say the right things to land you the job.
When asked what your greatest strengths are, it feels pretty easy, and it is, but it is also not difficult to miss and go off on a tangent saying irrelevant things. Learning what to say when asked this question is vital, and you would be doing your chances a considerable service.
This article focuses on showing you how to answer the question and examples you can tweak and use. Without further ado, let’s jump right in.
Why Do Interviewers Ask “What Is Your Greatest Strength?”
One of the first things you should consider before answering any interview question is checking why you were asked the question in the first place. What do the interviewers want to hear?
When it comes to the question, “what is your greatest strength?” There are several things Interviewers are looking for when they ask you this question.
The most obvious reason a recruiter asks what your strengths are is to identify your strengths and see if they match what the company is looking for in the available role. For every role and company, there are particular sets of strengths and skills that are perfect and fitting. What this question does is highlight your strengths and allow the recruiters to see if they align with what they want for the role.
Interviewers may also be looking to see how quick-thinking you are, your boldness, and your ability to sell yourself. With the question, it is easy to become boastful or shy away from adequately articulating your most prominent strengths. Recruiters see this as an opportunity to discover what it takes to work in their organization.
How to Answer “What is Your Greatest Strength?”
Some questions like this are almost inevitable in interviews, so preparing for them is only the logical thing to do. The question “what is your greatest strength?” is straightforward, without too much ambiguity. Recruiters want to know what you bring and if it aligns with the available position. Although there are more subtle reasons, recruiters ask the question as mentioned above, stating your most significant strengths is the most essential. So what should you say, and how should you say it?
List Your Biggest Strengths
If you do not know yourself, you’ll probably struggle to answer the question on your greatest strengths. I mean, how will you know where you have an advantage if you don’t take time out to look at your progress?
Take out a note, put down every strength you think you have after thinking about it carefully. Think about all the times people complimented your work. Think about things you do effortlessly, all the things you can do without overthinking about it. Do not forget to look at the soft skills you possess, as they are the most potent strengths you can mention.
Put all those strengths in a note and sort them in order of most prominent. Remember, you do not want only to mention strengths but your most significant strengths. After doing this, keep your list and go to the next point in this section.
Also Read: Best Answers to “What Are You Passionate About?” Interview Questions
Research the Required Strengths for the Position
Before your strengths propel you to the top of the list of suitable candidates for the job, it has to be relevant and align with those required for the role. This point aims to find out the strengths of the interviewed position. After compiling all your strengths in the previous point, you cannot mention them all; you should only mention related strengths. Researching is the way to go to find the related strengths you may have.
How do you research to discover the associated skills that’ll propel you to the top of the pile? There are ways to go about this.
Study the Job Application: The job application usually contains a lot of information, more than what many people notice at first read. Understandably, many people miss a lot of information after the first read. There is a hurry and anticipation that manifest when reading a posting you’re interested in for the first time.
If you want to discover more information about the role, including the strengths associated with the position, reread the job posting, even after submitting your application. Read and take note of the strengths mentioned In the posting.
You’ll typically find the strengths required for the role in the job posting section with “requirements” or related words on it.
Research the Company and Role: sometimes, the required strengths may not be available on the job posting. In this scenario, you have to source these strengths from other places. Researching the company and the role separately to look for possible strengths attached to them is the next logical step.
Research the company’s social media profile, website looking for strengths and values they want. Look for their motives and what they stand for to see the type of strengths needed. You can also research the kind of strengths the role requires in other organizations and establishments.
After doing this, you should have gotten some of the strengths required. Armed with this information, move to the next step.
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Narrow Down Your Strengths
Go back to your list of strengths and narrow it down. First, narrow it down by eliminating all the unrelated strengths you have on your list. You wouldn’t want to mention that one of your strengths is being a good cook when applying for a role in finance. Although you may spin it to fit any narrative, it is best to stay in line.
After removing unrelated strengths to what is required, narrow this list further to only your most significant, most apparent strengths. You can get this down to three to five strengths.
Include Specific Instances of Your Strengths in Action
In your new list of three to five strengths, you should think of a specific example of how you have previously applied your strengths with the results. Attach the examples to each of the strengths listed.
Quickly talking about specifics, including how you’ve used your strengths in the past and the results it has brought to you or your organization, will put you ahead of the queue
Examples of Strong Answers to “What is Your Biggest Strengths?”
Being a strong advocate of mentioning specifics when talking about your strengths, it’ll be dishonest not to lead by example by showing your specific examples of powerful answers to the question “what is your biggest strength?”
Example One
“One of my most significant strengths is my excellent communication ability even under challenging situations. Having worked as a customer care agent for three years, I’ve been trained and gained experience communicating effectively even in high-pressure situations. A customer was unhappy about a particular service, and it was almost boiling over. I calmed the situation down, listened, and sorted out the situation swiftly.”
The prospect mentions a top strength related to the job, how long they have been honing this strength, and then a particular example of how they have used it and the result it brought – a happy client.
Example Two
“One of my most significant strengths is my excellent communication ability even under challenging situations. Having worked as a customer care agent for three years, I’ve been trained and gained experience communicating effectively even in high-pressure situations. A customer was unhappy about a particular service, and it was almost boiling over. I calmed the situation down, listened, and sorted out the situation swiftly.”
The prospect mentions a top strength related to the job, how long they have been honing this strength, and then a particular example of how they have used it and the result it brought – a happy client.
Example Three
“My background as a project manager has certainly helped tremendously. I’ve been able to use this skill to stay on track and deliver on schedule. I’ve also been able to communicate effectively with other team members. During the launch of our last quarterly projects, there was a delay in the release of materials which set us back and threatened the delivery in time for the launch. I was able to motivate team members and ensure the project was fast-tracked without any drop in quality.”
You can use the knowledge you have in a different field and relate it to the present role while showing how it has been of help with
Summary
People always have something to say when asked what their most significant strengths are; the issue is whether these things are the right things to say to land the job or not. Being asked what your strengths are is an opportunity to sell yourself further and show the recruiters how valuable you’ll be in their organization. Thankfully, this guide shows you what you need to know about answering the question.
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