Tell Me Your Strengths and Weaknesses… Oh No!

Tell Me Your Strengths and Weaknesses… Oh No!

by Talentese Team 02/01/2018

What are your strengths and weaknesses? This is one of the most frequently asked interview questions. If you’re at an interview, and it’s going smoothly, there’s a very good chance you will be asked what your strengths and weaknesses are. Don’t worry! It isn’t that difficult to answer. It’s all about being quick on your toes! This is a very popular question and everybody has to sit in this hot seat at least once in their lives. This is a favourite of most recruiters for typical interview questions and answers.

It actually doesn’t matter whether your strengths and weaknesses are real or not. Most interviewers want to know how you handle being put on the spot. There is no right response to this question, yet most interviewers look for closely hidden flaws in your reply. They check to assess your employee branding simultaneously. The reason recruiters and interviewers ask this question is to gauge how you handled challenging situations in your past and whether you were able to do a self-assessment.

Most candidates facing this question tend to flounder and think of the perfect answer. Simply put, there isn’t one! Interviewers want to ensure that you can accept your mistakes and admit to working on them as it shows humility and respect. Most interviewers and recruiters use this question to filter candidates they think are not a right fit for their company (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Don’t get trapped by this most frequently asked interview questions and answers web!

To ensure you don’t get caught in this tricky web, here are some tips. Let’s break the question into two and take each part one at a time.

Strengths:

First off, get your examples ready! While responding to the strengths part, always have quantifiable data to back your answer. If you answer something generic about team building or maximizing sales, the interviewer might ask for an example. If you can’t answer this question concisely, there is a good chance you will be rejected and someone else will get your dream job. This is a very big mistake most people make in this typical interview questions and answers round.

Another way to be prepared for this answer is to read and re-read the job description carefully and identify the key points in the new job. According to Martins (Daniel Martins, 2016), tailor your response to fit the most probable answer to this question. If you reply something very obvious like an attribute – hardworking, honest, and detail-oriented, the interviewer won’t be impressed. Give an answer that reflects your employee branding. Strengths should be backed by previous experience. If you have a response about your multilingual skills, then you could back it by saying something like, “I enjoy learning new languages and have certificates in French, Spanish, and Japanese. I was able to contribute greatly during our teleconference with our French office.” Keep it simple, but impactful!

Come up with at least 3 strengths and quantifiable examples to back those (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Be very specific with your response.

Weaknesses:

Here’s the crux of the problem! Strengths are simple, right? Wrong! Weaknesses are simple. Everybody has weaknesses. Interviewers want to know how candidates conduct themselves when faced with a challenge that looks impossible to overcome. Most jobs today are time-consuming, high-pressure, and stressful. The recruiter wants to know if you have a tendency to lose your cool in such a situation. No one wants to hire a candidate who doesn’t have control of his/her temper!

The best way to approach this is to state a weakness that you are currently working to improve. Be honest and admit that you had a very specific issue and are working on improving it. Conversely, you can also show how you overcame your issue and what steps you took to tackle the problem. For example, if you had a hard time being organized and on time, explain how you started keeping a daily calendar and preparing for the next days’ work in advance. This helped you reach meetings on time and you had your data prepared the earlier day. You can also mention how pleased your manager was when you showed signs of improvement. Highlight how your employee branding improved over time. See? You are slowly able to tackle this typical interview question and answer round better!

Quick warning, don’t use any generic weaknesses. Stay specific to your skill sets and weaknesses. Never say something like, “Sometimes, I work too hard.” Interviewers can see through this trick very easily! Don’t try to portray your strengths as weaknesses – the interviewer won’t appreciate that you tried to dodge the question. Be frank, straightforward and precise.

Do prior research about the job role and responsibility that you have applied for (Cooke, Saini, & Wang, 2014). Ensure that none of your weaknesses clash with the requirements in the role. For instance, don’t say you are scared of making presentations if that is a pre-requisite for this role. Tailor your responses to suit each job role and back it up with relevant information.

Don’t get afraid when faced with this most frequently asked interview question for strengths and weaknesses. Be well prepared and respond in a calm and professional manner. Highlight your strengths and be genuine in your weaknesses. Ensure that you have done research on the company, job description, and interviewer beforehand. Always make your answers believable with quantifiable data to back them. Use these tricks to tackle each individually and remember to be confident! All the best!

by Talentese Team 02/01/2018

How Social Media Can Help You Improve Your Career?

How Social Media Can Help You Improve Your Career?

by Talentese Team 29/12/2017

It’s the end of 2017, and there are perhaps 50 different things you’ve planned for yourself for 2018. If you are planning to search for a new job soon, then we advise using social media to improve your career. Be it small or large, we all use social media to connect.

Any senior career guidance counselor will tell you the importance of using social media to improve your career. In fact, some of the best firms to work for prefer it if you are tech savvy!

Let us see how social media can help improve your career

Start your own profiles

Create your online presence through social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and so on. These sites are a great way to know people and network sitting in your living room! Seek out forums applicable to you and read content in them. Create your own blogs/ write-ups and publish them in these forums. Speak to a career guidance counselor about framing concise write ups.

Integrate various social media accounts

Best firms to work with keenly observe if your work is uniform over social media. Maintaining uniformity helps in keeping a balanced outlook about your blogs, write ups and published articles. Recruiters use applications like Workable that seamlessly integrate all your social media accounts to your name and Profile. Consult a senior recruiter to understand the process when you seek career counseling for experienced professionals.

Seek References from peers

Please seek references on your social media profiles! Today, most recruiters conduct a background check by simply checking social media to see what people are saying about you. If you have any colleagues or peers on your profiles, request them for a reference in return for one from you too.

A good headhunter from any of the best firms to work for will always check your references online.

Refine your presence

Career guidance counselors will tell you that refining your online presence works towards showcasing a filtered view of you. Using appropriate language, adding information relevant to industry, and publishing work-oriented content is an excellent showcase of your presence.

Communicate effectively

You’re used to communicating in a specific style. Suddenly, unknown people will be connecting with you. How do you work around this landmine? Be innovative and understand what content goes where. Facebook is different from Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram and so on. Use language creatively to showcase your uniqueness. To know relevancy and correct usage of language, get career counseling for experienced professionals.

Apply for jobs through social media

The next step is to start applying for jobs via social media sites. Some of the best firms to work for, post their current jobs on their social media pages. Invariably, recruiters use such direct applications to check suitability first. As you network with individuals from different companies, you might get to know of jobs available before they are posted online. In such cases, applying first helps. Apply extensively through sites such as LinkedIn, Glassdoor and Facebook Jobs. Build your presence slowly and start interacting with people currently working there.

Build your unique content

While this may be a long term idea, it’s never too early to start. Writing your own ideas and content works, in the long run, to place you as a ‘thought leader’. The best firms to work for tend to give such people preference during discussions and talks. You can also attach links to works published by you in your resume/profile.

Portray yourself

Use a current photo in a professional setting as your profile photo across all sites. Career guidance counselors advise that facial recognition is stronger if there is uniformity in the same photo. Recruiters tend to remember a face they have seen multiple times rather than one that looks different every time.

Summarize effectively

Summarize your work profile and achievements in a concise, succinct manner. This summary should be well written, without any grammatical errors. Visit a career guidance counselor to help word this write-up. Ensure that these few paragraphs highlight your achievements, accomplishments and emphasize the positions you are interested in. Ideally, every social media profile has an ‘About Me’ section. This would be a good place to showcase this.

Network with alumni

Join your old school and university alumni pages and reconnect with old peers. Start networking to get a pulse on where they are all working. Often times, it’s old friends who will post on alumni groups about job openings. Attend alumni events and meet up with peers regularly to maintain good relations.

Use online social media to propel you into the next stage of your career. Enhance your employee branding and communication skills by networking and become an online presence! Visit a career guidance counselor often to assist you in your hunt for better opportunities. Social media can support you in fast tracking your path to success. Use some of these tips to start your career!

by Talentese Team 29/12/2017