What is Your Greatest Strength?
We continue to provide answers to questions that may be asked during a job interview. Today's question is one of the most important ones: what is your greatest strength?
Before answering this question, you need to understand why recruiters ask it. In fact, it allows them to assess your self-awareness. Your responses will show the examiner if you are capable of identifying your strengths and justifying them. Self-awareness is essential for personal and professional development, and employers appreciate it as a quality. Moreover, it helps evaluate if you match the job requirements. Your greatest strength shows whether you meet the required expectations. It is, ultimately, a question that gives you the opportunity to highlight your skills and personality, which can help you succeed in your job interview.
Let's start with what not to do when talking about your greatest strength:
- Saying something obvious like "I'm a hard worker" or "I have attention to detail" is proof of a lack of imagination.
- Being too humble and downplaying your strengths out of modesty. This will give the impression that you lack confidence or are unaware of your qualities.
- Simply naming a strength without backing it up with concrete data. You need to provide specific examples and talk about your achievements to convince your interlocutor.
- Digressing and getting distracted by going into too much detail. Your response should be clear, concise, and focused on explaining your greatest strength, not telling your life story.
To answer this question effectively, you should follow a structured approach around 5 points:
- Stay relevant: mention strengths that are relevant to the job you're applying for. Before the interview, research the company and discover its values, and think of strengths that reflect them. If the company values independent work, your self-discipline or time management skills could be a strength.
- Back up your claims with examples: the rule of thumb is "show, don't tell." Once you've given a concrete example, your interlocutor can imagine you putting that strength into practice and see how you can do the same in their company.
- Show humility: if you're too confident, you risk coming across as arrogant and offending your interlocutors. You need to highlight your main assets while remaining down-to-earth and humble. Avoid grandiose statements and don't act like you're the best candidate they've ever had.
- Be authentic: when answering the question "what is your greatest strength?", it can be tempting to exaggerate a bit. Don't fall into this trap: your response should always be perfectly honest. Embellishing or outright lying about your strengths is never a good idea. On the one hand, recruiters can usually tell when a candidate is not honest, and if they catch you lying, the entire interview will be ruined.
- Make the connection with the company: when talking about your greatest strength, don't just mention it and move on. Explain how that strength can bring value to the employer. This way, you can make a connection with your interlocutor, show that you've done your research, and visualize how you can bring the results they want.
So, what is your greatest strength?