Most Frequent Interview Question: What are your greatest strengths’?

It is important to sound confidently natural without bragging Stay humble and adopt a clinical stance While expressing these.

It is important to focus on those attributes which will qualify you for the job. Create an honest list of what you think are your strengths or weaknesses and then select those which you can back up with examples from academic/personal life. You do not want your credibility to take a nose dive if you cannot justify the strength. You State for the interviewer, it is just a claim, you will have to make it believable.

Here is an exercise worth doing before any interview Make a list of your skills, dividing them into three categories:

Knowledge-based skills

Amassed through education and other experiences (eg, languages, courses, degrees, training, computer skills and technical ability)

Transferable Skills

The moveable skills that you developed from your experiences and can be applied to effective use as it is or in a modified manner (eg, people skill, communication skills, analytical problem solving, time management skills)

Personal Traits

The qualities which are unique to you and set you apart as a person (eg, flexible, dependable, friendly, innovative, expressive, punctual, a team player, etc). Once you’re done compiling this list, pick out three to five from each category to match the requirements of the job and possible expectations of the recruiter

Example

“My strength is the ability to consider the bigger picture and consequently break it do in smaller more manageable tasks I assess the goal I have to achieve, say before this quarter ends, and then work out what I need to do and /or complete on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. This not only makes me efficient at my work but also rewards me with a regular sense of achievement.

Furnishing such examples allows the interviewer, in yet another way, to visualize you in the role.

“One of the greatest skills that I’ve picked up during my education is sound analytical skills

Coupled with an integrated sense of planning, it allows me to manage my work systematically and at the same time be dynamic enough to deal with unexpected and unplanned situations. I try not to let my organizational skills clash with my flexibility”