What is Your Greatest Strength? Answer Samples to Ace the Job Interview

How do I answer? What is your greatest strength? What is the interviewer looking for and how do I answer in a way that doesn't feel like I'm bragging? This is self made millennial. I'm Madeline Mann and you'll get my high impact two step formula in this video to answer this question for more career making job search tips from a human resources and recruiting leader who has helped thousands of people make sure you subscribe to this channel and hit the bell to get new videos on Thursdays. In this video you'll learn the real reason why they're asking what is your greatest strength, the three biggest mistakes people make when answering it, and my two part formula for absolutely acing this question. And be sure to stay to the end because I'll give you two examples from very different career paths and experience experience levels of this formula so that you can see it in action. Even if you have years of experience or not much at all or you're a career changer, this formula will work for you. Why do interviewers ask you this question? Put it simply, they want to root for you. They want you to give them great things for them to write down in their little notebook so that they can recommend to hire you. Many folks don't realize that this is the intention and and therefore they make three crucial mistakes. The first mistake is answering by listing descriptors and only descriptors. Naming cliche adjectives that you think your interviewer wants to hear is not going to set you apart. Here is an example of the most common type of answer to this question and it's also an ineffective answer. I would say that my greatest strength is my reliability. Whenever something is needed, my co workers can always count on me to deliver. I take a lot of pride in integrity and I bring that into every role I have. An answer like that is like the kiddie pool at a water park. There's not much depth. Simply stating that you have certain characteristics isn't enough for the interviewer to truly believe that you possess them. I'll teach you on how to be more convincing when I share that two part formula. The second mistake is making it an elevator pitch. Don't refer to yourself and your strengths using that elevator pitch format, which is where you try to summarize all of your top accomplishments with a pre written dialogue. This way of getting your point across will feel rehearsed and ignores the root of the question. We want to actually answer the question they're asking and so there's a time and a place for when you should give them all this overview or as I call it, your highlight reel of what you have to offer. And that is right up top of the interview where they ask you the most common interview question. Tell me about yourself. This question is so crucial for you to perform well on, so I created a free Tell me about yourself worksheet which will show you a fail proof three part formula of how to best answer it. And so I will link that in the comments below and in the description. The third mistake is being too dang humble. I know touting your greatest strengths can feel awkward and braggy, but trust me humblebee, you'll want to focus your answer on yourself. Yes, acknowledging others who you have worked with is important, but not for this question. The greatest strength question is a time for the company to get clear reasons of of why they should hire you that they can pass along to the rest of the hiring committee. And so if you spend your whole time delivering an Oscar style acceptance speech thanking the academy and everyone else, then it can actually be frustrating for the employer because they want to get to know you. For example, if you said, well, my strength is being surrounded by such weakness. Wonderful team. Every day we do everything together and we are strong because of our teamwork and I am focused on serving them. I'm sorry, you've missed the purpose of the question. Okay, enough of what not to do. Madeline, give me the formula. All right Spark plug, I hear you and I aim to serve. Here is the two part formula. Part 1 Name a Strength that matches a K key competency for the role. Take a look at the job description and pay special attention to the soft skills that you see. Take for instance this job description for an account manager. What soft skills do they emphasize? It says here desired skills would include self motivated and a successful track record of making sales into car dealerships. So you could emphasize your strength as being achievement oriented. Of course, if this isn't one of your strengths, don't say so, but if you're pursuing this role, I have a feeling you're likely pretty strong at it. Part 2 Tell a story that illustrates your strength. Yes, I will admit we did do a bit of self describing in part one, but we will effectively convey your value and help them to picture you in the role by giving them an example of the time that you exemplified them that strength. If you've seen some of my most popular videos, you may recognize this approach as using your story toolbox. If you haven't seen that video yet, it has led to my highest number of success stories because it unlocks your ability to answer nearly every interview question. I will link that video in the comments and in the description. So think of an example or a time when when you were achievement oriented. Did you have a challenging quota that you were able to creatively reach? Were you given vague goals or limited resources and were still able to accomplish something noteworthy? Were you behind on a deadline but didn't let that get you down and still accomplish something? Tell the story and this will dramatically increase the interviewer's ability to to see you in this role and have great persuasive points to tell the rest of the hiring team about why you are a prime choice. Let's walk through two examples of this formula in action. Here's an example. Answer For a Lead Engineer Role My strength is mentoring junior engineers. For example, we recently hired a junior engineer who is very smart, but I noticed that she was writing code that wasn't easy to understand for other engineers and didn't follow our conventions. I took time to walk her through why it was important to write the code in a certain way and I showed her one engineer's code that wasn't clean and was also difficult to understand and then showed a different piece of code that was documented correctly and clean. And she saw how it took us significantly longer to get working on the first piece of code compared to the second. I took this extra time to guide her because I knew that simply telling her to change wouldn't lead to the best results. This exercise we went through led to a lasting improvement in the code and now she's one of our top performers. This is so powerful they can now imagine you being a key mentor on their team. Here's an example. Answer for someone who is interviewing to be a waiter who doesn't have experience being one. A strength of mine is that I am calm and measured when things are hectic. Such as I volunteered to manage all of the vendors at my local fair. There was a mix up with the trucks for the vendors supplies and I had over two dozen vendors coming to me with urgent requests. I was able to add, empathize with them, acknowledge their needs, and sort out what logistically went wrong. We ultimately got every vendor their supplies and another volunteer remarked at how amazed they were that I was so calm even as people were yelling at me. Okay, did you see what just happened? Despite not having the server experience, this person was able to take a component of the job working at a fast pace with people in a sometimes very stressful environment and find work from their past, even if it's volunteer work to illustrate how they are strong in those skills. To quote Lizzie McGuire, this is what dreams are made of. You will also likely be asked the what is your greatest weakness Question. I have seen that backfire for so many people in their interviews. You can actually give the employer reasons to to not hire you, which is a huge trap that I do not want you to fall into. No fear though. I have a formula for how to answer that question that is such a career saver. So I will link that video in the comments and in the description. Be sure to subscribe to this channel and hit that like button so I know to make more of these videos to help you find your next job. You've got this wi Fi high five.