How to Answer the most common question "What Is Your Greatest Strength"

“Your strength is going to differentiate you amongst other candidates applying for the same position”

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Questions related to your strengths are the simplest questions asked to every other candidate by their hiring managers or recruiters in their interviews. But for a lot of candidates, it can be confusing—either they're too reasonable in their reaction or they don't highlight those strengths that most nearly fit the job requirements.

What the Interviewer Really Wants to Know?

The main reason interviewers ask this question is to observe whether your strengths match the needs of the company and the job's responsibilities. The company wants to learn whether you're a favourable fit for the role you're interviewing for. The goal of the interviewer is to make a match between your certifications and the skills needed to succeed in the job.

Your response to that is the only thing that is going to help the employer decide whether or not you are the strongest applicant for the position. That means if you're applying for a writing job, it's not helpful to highlight that your strength lies in event organization . Your strengths that you are going to mention, should not be out of context.

When you are asked questions about your strengths, discuss traits that will best entitle you for the specific job and set you apart from the other aspirants.

It's crucial to show the interviewer that you have the qualities the employer is seeking. There are particular strengths that all employers seek in the candidates they employ. Others are specific to the job and the organization.

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Other ways of asking this question :

There are various ways in which the interviewer can ask you about your strengths. They don’t always ask, “What are your strengths?” but they make use of similar questions to uncover the same information.

For example

• “What qualities differentiate you from fellow candidates?”
• “What makes you the favourable candidate for this position?”
• “What would your earlier employers say are your best qualities?”

By preparing a general answer to this question, you can make sure you’re prepared to discuss the best traits you bring to the table, no matter how the question is asked.

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How to Reply : "What Is Your Greatest Strength?"

How should you answer questions about your strengths? The best way to respond is to describe the skills, accomplishments and experience you have that directly associate with the job you are going to apply for. There are skill-based strengths and character-based strengths.

1. Skill-based strength

Sharing skill-based strengths allow you to align your technical experience directly with the job’s qualifications. When explaining technical skills, it’s important to provide specific examples of how you’ve applied your strength to drive success for an organization. This shows the interviewer you have a thorough grasp of a primary requirement for the job and knows how to apply this knowledge to real-life situations.

2. Character-based strengths

• After knowing your skill-based and character-based strengths you should make a list of all your skills.
• Then, you have to check whether your skills match with those the employer is seeking. The list can contain education or training, soft skills , hard skills, or past work experiences.
• Limit down your list of skills to three to five exceptionally strong skills.
• In front of every skill, note an example of how you are connected to that strength in the past.

This will be going to prepare you for the time when the employer asks you to elaborate on a unique strength, and at that very moment, you'll be able to share examples with the interviewer.

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Here are some key rules you should keep in mind when answering, “What is your greatest strength?” in an interview.

1. Select One Strength

It is easy for the recruiter to select you if you are giving a clear, concise interview answer (which is always a good thing!) if you just choose one strength. Therefore, pick one thing, keep your answer brief, and concentrate on making that one point and describing that one key strength of yours.

Sometimes you get confused about what strength to choose. Don't worry we will be covering that in the next step…

2. Prefer a Strength that suits to your Job

When answering, “What is your greatest strength?” it’s best to pick something that will help you succeed in your job. This makes it more likely for the interviewer to offer you the position. At first, think about the strengths of yours which are going to help you in getting the ideal job you’ve applied for.

Do this

• Look at the job description, try your best to find out what the job requires?
• what’s most important to the company.
• Think about whether the job is highly technical or not.
• Is leadership involved or will you be working as an individual?
• Will you be interacting with customers or not?
• Does the job use creativity or logic more?

You need to be looking at the job description and asking yourself those questions BEFORE choosing which strengths you want to share.

Because the whole idea is to share a strength that will make the company think you’re a valuable candidate and someone they should hire for their job.

3. Know What You’re Going to Say Ahead of Time

4. Explain Why This Strength Will Help You Succeed in Their Job

After sharing your strength, point out exactly how this will help you succeed in their job.

For example, you could say: “My greatest strength is my communication skill. I’ve always been a good communicator and it’s something I have with me from an early age. I saw on your job description that this role involves a good communicator which is one reason I applied.”

You should write your skill on your resume which is going to help you in getting your ideal job.

5. Put on obvious proof of your strength

After you tell them what your greatest strength is and why it will help you in their job, try to show it up with some proof. How? By telling a story or giving an example of how you’ve used this strength in the past – to help a previous employer.

Giving a precise example is more powerful than just saying you’re good at something.

Using the example answer we just looked at above, you might continue and say:

“In my last job, I was often required to manage 10-12 client projects at a time, and often had 70 different tasks going on in those different projects. Being a good communicator allows me to deliver the best of my projects on-time to our clients.”

The key piece to remember here is: It’s always good to be specific when answering questions about your strengths. Your answer (and past work) will seem much more remarkable to the interviewer when you get specific and name real results and numbers like the example answer above.

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Mistakes When Answering, “What Is Your Greatest Strength?”

Now that you know how to answer questions about your greatest strengths it's time to talk about some mistakes to avoid in your answer!

• First, you never want to say, “I’m not sure” or “I don’t know”. Always have one specific answer ready, that’s “tailored” for the company you’re interviewing with.
• The next mistake to prevent is sounding infrequent or naming too many strengths. As mentioned earlier, it’s best to pick one single strength to talk about.
• The third and final big omission is to avoid operating too humble/shy. There’s a time and place to be humble, and a time to be confident and brag a bit about yourself.

This is an interview question where you really do need to be comfortable talking highly of your own skills. So make sure you should be confident when you give your answer.

If you follow the steps I’ve laid out above, you will have a stunning answer for “what is your greatest strength”… so you can get more job offers and avoid feeling anxious when you hear this type of question.

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