published: 19 Sep 2019
3 min read | website: www.ebr.com.au
Just like every jobseeker, we always dealt with difficult questions during a job interview. Even an interview alone is intimidating, sometimes when we get unusual questions like 'What is your Strength and Weakness?', it would freak out most people. Some questions are naturally easy to answer but a question like this would take us a few minutes to reflect and think of what we were doing for your whole life! But we don't want the interviewee to wait and stare at us while we sit there and think of it.
That's why we need tips to nail these types of questions and prepare beforehand.
Incorporate your brand
This question is about what your brand attribute is. And if you haven't done the personal branding work yet, it is essential, so that you are clear on what you bring to the table that you can articulate it clearly. Personal branding is just the way of marketing your careers as the brands and maintain the reputation and impression of yourself to others.
Research and read the requirement of the job
It is important to know the full descriptions of the job that you are applying for. Mostly there are full requirements of the job underneath the job add but if there is not, just look for a similar job in the company and look at what they are doing. You also have to do good research on the company, follow their social media, keep up to date with their Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. Learn about the roles of the organization or what they are doing and what services they are providing. The more you know about the job or department you are working, the better you can answer the question.
Focus your stories
When the interviewee asks you those questions, they want to know your story on whether you are a good fit for the job or not.
For the strengths questions, they want to know about your character traits and personal attributes, but you also want to make sure that your strong ties to the job and provide something that would fit well with the role.
For example, if your strength is decorating home and making others feel comfortable, it would not fit the accounting job that you are applying for. It does not mean that you need different strengths for each job, but you just have to focus more on the suitable ones.
For the weakness questions, don't assume that everyone is the perfect candidates expect from you. There are no perfect candidates and each of us needs something to improve. But if you have a clear difference with job required and what you are bringing to the table, the weakness questions are a good chance for you to address them.
For example, if the job requirement says 3 years' experience and you only have 2, don't think that you are the only one who is lacking the experience. So just address the need of one more year of experience requirement, but also back up with the information that you have a master's degree, specialized experience in that area and something that would guarantee to pick up the skill easily.
So, with the proper preparation, every job seeker would be able to easily answer these tricky questions.
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