Mr. X what are you strengths and weaknesses? This is the 2nd most frequent question that recruiters usually ask. But unfortunately most of us don't know how to tackle this question in the best way. Even I myself learned it quite late by analyzing my own interviews, interviews that I took to decide the next executive body of ASME UET Student Chapter and the experiences that my friends shared with me. Now let me explain how to answer this question.
The first part is a bit easy and most of us mange to answer it in a good way but not in the best way. What we usually say is that I am hardworking, enthusiastic, devoted, a good leader, confident e.t.c.
Some of us take it to the next level by giving examples of our hard work or devotion but almost none of us tells the recruiter about the source of these strengths.
According to my opinion the best way to tell about your
strengths is to first name the strength (hard work for example), then tell its source(for e.g. I acquired hard work from scouting during my school days), next give an example to tell how it recently proved to be beneficial for you and finally prove that it will also be beneficial to the company.
Next comes the difficult part. What most of us do while telling our weakness is tell our strengths but portray it in such a way that it becomes our weakness and start thinking Hurray! I caught him, Ullu ka kaan meri weaknes jan'na chaahta tha. Majority of recruiters take it as a good answer but occasionally it may turn to be a bad answer. For e.g. during my 2nd interview at schlumberger, the recruiter asked me to tell my weakness. I gave that conventional sort answer and thought for a second that I had satisfied him but right after my answer he said, OK Mr. Zeeshan this was your made up answer now tell me your real weakness. And I was like, Oh shit, he caught me :D (I had given the same answer in the 1st interview of the same company abd at that time the recruiter had reacted positively to this answer.) Something similar happened with a friend of mine during an interview for a multinational FMCG based in UAE. But this time the recruiter simply passed a taunting smile at my friend when he gave that conventional sort of answer. I would suggest that to avoid such situations one should first tell his real weakness and then give a strategic plan he has developed to get rid of this weakness.Also mention how much have you succeeded in the implementation of this plan.
Hope that this post will be beneficial to you :)
The first part is a bit easy and most of us mange to answer it in a good way but not in the best way. What we usually say is that I am hardworking, enthusiastic, devoted, a good leader, confident e.t.c.
Some of us take it to the next level by giving examples of our hard work or devotion but almost none of us tells the recruiter about the source of these strengths.
strengths is to first name the strength (hard work for example), then tell its source(for e.g. I acquired hard work from scouting during my school days), next give an example to tell how it recently proved to be beneficial for you and finally prove that it will also be beneficial to the company.
Next comes the difficult part. What most of us do while telling our weakness is tell our strengths but portray it in such a way that it becomes our weakness and start thinking Hurray! I caught him, Ullu ka kaan meri weaknes jan'na chaahta tha. Majority of recruiters take it as a good answer but occasionally it may turn to be a bad answer. For e.g. during my 2nd interview at schlumberger, the recruiter asked me to tell my weakness. I gave that conventional sort answer and thought for a second that I had satisfied him but right after my answer he said, OK Mr. Zeeshan this was your made up answer now tell me your real weakness. And I was like, Oh shit, he caught me :D (I had given the same answer in the 1st interview of the same company abd at that time the recruiter had reacted positively to this answer.) Something similar happened with a friend of mine during an interview for a multinational FMCG based in UAE. But this time the recruiter simply passed a taunting smile at my friend when he gave that conventional sort of answer. I would suggest that to avoid such situations one should first tell his real weakness and then give a strategic plan he has developed to get rid of this weakness.Also mention how much have you succeeded in the implementation of this plan.
Hope that this post will be beneficial to you :)
You are doing a great job Zeeshan. Thumbs up :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the appreciation Asad :)
DeleteShare it among your juniors in KSK as well :)
Zeshan Bhai ... You are great... We mostly show our weaknesses in the same way..
Deletethanks zesshan bhai you are really doing a great job...:)
ReplyDelete