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What Are Your Strengths?

December 20th, 2009

One of the most common non-technical questions you are likely to get when interviewing for a technical position at companies like Microsoft is, “What are your strengths?” As with other soft questions, you need to be ready with a good answer because a weak answer could kill your chances of getting a job offer even if you have strong technical skills. Now your answer will be different from everyone else’s answer but there are a few guidelines you can follow. First of all, quickly zero-in on one or two of your strengths but do not launch into a 40-minute oration of your greatness. For example, “On the technical side I am particularly strong at using C# for middle-tier programming, and more generally I enjoy, and am quick to learn, new technologies.” Or perhaps, “Although I don’t have as much experience as many of the people you are probably interviewing, two of my strengths are my work ethic and my ability to work well with others.” After getting to a couple of main strengths, you can go into more detail if the interviewer prompts you, but in most cases the interviewer just wants to hear a relatively quick answer. If you have to think about what your strengths are for 5 minutes before answering, it tells your interviewer that you really haven’t thought about the question much before; every manager wants employees you understand their own strengths and weaknesses. If you have a relatively quick, reasonable answer to “What are your strengths?” this tells the interviewer that you have at least done some self-evaluation. A strategy I do not recommend, but one that I’ve seen used quite often, is to have a custom response prepared to “What are your strengths?” that matches the job description. For example if you are interviewing for a Web development position that lists something like, “Knowledge of AcmeWebDevTool is a plus”, then you might be tempted to tell the interviewer that the AcmeWebDevTool is one of your strengths even when it isn’t a true strength. Honesty is always the best policy in an interview because it ultimately leads to a good job match for you. You certainly do not want to sneak into a job position you’re not going to enjoy. On the other hand, when asked what your strengths are, there is nothing wrong with picking true strengths that are closely related to the job you are interviewing for. Savvy interviewers will realize that you’ve prepped for the interview but as long as you don’t overdo it, it will often be seen by your interviewer as a good thing — you’ve done some preparation for the interview which shows you are smart and conscientious. So, before you go to any interview, think about what your strengths are and be ready to describe them.

Entry Filed under: Interviewing