Each person consists of a certain unique set of traits. Part is given at birth, and part is produced during life. Often, a person's strengths and weaknesses are represented by qualities that do not contradict each other. Each personality has its own pros and cons. As a rule, it is easy for a person to talk about his own advantages, but identifying negative characteristics often poses a problem. There is nothing wrong with admitting that you have negative qualities. On the contrary, you need to know them in order to be able to improve yourself through painstaking activity.
Recommendations on how to better present strengths and weaknesses
Knowing your advantageous features and disadvantages is most often necessary when filling out a resume or directly when applying for a job. Since getting a job is conditional on passing an interview, this is why it is necessary to come to the rendezvous with the recruiter prepared. After all, the strengths and weaknesses of a person during an interview are a significant aspect that employers, first of all, pay attention to.
One of the effective methods is to talk about your own disadvantages, which will not negatively affect your future place of work. For example, if a potential employee is applying for a position as a financial consultant, then one’s own incompetence in public speaking can be represented as a person’s weakness. At the same time, you should try to emphasize your strengths, for example, emphasizing your communication skills when talking alone.
It is also recommended to avoid stereotyped qualities such as “determination” or “stress resistance”.
You need to evaluate yourself sensibly and describe your qualities truthfully. You shouldn’t get carried away by outlining all your positive traits. It is enough to talk about five key characteristics, based on the requirements of the desired position.
When highlighting your strengths on a resume or during an interview, you need to consider what the employer is looking for and what character traits are needed for optimal performance and effective performance of job responsibilities. You need to understand that not only the applicant needs the proposed job, but also representatives of the employer’s company are also interested in a competent and responsible employee. Therefore, you should present yourself in such a way that the potential employer sees all the benefits for the organization from future cooperation with this candidate. In this case, you need to focus, first of all, on the text and requirements of the vacancy (if the information is presented there sufficiently fully), however, it is not recommended to completely copy features from there. Otherwise, the employer will think that the candidate is simply inventing qualities that in reality are not inherent in him.
Human integrity is manifested in its versatility, and therefore an individual who has no shortcomings has just as little merit. So you shouldn’t be afraid to talk about your own weaknesses, because under certain circumstances they can transform into advantages.
In addition, you need to understand that there are no standards, just as one feature cannot be considered completely positive and another – negative. In different areas of activity or under different conditions, any quality can be assessed either positively or with a negative sign. So, for example, strong leadership traits will hinder a candidate who is interested in working in a team, however, if he plans to take a vacant managerial position, then leadership, confidence, and constant optimism will be useful to him.
Negative and positive qualities in an interview
During an interview, we always talk about the negative and positive qualities of the candidate. A recruiter asks questions of this kind not in order to hear “the whole terrible truth” about a person, he is more interested in how the candidate sees himself, whether he knows how to analyze his strengths in order to use them as much as possible in a new job. It is also important to understand how adequately a person evaluates himself, whether he sees his own areas for development.
Three negative qualities in an interview
If a hiring manager asks you to name three negative qualities, don't panic. Everyone has negative qualities; you can’t live without them. Determine before the interview what you will answer this question so as not to “pull it out of the park” while sitting in front of the recruiter.
Don't lie, it's obvious and leaves an unpleasant aftertaste.
Don’t talk about workaholism, that’s bad manners
Firstly, a workaholic cannot be called a full-fledged and happy person. Why does an unhappy person need company?
Secondly, if a person devotes all his time to work 24/7, then sooner or later he will “break”, and the consequences for the company will be unpleasant.
Thirdly, workaholism is an escape from reality. A person, as if he doesn’t want to live his life, therefore seeks refuge in work; in his small world he feels more confident than in real life, which, you see, is not good.
Well, the last argument “against” is doubts about your ability to plan, which are caused in your interlocutor by stories about how you spend all your time at work, including late evenings and weekends. Competent task planning, the ability to concentrate on one thing, the skill of multitasking, and the ability to delegate allow a person to correctly organize the work process. Think about how you want to look in the eyes of an HR manager or future leader?
Conversation with the candidate about the previous place of work. Director of Legal Division:
— I had to work a lot, often on weekends, it’s clear that I was always late in the evening, that’s normal.
— Was there so much work? Courts?
— The processes in the company when I arrived there were not set up, I had to deal with even basic issues myself.
— How many people did you have under your command?
— 6
- Assistant?
-Certainly
— Was it not possible to redistribute work among subordinates?
“At first I did that, but when I realized that later I had to redo everything, I began to take on the most important things myself.
The manager's job is to control processes and manage the team so that the work is completed on time and of proper quality. From this dialogue we see that the manager, at a minimum, has a problem with managing the team. If he cannot teach and motivate employees to do things correctly and efficiently, the team needs to be changed. The second suspicion that such a manager immediately raises is micromanagement, that same management style when the manager checks the employee’s work at every step and is always unhappy. This is also what perfectionists often do.
When the manager says that “the processes in the company were not set up,” that they promised one thing, but “in fact it’s a mess,” you immediately want (rhetorical, of course): “Why were you hired there? Probably, as a manager, you had sufficient authority to influence the company’s processes and environment? Why didn’t they put things in order, establish interaction with other departments or within the team?”
If the manager has properly built relationships in the team, everything is fine in the department, and everyone is doing their job, the manager should have enough time for his projects, monitoring the work of the department, developing the team, and also self-improvement.
Conversation with the candidate about the previous place of work. Marketing Specialist:
— Why do you want to leave your current job?
— To be honest, I have absolutely no time for my personal life. Not enough time for family. The number of tasks is simply not comparable to the level of compensation that the company offers.
—Have you discussed this with your manager?
— I discussed it. What is there to discuss? This is how we all work.
I can hardly imagine an entire department of 8 people who work meekly day and night, and even in a foreign company where they monitor the balance of work and personal life, employees have ironclad rights. Most likely, the candidate does not know how to plan, does not know how to negotiate with a manager or colleagues, and takes everything that is given to him. In the new company the situation will be exactly the same.
What shortcomings can we talk about?
You don't have to be perfect, so you're not "betraying yourself" by telling the truth. What shortcomings can we talk about? Of course, about those that will not harm the business and will not “close your path” to the company.
For example, a person may have a problem with long-term planning (if you are interviewing for a specialist, then this minus will not hinder you in any way), you may have specific expectations from a manager (for example, it is difficult for you to get along with overly authoritarian people), you are weak in Excel (the main thing is that this is not the main requirement for the job).
Select in advance a few negative aspects that will not affect your work in a new place, and feel free to discuss them.
Three positive qualities in an interview
What qualities should you name if an employer asks you to “praise yourself”? Here you need to rely on the job description and job requirements. It is clear that we all have more than enough positive qualities, and if we had the opportunity, we would praise ourselves endlessly. An employer is unlikely to be interested in your kind attitude towards animals, just as you love dachshunds and parrots, who warmed and sheltered 101 Dalmatians last year.
What advantages can be named
It's simple: your positive qualities must relate to business. For a personal assistant, the most useful qualities will be punctuality, organization, and the ability to maintain composure even in tense situations.
For an HR manager, it is important to love communication, build relationships, and generally love people, preferably.
For a PR specialist, such qualities as sociability, desire to show oneself, love of communication, speaking, and interest in writing articles will be useful advantages.
For an SMM specialist, it is important to have a desire to communicate, a love of social networks, and a creative approach.
Interview questions for a sales consultant
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Strengths and weaknesses in an interview
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Strengths of a person with reference to profession
The ability of an individual to implement certain functions given the availability of skills, the proper level of knowledge, experience, skills, and education is the basis of his professional characteristics. For effective management, a competent manager needs to know the strengths and weaknesses of the character of a person applying for a vacant position or already working in the company.
For example, in business such characteristics as communication, endurance, responsibility, discipline, and the ability to behave in crisis situations are especially valuable. Therefore, during an interview, a candidate can be checked specifically for the presence of the listed qualities. For this purpose, various provocations are used and tricky questions are asked.
If a person seeks the position of an accountant, therefore, he must have hard work, perseverance, attentiveness, discipline, punctuality, honesty and integrity. At the same time, excessive straightforwardness, distrust, scrupulousness, and modesty will only hinder the effective performance of delegated functions.
A leadership position presupposes initiative, openness to new trends, activity, result orientation, assertiveness, leadership traits, desire for self-development, self-improvement, the ability to persuade, and the ability to motivate. At the same time, it is not good for a manager to be hyperactive, put forward excessive demands on employees, scrupulous, overly principled, or pedantic.
Creative vacancies require creativity, the ability to work to achieve results and soberly evaluate one’s own activities, and initiative. But hyperactivity, excessive modesty, and emotionality are not welcome in creative professions.
Based on the above, the strengths and weaknesses of a person in a resume, if such a line is present in this document, it is better to indicate truthfully. After all, a potential employer wants to see at this point how capable the applicant is of adequately assessing his own personality. Therefore, the description of negative traits must be approached responsibly, since often a negative quality can turn out to be positive precisely for the position for which the candidate is applying.
Strengths and weaknesses of speakers
2017-07-11
Today, in the age of technological development, there are low requirements for public speeches; managers who do not know how to communicate with subordinates, express their thoughts, are treated with condescension.
Why is this happening? Where are the boundaries that determine a person’s ability to work on himself? Why should a ballerina be graceful and flexible, an athlete strong and fast, a teacher convincing and standard-minded? Many people believe that people involved in wholesale sales or marketing and management development do not have special requirements for their professional suitability. In fact, they are presented! But sometimes you have to wait until such a manager ruins the next presentation of new products from a well-known brand and lets down the entire team.
Criticism comes first
To improve professional marketing skills, it is better to undergo public speaking training without waiting for failure in the development of a new project or increasing sales efficiency. Nowadays, sales representatives and middle managers have to work hard on themselves to control their own ability to use such an important weapon as the word in spontaneous and planned situations.
A high level of socio-political, academic, judicial and social - everyday eloquence is not formed by itself. Until a potential speaker learns the ability to analyze the content of his own speech, masters the basics of proper breathing, articulation, plasticity, selection of arguments and other skills from various areas of speech activity, he will not be understood and perceived by the audience with a bang! Consequently, he will not be understood by subordinates, clients, partners, colleagues. A misunderstood person will not be able to adapt socially and will not be able to become a company spokesperson for wholesale and individual sales.
What does modern public speaking training teach?
- Public speaking skills.
- Basics of speech image.
- Self-presentation skills.
The methods used for training at Biecom include exercises that help improve articulation, timbre and strength of the voice, depth of breathing, etc. As a result, listeners and participants receive the basis of systematic thinking, the ability to persuade and influence the feelings of the audience, sociability, clarity of presentation of arguments, the ability to analyze their own and others’ speech, delve into intonation and motives, and motivate the listener himself.
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Weaknesses of a person that are best kept silent during an interview
It is always difficult to inform a stranger, on whom your future professional path depends, about your own shortcomings. That is why there are so few applicants who can openly talk about their negative traits. However, recruiters never cease to be interested in the strengths and weaknesses of a person’s resume.
They seek to identify weaknesses in candidates that may prevent them from successfully performing the functions of a new position. Therefore, it is not recommended to immediately begin to “repent” of qualities that describe the candidate’s personality from an unfavorable side. For example, talk about low self-esteem or uncertainty, excessive modesty or immoderation, hot temper and emotionality.
In addition, you should not outline features that affect moral and ethical issues, relationships with people, health, as well as qualities that are frankly fictitious or far-fetched.
You should also not show a negative attitude towards your previous employer or place of employment.
You cannot select as a weak aspect a trait that relates to the competencies necessary to perform job duties related to the position for which the applicant is applying.
The best response to the invitation to talk about your own weaknesses is to minimize the negative quality along with emphasizing the positive trait.
During the interview, it is recommended to try not to mention personal characteristics; it would be better to focus on the professional aspects.
There is no need to try to be seen as ideal. Interviewers highly value in candidates, first of all, directness and the ability to adequately assess their own shortcomings. When describing any of your shortcomings, it is recommended to also talk about the successful struggle that is being waged in order to eradicate this shortcoming.
