Strengths and Weaknesses

Source: https://www.thoughtco.com/example-interview-questions-1210229

Two common job interview questions are:

• “Tell me about your strengths."
• “Tell me about your weaknesses.” 

But how can you answer these questions? Let's practice:

Interviewer: What is your greatest strength?

It might feel strange to talk about how great you are! But this is no time to be shy. Be confident and give examples of how you've used that strength in a professional or academic situation. Here are some sample answers:

• Candidate A: I work well under pressure. When there is a deadline (a time by which the work must be finished), I can focus on the task at hand (current project) and structure my work schedule well. I remember one week when I had to get 6 new customer reports out by Friday at 5. I finished all the reports ahead of time without having to work overtime. 
  
• Candidate B: I am an excellent communicator. People trust me and come to me for advice. One afternoon, my colleague was involved with a troublesome (difficult) customer who felt he was not being served well. I made the customer a cup of coffee and invited both my colleague and the client to my desk where we solved the problem together.
• Candidate C: I am a trouble shooter. When there was a problem at my last job, the manager would always ask me to solve it. Last summer, the LAN server at work crashed. The manager was desperate and called me in (requested my help) to get the LAN back online. After taking a look at the daily backup, I detected the problem and the LAN was up and running (working) within the hour. 

For more practice and to listen to an answer, click here: https://www.talkenglish.com/lessondetails.aspx?ALID=260. 

Interviewer: What is your greatest weakness?

This is a difficult question. You need to say a weakness that is actually a strength. Make sure that you always say how you try to improve the weakness. Here are some sample answers:

• Candidate: I am overzealous (work too hard) and become nervous when my co-workers are not pulling their weight (doing their job). However, I am aware of this problem, and before I say anything to anyone, I ask myself why the colleague is having difficulties.
• Candidate: I tend to spend too much time making sure the customer is satisfied. However, I began setting time-limits for myself if I notice this happening. 

For more practice and to listen to an answer, click here: https://www.talkenglish.com/lessondetails.aspx?ALID=261.  

This video also has examples!