Try this Activity to Help You in Job Interviews

An easy way to answer: “What are your strengths?”

For many of us, it is hard to brag about ourselves. It can be uncomfortable to speak about how great you are to someone else because we have been taught to not be cocky and be humble.

Talking about your strengths is important though. Interviewers and employers want to know what you are good at and what traits you possess that will positively impact their company. Additionally, being able to pitch yourself is key in networking.

Knowing exactly what you are going to say when someone asks you about your strengths and having examples to back it up shows your confidence. If you have to pause and think about it, it isn’t as impressive. When you know exactly what you are going to say, the employer will believe you more.

According to career coach Pamela Skillings, there are three common mistakes people make when trying to answer the question: What are your strengths?

1. Lack of Self-Awareness

A lot of people honestly don’t know what they are good at. They probably just haven’t given it much thought. You don’t have to have a lot of job experience either to have job-related strengths. There are a lot of areas in your life that you can apply to the job you are interviewing for. Whether you played a sport or were a group leader, you can pull strengths from these activities that will translate over to the job.

2. Modesty

Like I mentioned earlier, it can be difficult to brag about ourselves and we often don’t get the opportunity to, so we aren’t very comfortable in the situation. It can be especially difficult for people who are more introverted or shy. This is why it is important to prepare ahead of time and practice.

3. Choosing Lame Strengths

You don’t want to choose strengths that everyone else already has, it won’t be impressive. Similarly, you don’t want to choose any that are already expected for the job. You want to stand out from other candidates and give strengths that are of value to the company.

So how do you find the right answer for yourself? Although you could google “list if strengths” and pick a few, there is a better way.

Call your mom.

A great activity you can do is call someone who knows you well and ask them what your strengths are. This could be a family member, close friend, professor, coach, or coworker.

They will easily come up with many great traits about you and also give you examples of when you exemplified those strengths.

I did this activity when a career advisor at my college met with my cross country team. She asked us all to pull out our phones and call someone to ask them what three of our strengths are.

I called my mom and she gave me some examples that I probably wouldn’t have come up with on my own. Sometimes you only think of the basic answers that everyone will say, but those closest to you will be able to give you some better ones.

After we finished calling, we went around the room and shared. Everyone’s family members and friends were spot on. When I shared mine, everyone agreed with my mom completely and gave me even more examples of how I demonstrated those traits.

Trying this activity was fun and useful. It was something I wouldn't have thought to try on my own.

If you have an upcoming interview, try this activity out. Even if they don’t explicitly ask you what your strengths are, you will still be able to use the information you gained from the activity. They might ask why they should hire you or you might just want to use this information to give a final pitch at the end.

Having an elevator pitch in your back pocket is also useful, you never when you will run into someone important.

Even though it might seem like a simple question, we can get stuck sometimes when it comes to talking about ourselves. The best thing to do is to prepare and practice.