What Are Your Strengths? How To Really Know The Answer
Brett Farmiloe
If you’ve ever applied for a job it’s highly likely you’ll have been through some type of interview process. We all know there are certain questions likely to be asked at an interview: Where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time? Why do you want to work for us? What are your strengths?
While answering any of these can be challenging, it is this last question which often feels the most awkward to answer – how do you balance selling yourself without sounding overly confident or arrogant? You might be surprised to find your Myers-Briggs type can help you with the answer.
Many of us are already be familiar with interview tips such as doing your homework, both about the company and the specific role you’re applying for. Learning more about the company and the position help you to link your answers back to the key criteria and experiences required for the job as well as the key challenges facing the company (and ways you specifically could help them to solve their problems). Being structured, concise and specific with your answers is also beneficial – nobody wants to listen to a 15-minute monologue about how you are perfect for the role!
However, you probably haven’t considered the ways you can leverage the strengths of your personality preferences to give you an advantage during an interview. Through knowledge of your Myers-Briggs type, you can talk about the strengths you can bring to a position in an authentic, focused way. All eight of each of the Myers-Briggs preferences bring with them job-related strengths, but here we’re going to particularly focus on the Sensing-Intuition and Thinking-Feeling preferences. Take a look at the below strengths for your preferences, and if they resonate with you, try to think of or write down specific examples of when you’ve demonstrated these strengths in different settings (inside or outside the workplace).
WHAT ARE YOUR STRENGTHS?
Strengths for those with Sensing preferences- Taking a pragmatic and realistic approach to work
- Learning from past experiences and applying this in new situations
- Focusing on the implementation and application of new ideas
- Generating new and creative ideas
- Taking a strategic perspective when solving problems
- Championing organizational change
- Providing an honest, frank critique of ideas
- Remaining calm and reasonable when faced with emotive situations
- Evaluating and making decisions based on clearly defined criteria
- Empathizing and building rapport with others
- Building a collaborative and harmonious working environment
- Engaging others to get their buy-in to change
It goes without saying that the strengths you choose to share at interview need to actually be true for you and you should have concrete examples to back up those you use. In addition, it’s always good to choose strengths that are relevant to the role you’re applying for.
Also remember that the examples given above are just that, examples. Through feedback from other individuals like your boss and coworkers, reflection on your Myers-Briggs type, and examples of your own strengths in specific situations, you’ll find further strengths you could share during an interview. By capitalizing on personality strengths, as well as skills and experience, you can greatly increase your chances of interview success.
If you’ve enjoyed this article or found it helpful, you may also enjoy What Are Your Weaknesses? How To Find Out The Real Answer (blog coming up next!).
Not sure what your Myers-Briggs personality type is? Take the official MBTI assessment.