How to Highlight Your Strengths in a Job Interview?

Job interview plays the role deciding factor of one's future. When a candidate appears for the job interview, the interviewer does not analysis the knowledge of the candidate that he can judge from his scores or degrees. He tests the ability of the candidate to use that knowledge at the right time. The most common question asked in an interview is the strengths of the candidate. In some interviews the question is asked directly while in other cases it is asked circuitously. However, a candidate appearing for the job interview should always aim to highlight his or her strengths.

Ways to highlight the strength in a job interview:

ü  Before any interview, it is very imperative for a candidate to analyse his or her strengths. He must at least select five or more strengths. The candidate should smartly mould his strength in aligning with the benefit of the company. Nevertheless, it is very essential always to portray the strengths which one truly has. If a candidate falsely boasts about his strength, it would on contrary take away the ball from his court.

ü  There is a very slight line between confidence and over-confidence, while telling about the skills candidate should never cross the line as it would give a negative impression to the interviewer. On the other hand if the candidate feels that he has not all strengths that are required for the desired job then he must not lose confidence instead, should focus on the strengths he poses.

ü  The strengths which one chooses must be not too generic; everybody has some unique quality. A candidate must try to sync his strengths with the job requirement rather than demonstrating the skills which maximum candidate has.

ü  The candidate should always support his skills with the right examples; the examples which reflect his skills evidently.

ü  The candidate must keep in mind the ground rule that the candidates don't appear for the interview often, in comparison with the panellist who are conducting the interview. The interview panellist may not directly ask about the candidate's strength they may mould the question in one way or other. It is the smartness of the candidate to understand the hidden meaning. For example, the panellist instead of asking directly about strengths may ask the question why we should appoint you. The answer to this question will be same as that of asking about the strengths.

John and Jack both appeared for the interview of sales manager in a reputed firm. The panellist asks John the question that why he should hire John in comparison with the other candidates. John portrayed his skill that he has the unique style of acquiring the new customers. He supported his expertise by the giving the example of his previous firm where he used to call his existing customers just enquiring about the services and the satisfaction level with the product of the company. He also informed that he helped his customers whenever they require help even if it means working extra hours. These customers would, in turn, bring the new clients for him. These clients are already convinced by the existing customers so John does not have to convince them again. When the same question was asked to Jack, he mentioned all his skills that he is hard working, sincere and punctual and so on without understanding the question. As a result, John was finally shortlisted.

So it is very vital to represent your accurate skills in the right manner. The candidate should find the ways to tell his skills with the real examples and incidents. He must look for an opportunity where depicting about his skills seems relevant.

The points which the candidate must avoid are highlighting the strengths which are irrelevant for the position. They also sometimes try to be very modest. It should be remembered that projecting oneself as very modest sometimes gives an impression of lack of confidence which is never desired by the company.

Conclusion:

The main reason why the panellist asks about the strength of the job seeker is to keep a check whether the skills of the person are in sync with the job opening. They are in search of the candidate who best fits for the position and hiring him will be like a kick booster to their company. For a candidate, the job interview is like a market where they have to sell themselves in front of the panellist by creating in their mind the need for him.  After the interview, the panellist should get the impression that if they are not hiring this candidate they are missing on something. So a candidate must go out there and just focus on his strengths