How To Communicate Your Strengths in an Interview
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Question:
“How do you communicate your strengths in an interview? – Sarah
The most important thing during an interview is to think about your strengths in terms of accomplishments. I recommend all of my students put everything they have done previously in internships and prior jobs into work experience stories.
First, list your work and other experiences by position and industry. Include your volunteer experiences and any college activities or groups that you joined. Now, for each position held, write one or more work experience stories. This is a very important task because it will help you prepare your resume and answer interview questions!
The three elements of a work experience story are:
1. Challenge or circumstance when you began the project or task.
2. Action you took to create a result or solve a problem.
3. Result that followed, quantified whenever possible.
If you can go through this and put your strengths into accomplishments and work experience stories, you’ll be very prepared for your interview. What good is a strength if you don’t actually show that you are using it to get results and make a difference with your work?
If I was interviewing you, I would want to know your strengths. But, even more, important I would want to see what actual results you have received with those strengths in your prior roles. I want to see that you have done some self-assessment to know what your strengths are and that you are using them to get actual results.
