Your greatest strengths

Have you ever been in an interview where you answer a question, and the interviewer just gives a blank stare.

You know they’re not getting it, the dots are not connecting.

 You might be finding it particularly challenging to connect the dots between your past experience and your next role because: 

• you’re switching roles (such as going from accounting to sales) or

• you’re new to the field (maybe fresh out of college) or

• you’re switching industries

Here’s a formula to showcase your relevance even if you're in one of these circumstances.  

Examples of questions this formula works for include:  “What are your core strengths?”  “Tell me about one of your greatest accomplishments.”  “Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond your job description.”

THE FORMULA

 STEP 1: Introduce 3 skills or competencies you have that are also important to the interviewer.  (Don’t know what to select?  Comb through the job description and consider a technical skill, a job-specific skill and a competency such as: flexibility, adaptability, persistent at solving problems, or self-starter.  Need more ideas?  Reply to this email and I'll give you more tips!)

STEP 2: Pick ONE skill you believe would be most important for the job you’re applying for and tell a short story about that particular skill. The best story will be one where you can prove the impact your skill had by providing specific numbers, percentages, feedback, rankings, or dollar amounts. 

STEP 3: Mention you’re proud of your achievement

STEP 4: Link your past accomplishments or results with your future performance by saying something like “And that’s exactly what I’d like to do here at X company.”

Here’s an example from a client I worked with today:

A few of my greatest strengths are 1) working collaboratively with cross-functional teams 2) my subject-matter expertise in health, safety, and industrial hygiene and 3) my ability to find solutions (vs. just pointing out problems.). One of the times I had to work very closely and collaboratively across departments was in the early stages of COVID. I was working for the DOT in NY overseeing the safety of subway tunnel operations. I started watching the World Health Organization and helped gather consensus among multiple leaders within departments X, Y, and Z and was able to have conversations with key stakeholders to very quickly put a plan in place which included ordering PPE and putting in place blood-borne pathogen protocols. As a result, we had the PPE available when unfortunately at that time, many others didn’t. As a result, I’m pleased to say we didn’t miss a single day of operation during that critical period. I’m confident I can build those same type of cross-functional relationships in your organization that are the foundation for being able to make critical decisions quickly.