Thoughts on strength / Weakness question

Question

Hi all,

I'm preparing for an answer to the "strength/weakness" question and was hoping if I could get some feedback on my answer.

Background: I'm an international student who came to the US when I was 11. When I first got here, I stayed with a host family and basically did all the admin work(visa application, opening up a bank account, choosing schools etc) all by myself. This, in turn, enabled me to think on my feet, become more independent, and feel more or less comfortable when facing a challenge.

Strength: Ability to identify what I can do when facing a challenge/problem and tackle the said challenge even with limited resources.

Weakness: Sometimes I feel pressured to do everything by myself. I'm not really good at delegate my work to others, and sometimes it feels hard to ask for help. (There was a time when I had a task and proceeded without asking for specifics, then turned out I messed it up.)

*To mediate my weakness, I am trying to do a regular reporting of my work to my boss and also regularly asking for feedback on my work.

Question: My plan is to present my strength/weakness followed by why I have these strength/weakness, as well as what I am trying to do to improve my weakness. However, my concern is that my weakness may sound that I am not a team player which I think is a very negative quality for a consultant. I understand there are some 'don'ts' when presenting one's weaknesses, wondering if mine is one of them.

It'd be great to hear what you guys think, and any general feedback would also be appreciated.

Thank you in advance !

Answer 1

Hey,

On strenghts, make sure you highlight in your answer how is that particular strength helping you and what positive impact its creating on people around you- colleagues/friends/peers/family etc. Give an example or two to back it up. Most people sound exactly the same on this question, so be mindful here.

On weakness, your sounds okay to me but again make sure you are clear on the action plan and what lessons have you learnt. Here's some additional pointers to help you think about areas for examples for genuine weaknesses:

Communication style: are you assertive (clear, concise) or passive; does your style change when you are with senior/high power people
Managing difficult situations & people: how do you do this today & how can you improve
Something goes wrong or doesnt happen the way you wanted: how do you deal with it? What areas can you improve at
How do you deal with lot of information/data or very vague information: what can you improve

The tip is to dig a bit deeper into your life, school, internships, work experience and analyse what can you improve. Come up with genuine examples (avoid I work super hard, I am perfectionist etc etc) and practice storytelling techniques for impactful delivery in interviews.

Answer 2

Hi there,

I actually think your weakness is a good one! However, your mitigation is not great. First, you need to have already mostly mitigated it (i.e. you don't really have this problem anymore). Secondly, regularly asking for feedback triggers me/an interviewer to think "oh no, I'll have to micromanage". Rather, have a better set of steps you take (i.e. you're better at identifying what work should/shouldn't be done, better at delegating, etc. etc.)

Answer 3

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