STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES

This morning at 5:50 am, a hiring manager called me, asking to know if I knew ANY weaknesses about my candidate. I am not sure if he had asked her directly, but it's a question that many people struggle with because it exposes one's vulnerabilities.

We have all been taught by a well-intentioned somebody to "turn your weaknesses into strengths," when asked to present your strengths and weaknesses in an interview. Which, in my opinion, sounds disingenuous, as if the only option is to manipulate the truth. The hiring manager knows this tactic and has heard "I work too hard, and care too much" a thousand times. Turning your weaknesses into strengths is just awful advice, in my opinion. I believe it's important to do some self-reflecting to answer this one appropriately.

The example that follows is for all of my present, and future, candidates and clients. It seems that the best way to answer the age-old strengths and weaknesses question is to: 1) pick 3 strengths and 3 weaknesses, 2) prepare the reasoning behind what was chosen, and 3) be prepared to show what you are doing to improve on the weaknesses.

We all have weaknesses, and we will always have weaknesses. This question is really about one's self awareness and effort to develop into a better person in the workplace.

I have my own Strengths and Weaknesses listed below, for example:

Strengths:

1. Routine and Discipline: Really. I am awake by 4:30am or so every day to exercise and walk into the office by 7:00am. Typically I stay in the office until 6:00pm, sometimes later. Having repetition in my day helps me incrementally make each day better. I actually think of it like "staging" my life the night before, everything has a place to make every morning, almost identical: vitamins in a shot glass by a glass of water, clothes laid out, shoes and socks next to a chair, keys hang off a nail by the door, and my car is backed into its parking spot. If everything is exactly the same as it was yesterday, the chances of me fumbling around in the morning are slim. It's as if I am chipping away the little things in my every-day life until I find that perfect routine. Sure, I will slip up every now and then, we are all human, but it's the continual effort that counts. At work this translates into planning each day the night before in an hour-by-hour time sheet to make sure every activity has its purpose.
2. Public speaking: I love speaking with enthusiasm, especially if I have the floor for a presentation. Not if it's on-the-spot, though, I am almost guaranteed to blush if I am called out on the spot to speak. However, when I was assigned speaking projects in university, I put everything I had into it because I LOVED sharing what I learned and making sure there were plenty of quirky jokes to keep the room's attention. If nobody laughed during my presentation, it was a complete failure. I will take every opportunity to have that spotlight. Presentations are my favorite.
3. Coachable: Being only 3 years into my career, I recognize that I have a lot to learn compared to all you senior guys/gals out there. That is why, when a senior-level person tells me to do something, or not do something... 9/10 times, I am going to listen because it is likely that the senior-level advice-giver is coming from a place of experience. If my opinion is different than a senior-level person in the same role, and my opinion is different, I am probably wrong.

Weaknesses:

1. Rapport: Believe it or not, I have a difficult time socializing at work. It's natural for me to want to keep my work-life and my social-life separate... which is a bad thing to do in recruiting because my line of work is all about relationships. To fix this, and ultimately bring more value to my career, I am taking a personal stake into everyone's well being. It's important to ask what the weather is like... and what the plans are for this weekend. As much as I'd love to be heads-down at work... the work I chose is a social game, so it's important to connect with people on that social-level.
2. Getting side-tracked: ADD is a real thing... did you know that gold fish have a higher attention-span than humans now? Seriously. Which makes sense with the 30+ apps that all send push-notifications to our mobile devices. Now, I suffer from this iPhone-inflicted ADD just as much as anybody else... which is why I force myself to delete social media off my phone for months at a time. I also turn off my push-notifications to keep my phone from lighting up for no important reason. If I could, I would lock my iPhone in a drawer at work. BUT candidates and clients text, call, and email me 24/7 and it is important for me to be there for them. This is why I keep my hour-by-hour schedule that I previously mentioned on my desk; it helps me maintain that focus. Another thing in my control is simply eliminating unnecessary notifications, like those from Instagram, Snapchat, and Domino's pizza coupons.
3. This one is old, but I lacked structure! When I was first out of college, the jobs I fell into lacked structure. My peers and I did not have hour-by-hour routines during the work days. The leadership was "hands-off," and "laid back," which it seems like most everybody aims for, but shouldn't if you are trying to learn a new skill! Micro-management is how I thrive. I have to know what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and why I am doing it. That's how I get better. Recruiting (and sales for that matter) is a science more than it is natural talent. I didn't have that structure for the first two years of my career, so when I found an interviewer that explained this Recruiting thing like a game, and told me that the faster and better I get at this game, the faster I will accelerate in my career... I latched on.

So those are my strengths and weaknesses.

The bottom line is that the right answer seems to present itself through one's sincerity, self awareness, and effort. Everybody has their strengths and weaknesses. It is a matter of putting thought into the question. Hiring managers want to know what their interviewee has learned from their previous experiences... not what they think the hiring manager wants to hear.

Do you agree? Do you disagree? I would love to hear other recruiters', hiring managers', and interviewees' thoughts about this particular question.