Unveiling Your Superpowers: A Strategic Approach to Answering ‘What Are Your Greatest Strengths?’ in Interviews

When responding to the interview question “What are your greatest strengths?” it’s important to be strategic and authentic.

Here’s a structured approach to crafting a compelling answer:

Reflect on the Job Description: Before the interview, review the job description and identify the key competencies required. Align your strengths with these competencies to show that you’re a great fit for the role.

Choose Relevant Strengths: Select one or two strengths that are most relevant to the position. These could be technical skills, soft skills, or a combination of both.

Provide Context and Examples: For each strength, prepare a specific example that demonstrates how you’ve effectively used this strength in a professional setting. This could be a challenge you overcame, a project you led, or a positive impact you made at your previous job.

Quantify Your Impact: If possible, quantify the impact of your strengths with data or measurable results. This could be in terms of efficiency gains, revenue generated, or improved customer satisfaction.

Practice Your Delivery: Be confident but not arrogant. Practice delivering your response so that it comes across as natural and genuine during the interview.

When interviewers inquire about your strengths, they are assessing whether:

You have awareness of your strengths

You have an accurate self-assessment

Your strengths align with the requirements of the job

Strategically choose a strength

Think strategically about what skills will position you as qualified for the job and a good addition to the company. Does the position require client interaction? Communication and relationship building make sense. Or if the environment is fast-paced and constantly evolving—your ability to multitask, adapt, and learn quickly would be good to highlight. A great way to approach this question is to think about skills you really want to emphasize during the interview but haven’t had the chance to talk about yet.

Back your strengths up with stories.

What’s more important than the strengths you choose is being able to back up your claims. Don’t just expect the interviewer to believe you without some evidence. Start off by answering the question directly and then transition into a story that shows off your skills. Make sure that you give any needed context for your interviewer to understand the story, describe clearly how you used your strength to solve a problem or improve something for your team or company, and share the impact that it had.

An answer from an intern which impressed me:

"I believe my strongest assets are my communication abilities and proactive approach. In my previous internship, where I assisted in managing various social media accounts, I ensured team alignment and clarity on our messaging strategy by initiating weekly emails to update the team and solicit feedback. This practice proved so beneficial that it became a permanent responsibility for a full-time staff member."