How to Highlight Your Strengths and Hide Your Weaknesses in a Job Interview?
Surveys show that the most frequently asked job interview question is 'So why don't you tell me about yourself?' The same surveys suggest that usually job interviews are extremely stressful for everybody. Logically, being under stress interviewees cannot put all the decent ideas together to answer the question mentioned above.
That is why the first step in the process of the preparation for a job interview is self-regulation of one's spirit. Try to visualize your success. Imagine the positive bottom-line results of the job interview and a successful outcome only. Such self - motivation may encourage optimism during the very job interview. And for sure, if you are optimistic, the questions will no longer look like medieval tortures.
Concerning the questions themselves, this point is quite topical as well for a person interviewed. Prepare for difficult and even provocative questions, doing the Internet research on the issue. Searching online for sample questions will help you to feel more prepared. If you quit your last job because of complete misunderstanding with your boss, don't even think of badmouthing! You can say: 'The position wasn't a perfect match for me and I simply couldn't express myself for a full extend!'
Don't forget to list your pluses giving the concrete examples where and how you were able to practice them. Try to be confident in what you are talking about, but not cocky. Possibly, your friends and coworkers can help you in revealing your pluses; ask them to describe you as objectively as they can. Then make a list of the very strengths and weaknesses. And, if despite all your preparation, your weakness was discovered – don't panic. Admit it and inform an interviewer:'I'm working on it'. To err is human; the mistake is to show that you are perfect. And for sure it will sound suspicious!
The last but not least – keep everything short and up to the point, be precise in your answers and of course, show your interest and enthusiasm using the following collocations 'I'm glad you have asked…', 'Thank you for this opportunity, I would like to ask you…', 'Thanks for giving me this opportunity…' 'I accept your answer will be useful for me…'
By the way, do you know that 46 percent of small companies agreed that looks sometimes are the most important factor in hiring a candidate? So, do your hair up, put your most confident smile and best jacket on. Choose the position of your dream and prepare to conquer the world!
Vocabulary:
- to visualize - to form a picture of someone or something in your mind (= imagine)
- bottom-line - used to tell someone what the most important part of a situation is, or what the most important thing to consider is,
- to badmouth - to criticize someone or something,
- cocky - too confident about yourself and your abilities, especially in a way that annoys other people,
- to reveal one's pluses - to show strengths that were previously hidden,
- to err - to make a mistake,
- to err is human used for saying that it is natural for people to sometimes make mistakes,
- suspicious - thinking that someone might be guilty of doing something wrong or dishonest,
- to be precise - someone who is precise is very careful about small details or about the way they behave.
