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What Is Your Greatest Strength? Answer Samples

“What is your greatest strength?” interviewers usually ask. There are a few key points they want to hear. 

There are a few things they utterly do not want to hear.

So, in this article, we’ll look at some sample answers to the question “what is your greatest strength?” as well as some pointers on how to craft your own answer that will impress the interviewer.

How To Answer “What Is Your Greatest Strength?”

It is never easy to be put on the spot and asked to brag about yourself during an interview. 

However, there are a few steps you can take to ensure you provide a solid answer that interviewers will appreciate.

Here are some important guidelines to follow when answering the question, “What is your greatest strength?” in an interview.

Article Road Map

1. Choose Your Strength

If you choose just one strength, it will be much easier to provide a clear, concise interview response which is always a good thing.

So, it is advisable to choose one thing, keep your answer brief, and concentrate on emphasizing that one point and describing your one key strength.

You might be wondering which strength to use.

In the next guideline, we will talk about the kind of strength you can use.

2. Make Preparations For Your Answer Ahead Of Time

Do not just “wing it.” 

Even preparing a half-decent answer is preferable to make one up on the spot

You’ll gain a significant advantage if you do this right now. 

As a result, plan ahead of time what strength you’ll discuss.

 

3. Choose a Strength that Relates to Their Job

When answering, “What is your greatest strength?”, It’s best to pick something that will help you succeed in your job. This makes it more likely that the interviewer will offer you the position.

So think about what strengths of yours will help you most in this job you’ve applied for.

Look at the job description, and figure out what the job requires or what’s most important to the company.

  • Think about whether the job is highly technical or not. 
  • Is leadership involved or will you be working as an individual?
  • Will you be interacting with customers or not? 
  • Does the job use creativity or logic more?

Before deciding which strengths to share, you should review the job description and ask yourself those questions.

Because the whole idea is to share expertise that will make the company think you’re a valuable candidate who should be recruited for their role.

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4. Characterize How This Expertise Will Help You Succeed In Your Job.

After you’ve shared your strength, illustrate how it will help you succeed in your job. 

For example, you could say:

“My greatest attribute is my attention to detail.” 

I’ve always been detail-oriented in my work, and it’s something I enjoy. 

I noticed in your job description that this position requires a lot of detail-oriented work, which is why I applied.

In the following section of this article, we’ll go over a lot more answer samples.

5. Present Significant Proof

After you’ve told them about your greatest strength and why it will benefit you in your job, try to back it up with some evidence.

How? 

Telling a story or providing an example of how you’ve used this strength in the past – for example, to assist a previous employer.

Giving a specific example is 10-20x more effective than simply stating that you are good at something. 

So, describe how you used this strength to accomplish a specific goal.

Continuing with the example answer from earlier, you could say:

“In my previous job, I was frequently required to manage 8-10 client projects at the same time, with 75 different tasks running concurrently in those projects.” Due to my attention to detail, I was able to complete all of my projects on time for our clients. In fact, I completed 45% of my assigned projects ahead of time.”

The key point to remember here is that it’s always a good idea to be detail-oriented and specific when answering questions about your strengths.

Your answer and previous work will appear much more impressive to the interviewer if you get a specific name, real results and numbers, as in the example answer above.

What Is Your Greatest Strength? Answer Samples

You now know how to respond effectively when the interviewer asks about your greatest strength. 

Let’s take a look at some sample answers to help you come up with your own.

First, here’s the answer you’d get if you combined the pieces we looked at in the previous steps.

Sample Answer 1: 

“My greatest strength is my attention to detail.” I’ve always been detail-oriented in my work, which I enjoy. One of the reasons I applied was because I saw in your job description that this position requires a lot of detail-oriented work. In my previous job, I was frequently required to manage 8-10 client projects at once, with 75 different tasks running concurrently. Because I am detail-oriented, I was able to complete 100% of my projects on time for our clients. In fact, I completed 45% of my assigned projects ahead of time.”

Let’s take a look at some more good answer samples for your greatest strength.

Sample Answer 2: 

“My greatest professional strength is my ability to work under pressure and to meet strict deadlines.” Because of the large number of clients and deadlines I’d be working with within this position, I believe it would help me succeed. In my previous position, I managed difficult projects for a number of our top clients, including Coca-Cola and Microsoft, on short notice. I completed 100% of the projects assigned to me, which resulted in us receiving an additional $2 million in business from these clients.”

Remember that the most important thing a hiring manager wants to know is how you will help the company make more money or be more successful.

That’s what we’re doing in the examples above. You’re not just sharing your greatest strength; you’re also emphasizing why this strength will benefit them, and you’re demonstrating this by sharing how it has benefited your previous employers.

That is the basic strategy for answering the question, “What is your greatest strength?” in any type of interview, whether it is a phone interview or a face-to-face interview.

Mistakes To Avoid When Answering the Question, “What Is Your Greatest Strength?”

Now that you know how to answer questions about your greatest strengths and have seen answer samples for this question.

Let’s talk about some mistakes to avoid when answering the question, “What is your greatest strength?”

To begin, you should never say, “I’m not sure” or “I don’t know.” 

Always have one prepared answer that is specific to the company you are interviewing with. 

The next error to avoid is sounding disjointed or listing too many strengths. 

As previously stated, it is best to focus on a single strength. If you really want, you can extend this to two strengths, but don’t name any more.

The third and final major blunder to avoid is sounding too humble or shy. 

There is a time and a place for humility, and there is a time and place for confidence and bragging about yourself. 

This is an interview question in which you must be comfortable speaking highly of your own abilities.

So, practice sounding confident when giving your answer.

If you follow the steps outlined above, you will have an impressive answer to the question, “what is your greatest strength?” so that you can get more job offers and avoid feeling nervous when asked this question

If you want more assistance in preparing, I would also advise you to practice answering questions about your greatest weakness.

That will go a long way to help…

Conclusion

When preparing your answer, I will advise that you use open-ended interview questions like this one to make your answer memorable with stories. 

Remember that the real goal of the greatest strength questions and other most common job interview questions is to determine whether or not you are the best candidate for the job.

Use this question to your advantage and demonstrate your worth as an employee by providing specifics with some planning and storytelling.

If you follow all these guidelines, then you are good to go.

Congratulations in advance on your new job!

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