Follow Me…

Students tell me it never fails. During a job interview they are almost always asked, “What are your strengths?”, and “What are your weaknesses?” This is a no-brainer. Job seekers should always be prepared for this question. As a career counselor, I cannot think of a legitimate reason why any individual remotely in job search mode should not be able to communicate at least three strengths to a potential employer. (I will address weaknesses next week.)

If you know me at all, I do not expect anything out of my students that I also cannot deliver on myself. That being said…

What are my strengths? According to StrengthsFinder, my strengths are Input, Connectedness, Individualization and Woo. However, if I were asked in a job interview, these are the strengths I would discuss:

(1) I am an idea person. I continuously think outside the box and have multiple light bulb moments every day. To go along with  that, I have the ability to gather information and data to determine if  my ideas are actionable, have the potential to bring value to my organization and its’ stakeholders, and, if so, develop a plan to implement the idea. My best idea? My personal favorite is the CCO Leadership Academy which engages incoming freshmen in a weekly course to identify their strengths (with StrengthsQuest), as well as participate in a service-learning project to build their strengths and develop skills sought by employers. The “return on investment” produced by this idea is immeasurable as expressed and demonstrated by the students who participated.

(2) I take initiative. While some people look for ways to get out of work, I look for work to do. Last summer, during a time that is usually slow and serene in my department, I convinced my director that our website needed to be redesigned. With his approval, I taught myself HTML and learned how to build a website from scratch. Granted, I did have help from two part-time student workers who were handy with flash and asp.net, but the vision was mine. As a team, we eliminated poor content and developed new content, integrated social media, and also created new ways to engage students, connect with alumni, and recognize our 21st Century Partners. The best part about this project? I initiated without it even having been identified as a need by upper management – although it was – and it is an ongoing work in progress that I oversee the creative vision.

(3) Resourceful is my middle name. If I don’t know the answer, I will find out. If my colleagues don’t know theanswer, they ask me. Perhaps I sound boastful, however, I just called my colleague to ask her what she thought my strengths were and this was the first thing out of her mouth. I love knowing information. The world is an exciting place to me with infinite knowledge available to explore, learn, devour…you get the point. Some may not think this is such a strength worth mentioning in an interview but I guarantee my boss appreciates me not pestering her every time I don’t know something.

Keep in mind, when communicating your strengths during a job interview, or even in casual conversation during a networking event, you should be able to provide concrete examples or, as I like to call them, stories about how you have demonstrated or utilized your strengths. While I’ve provided short examples in my summary of my own strengths, I would encourage you to be a bit more detailed.

So…what are your strengths?

Leave a comment identifying one of your strengths with an example of how you have utilized it. The best answer, as determined by me and my readers, will receive a free access code to take the StrengthsQuest assessment, based on StrengthsFinder, which also includes access to the StrengthsQuest website and all of it’s resources!