How to Ace a Strength-based Interview

We can define a strength as something that you are good at and like doing. When a candidate gets a job aligned with their strengths, it’s a win-win situation. On the one hand, employers have someone who is capable and motivated. On the other hand, professionals are in a line of work where they can excel and find fulfillment.

On this basis, it’s no wonder that businesses are looking to assess candidates based on their strengths during the recruitment process. Strength-based interviews use questions that prompt candidates to speak about their skills and preferences, enabling interviewers to make informed hiring decisions. While these questions vary, you can use a best practice approach to prepare for a strength-based interview and answer in a relevant way. Here’s how.

Firstly, we suggest starting by getting clear on your strengths. You can do this by asking questions that will allow you to deepen your understanding of where you excel and what you enjoy. Here are some examples:

• What are your biggest career wins? Which skills enabled you to achieve them?
• Which tasks and activities have you enjoyed the most? What skills did you need to use in them?
• Which job do you feel wasn’t a good fit for you? Which projects did you enjoy the least?

Once you make an initial list, you will notice that there are patterns emerging. For example, you may find that you love work that involves interpersonal skills, while analytical work isn’t your forte.

Then, focus on the strongest emerging patterns further. Consider how you can define these strengths. For example, it may be that verbal communication, presentation, and public speaking skills are a strength of yours, while you don’t really enjoy long-form writing. Make sure you reach this level of detail, as it is key to formulating successful answers.

Top tip: I suggest validating your potential strengths with current or ex-colleagues, friends, and family. You can do this by asking them what they feel are your strongest points. If they provide a very different perspective, go back and review your list, as an external perspective can provide valuable insights.

Then, show colleagues and family your list and ask them their opinion again. At this point, it should be easy to reach a consensus. In any case, make the final decision by yourself to ensure you feel comfortable and confident with your list – you know yourself better than anyone else.

After deep-diving into your key strengths, try to broaden your understanding of what suits you when it comes to the world of work. While there will always be potential questions you haven’t thought about, this process can provide you with a solid foundation to answer most of them.

For example:

• Do you prefer working in a team or independently?
• Do you work in a highly structured or less structured way?
• Do you prefer a faster or slower pace of work?

Once you have achieved clarity through the above exercise, move on to describe your skills and preferences in more detail. This step is crucial, as it will serve as the basis for your answers. You can do this by shifting from the what to the why, how, when, and where. For example, if public speaking is a strength of yours, think about why it suits you, how you approach it, and what makes you a successful public speaker.

The possible strength-based questions you could be asked during an interview are limitless. With this in mind, writing a guide on how to answer each one of them wouldn’t make sense. Instead, I will share with you how to predict strength-based questions before each interview, and how to answer any question that may come up.

Before any upcoming interview, start preparing by using all the information you can access about the job, the employer, and the industry. The job description can be your best friend in this process. Start by scanning it to identify the candidate profile the employer is looking for. What are the key skills someone needs to succeed in the job? What working environment would be ideal? What would motivate the perfect candidate?

For example, if you are applying for a social media manager position with a start-up, you may find that the employer is looking for someone with strong branding and content creation skills, who loves working with Instagram and Tik Tok, and enjoys a fast-paced and unstructured environment.

Then, move on to the employer and the industry. The company website can be a great resource here, but don’t forget to check Glassdoor’s company reviews, too. Focus on the employer’s values, mission, and vision, however, keep in mind any information that you can find about the culture, too. Hiring managers are always looking for a strong cultural fit, so make sure you identify the most important elements, as it will allow you to prepare accordingly.

Lastly, most companies operate in line with their industry. This can be an easy and fast way to gain some insights that would be accurate in most cases. For example, financial institutions tend to be conservative while tech companies usually adopt a more progressive culture.

Top tip: Connecting with a current or ex-employee of the business with experience in a similar job can provide invaluable insights. The easiest and fastest way to do this may be through a professional networking tool, such as LinkedIn. Look for people who match your criteria, connect with them, and ask them for some advice. For best results, make sure you offer something in return to create a win-win situation.

Once you’ve gained a good understanding of what the employer is looking for, you can identify the most relevant strengths to talk about in your interview. Of course, we always recommend answering interview questions truthfully, as it’s the only way to get your best job. However, it is key to tailor your answers to the employer by providing valuable insights and omitting redundant information.

On this note, you may be happy to hear that there is a best practice formula that you can use to answer any strength-based question. A common mistake that unprepared candidates make is providing short answers that lack depth. Some other candidates get carried away and provide a lot of information, some of which isn’t relevant. You can avoid this by understanding what employers are looking for and adopting a relevant structure.

Interviewers want to hear what you can do, what you like doing, and how you do it. An answer tackling all three perspectives is complete, as it gives hiring managers and recruiters an understanding of your skills, motivators, and personality. Plus, it can make your answer more convincing and compelling.

On this basis, I would suggest using the following framework:

• What: Describe your strength in a specific and relevant way. If you want to talk about relationship management, what does this mean to you? This part can take approx. 15 seconds.
• Why: For example, why does relationship management suit you? This part demonstrates your rationale, motivation, and thought process. Also, it can make your answer sound more relatable, valid, and reliable. This part of the answer should take approx. 15-30 seconds.

How/when/where: This part is the meat and showcases your approach in relation to the strength discussed. For example, if your strength is relationship management, what are the key steps you take to manage relationships successfully? This part can be more detailed and typically takes 60 – 90 seconds.

There are two types of strength-based interview questions, open and closed ones. Open questions allow a candidate to answer any way they want. On the other hand, closed questions only allow someone to select between a specific number of options. Here are some examples along with advice on how to answer them.

What is your biggest career accomplishment?

Employers who ask this question are interested in three things. Firstly, they want to understand what you have achieved in your career to date, as all hiring managers are looking for a high-achiever. Then, they are looking to understand what you see as your biggest achievement. Of course, they would prefer a candidate whose achievements are relevant to the role. Lastly, they seek to understand if the strengths that led you to your achievements would be useful to them.

If you have applied for a sales manager role, you may want to speak about a time when you managed to identify, approach, and acquire new clients for a past employer, surpassing your quota and increasing their revenue. Along the way, you can also explain that you used your communication, problem-solving, and negotiation skills to achieve these results.

What motivates you the most?

If a hiring manager or recruiter asks about your motivators, they are looking to see if you are a good fit for the role and business. Each position comes with certain responsibilities and every company and team has its own unique culture. The perfect answer would be aligned with the vacancy, showcasing your keen interest in working with the employer from this role.

Let’s consider our sales manager example. It may be that the role requires liaising with prospects, building trust, offering relevant solutions, and converting them to clients. Also, it is likely that such a role would entail a degree of competitiveness. Based on this information, you could explain that you are motivated by liaising with prospects and helping them solve their problems. You could also say that you enjoy some healthy competition at work.

Do you prefer conceptual high-level work or detailed and analytical tasks?

This is a closed strength-focused question. In this case, employers are looking to understand your working style. If the hiring manager is looking for a strategic candidate for a more senior role, it is likely that conceptual work would be appreciated. On the other hand, a more junior role with a focus on technical work is likely to require strong analytical skills.

On this basis, there is no right or wrong answer. However, candidates should focus their answers in a way that makes them relevant. For example, if you are strong at both conceptual and analytical work, put the emphasis on what the hiring manager needs for this role.