Applying For a Job: Stating Your Strengths and Weaknesses

A friend who's applying for a job asked me the best way to state strengths and weaknesses on a job application, so I thought I'd make a blog post out of it.

The first step, of course, is to put down your strengths and weaknesses. The Lubbock Works site has some good tips on doing this.

The next step is rewording the weaknesses so that they don't sound like weaknesses, but opportunities. While strengths may be put down as they are, weaknesses need to be stated in a positive way so they become an even greater incentive for the potential employer to call you for the interview.

The first thing to understand is that everything can be stated in many different ways. Each way puts a different shade of meaning to what is being said. For example, "short-tempered" may also be stated as "impatient". Which word has a lesser negative connotation?

Therefore invest in a good thesaurus. Word's thesaurus is pretty good but it only gives you synonyms and antonyms. Roget's thesaurus, on the other hand, allows you to search for words by concept. Use the thesaurus to replace words that have strongly negative connotations to ones that border on the positive.

Next, express your weaknesses in sentences, preferably qualifying them with adverbs, such as "sometimes", "often", "occasionally", etc.

For example, "I am often impatient" sounds better than "I am impatient". This is because "I am impatient" has the hidden adverb "always" in it. Such is language.

Now look for ways to say just why you have that weakness and whom it impacts, such that the weakness is a strength taken to extreme.

Sticking with our "impatient" example, you may say:
"I am often impatient with those who do not live up to their potential."

There you go, you're already speaking like a manager and not a mere employee.

Some more examples of weaknesses that may be expressed differently are given below:

Weakness: Procrastination
Better expressed as: delay / hesitation
Impact: "My bias for action sometimes leads to unproductive activity, thus delaying the start of new projects."

Weakness: Lack of confidence
Better expressed as: hesitation
Impact: "My desire to know everything about a subject before I act sometimes causes me to hesitate before taking on a new project."

In both the above examples, note the use of the passive voice to deflect attention from you to the weakness itself. Thus, our "impatient" example may be refined even further to:
"My desire to mentor subordinates to reach their full potential sometimes leads to impatience"

If you feel "mentor" is too pompous a word, you may replace it with "motivate".

Once you have your weaknesses expressed as strengths taken to the extreme, give an action plan for reducing or eliminating the weakness.

Thus, your application may read:

Weakness 1:
"My desire to motivate subordinates to reach their full potential sometimes leads to impatience"

Action Plan:
Whenever I feel impatient, I try to take time out to better express to the subordinate my conviction that he / she has the capability to do what is required.

Weakness 2:
"My bias for action sometimes leads to unproductive activity, thus delaying the start of new projects."

Action Plan:
I document my daily activities to check if I am engaged in unproductive activity rather than action.

Putting down your strengths, weaknesses and action plan is useful even if the application itself doesn't call for such documentation. You can be sure somewhere along the application process you will be asked about your strengths and weaknesses. Some employers, for example, ask the question at the interview stage. Some make it a part of a pre-interview or post-interview (technical / personal test) phase.

If you have any question or are facing difficulty with a particular weakness ("how do I give a positive spin on sheer laziness", for example) leave a comment or email me directly at deepakmorris at gmail dot com.

Deepak