If you’ve managed to secure a job interview, you’ll be feeling the pressure to make the most of this shot at getting a new role – so knowing how to make the most of both your strengths and your skills could give you the edge you need.
In a recent blog, I explained the difference between strengths and skills. It’s an important distinction to understand, and knowing your own strengths and skills can help you do your best at job interviews, hopefully landing you that dream role!
Understanding job interview formats
With the UK job market the toughest it’s been for a few years as everything from advances in AI to the recent war in Iran hit hiring confidence, people looking for a new job need to make the most of every opportunity.
So, if you’ve actually had a response to your job application and been offered an interview, you need every tool in your kit to maximise your chance of being successful, as you know it will be competitive.
Understanding the types of interview questions you may be asked is a great first step. And knowing which want you to talk about a skill and which are giving you opportunity to talk about a strength is critical.
How skills are tested at job interviews
If you’ve made it over the first hurdle in your job hunt and been offered an interview, the recruiter has already decided they think you have the skills to do the job. But they will still want to test this out.
There are a range of ways your skills could be tested at a job interview. The obvious ones are activities related to the role you’ve applied for. This could include:
- Being asked to analyse some information and present your thoughts to the interview panel
- A practical test of skills like data analysis or using a specific piece of software
- A simulation or scenario that you need to take part in
Activities are making a comeback due to the rise of AI. With it becoming much easier for people to look more experienced or competent on a CV, hiring managers are keen to make sure the person they appoint to the role actually does have the skills they claim to.
Interviewers are also likely to test your skills with a combination of questions. These tend to be a range of technical questions focused around key knowledge, tools, and systems, and competency-based, the “tell me about a time when…” kinds of questions. To answer these questions well, you need to have prepared in advance so you can easily draw on the right examples. When I work with clients to do this, we construct answers using the STAR model – situation, task, action, result. They can also be scenario-based, where you are presented with a situation/task, and you are asked how you might approach or deal with it in a future sense.
When to tell an interviewer about your strengths
Strengths-based questions tend to give you the opportunity to pitch yourself more strongly as being suitable for a role, rather than just explaining how you handled a past situation.
They come in a variety of forms, in open questions like:
- If appointed, what would you bring to this role?
- Tell us why you’re a strong candidate for this job
- Why do you think you would excel in this position?
- How might your colleagues describe what you are great at?
- What activities at work help you feel energised and alive?
These kinds of questions are your opportunity to sell yourself, explaining your strengths and why these make you ideal for the job. You’ll need a good understanding of why you are strong in that area in relation to the role, which means you will need to have done your prep.
Blending strengths and skills into job interview answers
You may able to showcase both a strength and a skill in the same answer by not just describing what you did but also how you did it, why you enjoyed it or how it energised you.
For example, you might describe a project where you felt you performed at your best and describe the skills you used to do this effectively, but also highlight the strengths you used to help you achieve it and how this work enabled you to be fully in flow doing the activities you love. You could highlight any strengths that others complimented you for and what type of work or environments bring out the best in you. https://megburtoncoach.co.uk/new-job-interview-question/Once again, you will need to have prepared so you understand your different strengths and skills, and be able to put them to work in your answer.
Understanding your strengths and skills, then being able to choose the right ones for each interview question, is a large part of how I help career coaching clients prepare for job interviews. In such a competitive jobs market, it’s critical that you make the most of every opportunity.
Get in touch if you want support to help understand, then explain your skills and strengths at a job interview, to give you a strong shot at being successful.
