INTERVIEWS :Strength-based questions

A number of employers have introduced ‘strength-based questions’ into interviews. They focus on what you enjoy doing and what you are particularly good at rather than what you can do, so be prepared to be open and honest.

Consider your achievements not just in your studies and at work but also in activities such as sports, interest groups or volunteering. Think about what aspects you enjoy and why you are good at them. This should help you to understand your strengths and prepare you for strength-based questions.

Types of questions that are looking for strengths include:

• How do you know if you’ve had a good day?
• Describe something that you learnt recently.
• What activities come naturally to you?
• Would you prefer to be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond?
• Describe your favourite interest outside of your work or studies.
• What have you done that you are most proud of? Why was it significant?
• What are your greatest strengths? When do you use them?

In describing your strengths, you may be able to provide evidence of the skills and experience asked for in the job description, such as team work, project work, communication skills or customer service.

For example:

• You enjoy playing the violin as part of an amateur orchestra.
• You may feel that you’ve had a good day after completing a difficult project on time.
• You would describe yourself as a good listener, who is able to communicate with people from different backgrounds and cultures.
• You are particularly proud of your customer service skills and have gone out of your way to help people recently.

Use the comments below if you can think of other strength-based questions, and how you might answer them.

Have a go at a strength-based question

How would you answer this strength-based question?

“In the work place are you a big picture or a small detail type of person?”

The interviewer is probably looking for your preferred style of working.

It could be that a big picture type of person is someone who is creative; a visionary who likes to develop new plans and projects, whereas a small detail type of person is likely to pay attention to detail and prefer systems and structure.

Answering questions that require judgement

You may occasionally get asked a hypothetical question at interview, where you need to use your judgement to decide on the actions you’d take in a given situation. Alternatively, you may face questions where you have to give your opinion on a topic or issue that is relevant to the job.

Hypothetical / issue-based questions can be used to assess your values, motivation, knowledge of the job / sector and your verbal reasoning skills. Answers to questions like these do not prove that you have the skills or competencies to do the job, but they do explore your judgement and whether you can form and defend your opinion based on a sound rationale.

Here are some examples of the type of questions that may be asked:

• Imagine you are asked to organise a street party. How would you go about it? (event planner) - hypothetical
• What would you do if your manager asked you to do something that you felt was unethical? (trainee solicitor) - hypothetical
• How do you see social media developing in future? (marketing executive, public relations company) - issue-based
• How do you view the role of the classroom assistant (trainee teacher, applying for a course) - issue-based
• Do you think doctors surgeries should open late evenings and every weekend? (student applying for a medical course) - issue-based
• What do you think are the main challenges facing students today? (recruitment assistant, university) - issue-based

To prepare for this type of question, research the sector that you are applying to. What is in the news at the moment, are there any ‘hot’ topics?

Here are a few tips to help you answer this type of question.

• Give yourself time to think about what is being asked of you and why.
• Try to relate your answer to your experiences or factual knowledge. You may not have real life experience but perhaps you have work shadowed someone in a relevant job or have read something recently.
• Try to structure your response, keep to the point and don’t waffle.
• Make sure you apply your own judgement in order to put forward your views and make a reasoned argument.
• Sum up your answer clearly.
• Expect your ideas to be challenged by the interviewer. They are not trying to catch you out, just seeing if you can argue your case and appreciate other viewpoints.