Tough Interview Question #2: What Are Your Greatest Strengths?

Most people make the mistake of talking way too much or vomiting an answer upon the interviewer that is extrememly generic that has nothing to do with the position being interviewed for.

They speak about being hardworking. They speak about being a team player or a leader. Saying you are something is one thing. No one oever says, "I am a lazy maverick who would rather follow instructions and get out of doing work."

Telling a story where someone can develop a feeling about you is far better.

And it needs to be in the context of the job that you are interviewing for.

Now, describe a situation where your behavior stood out that would benefit the firm you are interviewing for.

For example, you are interviewing for a position as a Director of a function. The firm's profits require improvement (don't they all), you are asked to reduce costs (don't they all), fingers are being pointed every which way (don't they always) and people are trying to arrange the deck chairs on a sinking luxury liner.

You paint the picture for the interviewer and then say, "I'm not describing this to be critical. It's just the way it was. I met witha number of my colleagues and encouraged them to make serious plans that involved sacrifice for the benefit of the firm. I offered suggestions and was heard by them because I have the ability to foster trust in people because I've earned their trust and respect from my honest dealings with them in the past when a crisis didn't exist."

Or

"One of my colleagues was struggling with completing a project. I offered to spend time with them off hours to help them get through a difficult phase of it. I answered questions; I worked with them closely. I knew they cared about getting the project done and just found it difficult to ask for help."

Among the qualities to emphasize are:

Character
Personal leadership
The ability to lead others
Intelligence
Honesty
A positive attitude in the face of critical coleagues that can shift others' thinking
Great communications skills--the ability t cut through noise and be heard by others
The Willingness to Expend Effort
Dedication
Passion and Enthusiasm for Work
Infectious Self-Confidence

And these qualities have to be communicated in the context of the job you are interviewing for.



Jeff Altman 
The Big Game Hunter
www.TheBigGameHunter.us

JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Tough Interview Question #1: Tell me about yourself?

I have been in the search industry for more than 30 years. I think the second person I ever interviewed taught me how to mangle this question and almost drove me out of the field by speaking continuously for more than ten minutes.

To understand how to answer question on an interview, you need to remember that you are not meeting a friend for lunch but being evaluated and assessed for how you fit into an organization.

Therefore to answer this and any other question on an interview, you need to target your answer on what they care about. That assumes that you know what they are looking for in the way of skills in order to target your answer.

Keep your answer to 30-45 seconds unless you are a skillful and interesting speaker in which you can extend your answer to one minute, all targeted toward confirming the basic information that caused you to get the interview.

DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT SPEAK FOREVER BECAUSE THEY WILL STOP LISTENING AFTER A WHILE.

For example, for a company that might be trying to fill a hedge fund accounting position, your answer might be something like.

“I’ve been in the accounting field for five years with the last three years in hedge fund accounting with responsibility for calculating the NAV for 5 hedge funds and __________ .

Remember: Keep your answer to 30-45 seconds because, in that amount of time, you will confirm the basic information that caused you to get the interview, give them an outline for following up that will allow you to anticipate their follow up questions and prepared to answer them. Plus you will keep the interview interactive, interesting and flowing.

Jeff Altman 
The Big Game Hunter
www.TheBigGameHunter.us

JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us

© 2007 all rights reserved.