Your strengths and weaknesses: how to identify them?

“What are your strengths” and “do you have any weaknesses” are common questions that pop up during the interview process. Unfortunately, many candidates aren’t prepared to answer. Why? Most often, they simply haven’t considered the question themselves.

So, why bother developing an outstanding answer?

First off, knowing yourself can help identify what you really want — and by extension, the choices, activities, professions, hobbies, and other activities that suit you best. Ultimately, it’s about getting closer to yourself.

For this exercise I would suggest you dedicate around 30 minutes, put your phone to «D.N.D.» mode and find a quiet place where no one will distract you. Consider this a moment for yourself. Here, putting in a little effort will result in a huge gain.

What am I good at? Which things or projects have I spent hours on without getting tired?

Step 1: Remember your achievements

Take a pen and paper and think about all the times when you achieved something you were really happy about. Write them down one by one (can be 1–3 words about each situation or achievement).
For example, you learned a new programming language, got a promotion, switched careers, won the competition, improved current processes at work, etc.

This is usually considered as a «self-appreciation» exercise as well, so you can feel some gratitude towards yourself for these things. By the end of the day, it was you who made all of this happen. Did you really «own» this experience or just let it «pass by»?

Step 2: What do you enjoy?

When we are talking about work, think about all the things you enjoy doing, be it preparing presentations, working in Photoshop, or polishing new product’s features at the final stages. Whatever you are usually looking forward to.

Then, don’t skip things outside of work that you are fond of and good at. Maybe jogging or riding a bike? Drawing or playing the guitar? Making the best coffee that everyone is complimenting? Planning your day and managing time like a pro?

Step 3: Praise

Take another piece of paper and put the first one aside for now. In the next stage — we will recall all the things we’ve done at work or aside from it and were praised for — be it feedback which you received (hopefully you remember it) or just the things you were complimented for. Write them down one by one as well. For instance, your colleague said you were great at writing, your manager mentioned your communication skills and building rapport ability were second to none, your friend said you were the most structured person he knew.

Optionally, you can ask people you trust to give you their honest opinion on things you’re good at.

Apart from that, think about what your cup of tea is, in your own opinion, and write it down.

Step 4: Compare

Once you are done — compare the 2 sheets of paper and think about which qualities, features, competencies, and skills of yours helped you to gain those accomplishments?

Write them down separately and make sure to ask your “Impostor Syndrome” thoughts to get some rest and not get involved right now.

Impostor syndrome (also known as impostor phenomenon, impostorism, fraud syndrome, or the impostor experience) is a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their skills, talents, or accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a “fraud”.

Step 5: “Draw” your conclusions

Now, after that — think about which of these points are really great and which might need improvement?

You can grade/rate them with numbers, stars, levels, anything you feel like. Be creative.

Done? Awesome. Now we can get to the second part of our exercise.

Finding out your weaknesses or areas of improvement

Step 1: Things we know need improvement

The first thing we would do here is trying to recall the moments when we felt there was really some lack of experience, knowledge, and skills from our side and write them down.

Step 2: Areas that others have mentioned you need improvement on

If you have «negative» feedback from your colleagues, friends, relatives, or from your partner — you can also include it, but just make sure it’s actual (perhaps, you’ve already worked on some of your flaws and made them your strengths, right? Or, sometimes feedback can be not very objective.) Optionally, you can refer to a friend or colleague, like proposed in the previous task.

What I’d like to add is please, while you are doing these exercises, always keep in mind that sometimes the situation is like that:

Step 3: Desired future

Ask yourself: What would I really want to achieve but can’t get down to it?

If I am not doing it, what would I want to do instead? What stops me from making the first step? Is it the skills I need to improve or is it more about how I think of myself when not thinking highly?

If I want a promotion, but can’t talk to my direct manager about that — should I focus on my self-association or should I improve something to raise your self-esteem? That can be anything, from treating yourself nicely and taking some time to gain your resourceful state back to attending lectures, courses, asking for mentorship, training more, etc.

Write down all the skills you’d like to work on in the nearest month or year (depending on how you’re used to planning learning and development for yourself) along with ways to develop them.

By the end of this exercise, you should have a list of skills, qualities, and competencies that you feel are either great or need some polishing.

Additionally, if you feel like it, you can make a retrospective for all of them and analyse how they were in the past, in present and how you feel they would be in the future (taking into account your self-improvement plan).

Again, appreciate your effort.