How to give a great answer to the “What are your strongest skills and abilities?” question
“What are your best skills and abilities?” is a key question that gets asked in interviews frequently and a key question that you must prepare an answer for in advance.
This question essentially asks you to explain your best skills and abilities in your own words. Therefore, it is vital to dedicate time to prepare a strong answer and practice in advance to deliver the best answer you can with your abilities.
Earlier in my career, I did not take steps to prepare for this question in advance. When this question was asked, I would come up with an answer on the spot and pray the interviewer would be happy with my answers. Obviously, this did not always lead me to give the best answer I could for this question, which led to some disappointing results in interviews.
Once I started preparing answers for this key question, it gave me the confidence needed to answer the question with precision. Interviewers also immediately started to respond positively to my answers, and the interview became more conversational. Overall, it led the interview to be more positive, engaged, and productive.
To help you form a great answer for this question, use the following steps and the example to build out your script:
Go through 10-15 job descriptions related to your ideal job
Make a list of 15-20 skills and abilities that keep recurring
Pay careful attention to the first three requirements on each job description as they are generally the primary requirements
Identify which keywords and skills are most relevant to you and your experience
Make a list of projects or problems you worked on to develop your abilities and skills
List out actions you took to finish the project or solve the problem
List out any results of your actions
Note: when forming answers to this question, pay careful attention to job description’s responsibilities. They are essentially the skills and abilities you need to discuss in relation to your skills and abilities.
Example 1 :
Job title: IT Project Manager
Key skill or ability: Project managing and executing IT projects
Key actions you took to develop the ability:
Joined Oracle and worked as a project manager
Worked with a team of ten to roll out new projects and features
Planned, scoped, budgeted, executed, and closed project successfully
Participated in customer feedback sessions
Used agile methodology extensively
Used management tools such as Asana and Jira
Sample answer 1:
“One of my strongest skills is managing and executing IT projects. When I joined Oracle, I got exposure to multiple software projects that were continuously rolling out new features and products. In this role, I was responsible for managing a team of 15 developers and consultants to plan, scope, budget, execute, and close projects successfully.
“I also honed my project management tool skills in Asana and Jira as we use these applications extensively to successfully complete our projects.
“With my team, I was able to successfully complete seven large scale projects and three minor projects in this role.”
Example 2:
Job title: Digital Marketing Manager
Key skill or ability: Running highly engaging email marketing campaigns
Building out emails
Created forms and landing pages
Build out user journeys
Create subscriber segments
Use reporting to make better decisions for the future
Worked with platforms such as Marketo and Mailchimp
Sample answer:
“One of my strongest skills is executing highly engaging email marketing campaigns. When I joined Lenovo, I was responsible for building out and sending highly engaging emails for their sales teams. I developed my email marketing campaign skills by building out emails, building user journeys, creating forms, and landing pages, and finally creating subscriber segments.
“I extensively used reporting tools to help my email campaigns be better. I also used platforms such as Marketo and Mailchimp to manage large-scale email sends.
“As a result, our efforts led to a 30% increase in revenue generated through email.”
Common ways to ask this question include:
What are your biggest strengths?
What are you really good at?
What are your best skills?
What would your supervisors and colleagues say that you are great at?
Take the time to build a great answer for this question. The answer to this vital question can literally determine the outcome of the interviews and decide whether you land the role or not.
That’s it for today!
Much love!
