Every interview will most likely involve a discussion of your skills. It is obvious that the preparation will require you to think properly about what it is that you are good at. At the same time, however, the interview is equally likely to address your weaker points. It is simply a natural tendency to contrast the two. While we notice that the classic interview question “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” seems to become less popular, its underlying notion is relevant as ever. Prepare a few main points that highlight both your strengths and weaknesses. Even if questions relating thereto are more sophisticated, a solid base of understanding what you are and are not (yet) capable of will give you stability even in a stressful interview situation.
Let us start with strengths: Now is not the time to be shy. Before you start thinking about all your talents and unique selling points, we recommend changing perspectives. Think about how a particular school could benefit from having you in its program. Do you bring interesting work experience? Do you speak multiple languages? Have you seen a variety of industries? Are you a natural talent at uniting and motivating groups of people? This change of perspective will help you better understand how you may be viewed from an objective angle. Once this exercise is completed, dig deeper and figure out what else you would like the admissions committee to take away from the conversation. In all likelihood, you will end up with a long list of strengths that could potentially work well in the interview.
However, once you got your facts, it’s time to think about presentation. We fundamentally believe that a lower number of strong arguments is much more effective than a higher number of weak arguments. We urge you to take a step back from your list, reconsider, and reduce it to the strongest points. Those points may be the most impressive, but they may also be the ones you feel most comfortable talking about – if they happen to be both impressive and comfortable for you, you clearly are on the right track.
We indicated it before: most likely, your interviewer will not plainly ask you to list your personal strengths. Rather, you may encounter questions like “What is your proudest achievement?”. The question is an ideal opportunity to share a story from your personal or professional life and highlight your strengths in a subtle way. Make sure to tell the story in simple and personal terms. Later on, you can add why this story and its outcome came to mind when you were asked about a “proud” achievement: “So when our project succeeded despite all the complications, I was immensely proud of my team and myself. It showed me once again that I am not a quitter and actually grow tremendously with rising challenges.” A slightly more specific question you may encounter: “Why are you the right fit for the program?”. The question requires you not only to understand your strengths, but also how they may fit into the school’s profile. It is essential that you do thorough research on the values of your school, its beliefs and student body. Link your strengths to the school and leave no doubt that you understand what students it is looking for: “I believe that I have a talent for inspiring people about issues that I deeply care about. Precisely because the school seeks to impact its students and see its students impact the world, I feel like my personality is a great match and I would be delighted to contribute my part to the inspirational spirit.”
Of course, we have to talk about weaknesses, too. While they initially have a negative connotation, in your weaknesses lies great power. Exposing them to the interviewer in an honest manner demonstrates self-reflection, maturity, and integrity. Do not get us wrong though. Not every weakness is up for disclosure and neither do we believe that you would feel comfortable being an entirely open book. The truth lies in the middle. Like we did for our strengths, we want to list our weaknesses and distill them to those that are worth sharing. Again, this may be a solid base for any challenging questions you may encounter: “Have you ever been disappointed in yourself?”. The question prompts you to share a story revealing imperfections. Generally, it is advisable to highlight two aspects. The imperfection itself and the lesson learnt from it: “I had worked incredibly hard on the project, trying to get every detail right. In the end, I had to find out that the customer simply had a different understanding. I lost track of the bigger picture and got lost on the micro level while I should have been more in touch with our customer.”’
With sharing some of your weaknesses, you may opt to offer immediate fixes. For example, imagine yourself disclosing that you do not yet feel fully capable of managing teams. You could explain your point with an illustrative example to tie in the interviewer. You may then choose to express how you see yourself improving: “I realize I need to work on my management skills. I am really motivated to take management classes during the program to learn the right techniques and understand what it takes to get better at it.” Keep in mind that the whole purpose of an MBA program is for you to learn something new. The admissions committee is fully aware of that and may be excited to hear specifically, how the program can help you become a better working professional.
We hope you found our tips on the strengths and weaknesses questions of your MBA interview helpful. Stay tuned for our Part 3 in which we will focus on questions regarding your personality.