Strengths and weaknesses:

Interview questions asking you to discuss your strengths and weaknesses are common.

Many candidates are unsure how to approach this type question. While there are some things it can be helpful to say, there are definitely some things you should not say!

However, with careful thought, you can give an honest answer that, as well as highlighting your strengths, also indicates that you have self-awareness – a very important character trait.

Key points:

• Prepare in advance: you can make valuable use of your time before your interviews.
• Script a good response, but with a personal element.
• Practice making it sound natural.
• You may be asked about your strengths and weaknesses in one question, or you may be asked about them in two separate questions.
• If you are asked about strengths and weaknesses together, discuss your weaknesses first, so that you can end on a positive note with your strengths.

Addressing weaknesses
We recommend that you do not offer any of the following as weaknesses:

• Disorganisation.
• Sensitivity or self-criticism.
• Perfectionism. While this can be a strength in many roles, it can be unhelpful in medicine, so, if you are a perfectionist and you are going to admit to being so, be sure you have an example of how perfectionism can be a problem to demonstrate that you’ve thought deeply about this character trait.
• Shyness or nervousness when speaking to others.
• Competitiveness. (Note: similarly to perfectionism, this can be a strength, if tempered and kept in context).
• Not skilled at delegation.
• Taking on too much responsibility.
• Not detail-oriented or too detail-oriented.
• Too focused or lacking of focus.
• Not comfortable taking risks.

We all have weaknesses but few people, understandably, want to admit to them. In response to questions about weaknesses, it is usually best to begin with a truthful answer, and then build the rest of your response from there.

When addressing your weaknesses, draw on real examples relating to either skills, habits or personality traits.

Remember to turn a weakness into a strength
Use this approach for your answer:

• First, state your weakness.
• Second, add additional context and a specific example or story of how this trait has emerged or operates in your life.
• Third, state how you have used this insight to address the weakness.

This second and third points give your interviewers insight into your level of self-awareness and your commitment to work with or attempt to change your weakness.

Here is a hypothetical response concerning self-criticism:
“I can be very critical when I evaluate myself. Even though I usually do really well – and my marks and grades do reflect this – I still often feel that I could have done more. This often used to leads to negativity and burn out. The way I’ve addressed this is to pause and reflect on what I have achieved, rather than on what I haven’t achieved. This has improved my self-esteem and is enabling me to genuinely appreciate and recognise my own abilities.”

And another example, this time concerning shyness:
“In my early childhood most of my interactions somehow internally prevented me from speaking up. I was really quite a shy person. Looking back, I think this often lead to low self-esteem and a lack of confidence in my abilities. After a while, as I got older, I was able to recognise this and I realised it was something I needed to work at. To address this, I did two things: I played more team sports and I read around subject areas so that I could actively contribute something new in class. This increased my own self-esteem, and in the classroom it allowed me to engage in discussions and even to lead discussions, sharing more perspective and thoughts, something I thought I would never be able to do. I can now recognise my weakness in other people and I try to engage with them positively. I draw on my own experience to help others, even though it doesn’t always come naturally.”

Here is a hypothetical example of someone describing their self-reliance as a weakness:
“During my early childhood, I always tried to solve problems by myself. As I got older, I learnt that it can often be helpful to take on board other people’s ideas, or to accept their help – it often leads to greater success, even if I can’t take full credit for it! I now reflect on this and if I do have a task in my role as school prefect, I try to build the best team possible in order to get the best result possible. Although this might seem minor, I did a lot of self-reflection before realising that this was an approach I needed to change. I now step back, rather immediately going full throttle into a problem-solving situation. It’s an approach that has really helped me in my Duke of Edinburgh awards.”

And someone who overthinks:
“I’ve always been a person who thinks and sometimes overthinks things. This has been stressful at times. Over the years, I realised that this wasn’t just stressful for myself but also for my family and my friends. This particularly began to affect me as the workload increased during A-levels when, as well as my school work, I had to prepare for university visits, applications, interviews and exams. To overcome this, it really helped me to prioritise using a diary where I can timetable activities and schedule daily tasks. I found that my stress decreased significantly and was I was able to cope with greater workloads better.”

A hypothetical example of how to turn perfectionism into a positive:
“My friends say I’ve always been a perfectionist, that I have great – sometimes too great – attention to detail. I know that I can sometimes be too engaged in what it is I am trying to do. Occasionally, this means I’ve missed deadlines and it has increased my stress. But I began to recognise the problem while I was doing my GCSEs, when there were lots of deadlines that I couldn’t miss. I’ve had to work at it, but today, I’m far more aware of how to manage my perfectionism, and by starting assignments early, I’ve still been able to maintain quality yet use my attention to detail to my advantage to submit good quality work, and on time.”

Do’s and don’ts:

• Do not list multiple, vague strengths.
• Stay focused on a few key qualities and support them with specific, relevant examples.
• Ask family and friends what they see as your best (and worst!) qualities.

Some positive qualities on which you can reflect when thinking about yourself:

• Creativity
• Patience
• Empathy
• Determination
• Flexibility / versatility
• Honesty
• Enthusiasm, passion and drive
• Collaboration
• Discipline and focus
• Commitment and dedication dedicated
• Respect
• Innovation
• Attention / detail-oriented
• Action-oriented
• Entrepreneurial

Final top tips:

• Do not make try to make jokes when answering these questions.
• Do not be arrogant, inflate your strengths or lie about your abilities.
• Equally, and on the other hand, do not be too humble about your strengths or underestimate yourself.
• Above all, be honest.