"What are your strengths and weaknesses?" is a question many people dread, and a self-rating profile is a good place to start answering it, because it has already done a first sort. Six competencies, three level words: Strong, Developing, Early stage. Your job now is to turn two of those words into two short, true stories. This guide shows how, with a worked line for every competency and a fill-in template at the end.
Use the profile as a prompt, not an answer
The Competency Test from JobCannon rates how often you say you act in six ways: communication, problem solving, leadership, planning, adaptability and teamwork. That gives you a starting list. It is not an answer, because "my communication is Strong" tells a listener nothing about what you do on an ordinary Wednesday.
Remember what the numbers are. The test records your own description of your habits. It is not an ability test, it is not validated, and it does not predict job success. So treat each level word as a first guess about where to look, and check it against memory. Can you name a time you did the thing? A strength you cannot back with a moment is not ready to use. A weakness you can name a moment for is.
Pick one strength and let it show its evidence
Choose from your Strong competencies, but choose for relevance: the one the role uses most, not the one with the highest percent. Then build the answer from three plain parts: what you do, where it happened, and what came of it.
"I am good at planning" is a claim. "When the launch date moved, I rebuilt the task list that afternoon and told the people whose work shifted" is evidence. You do not need a spectacular story. A handover note that someone could act on without phoning you is plenty.
Resist padding the strength with adjectives. "Highly organised, results-driven self-starter" could be said by anyone, and nobody can picture it.
Pick one weakness that is real and has a working fix
A good weakness answer has three parts. The habit: what you actually tend to do. The cost: the small, real way it has got in the way. The fix: what you do now, with a verb and a rhythm, such as "I write my main concern down before every meeting." Choose it from your Developing or Early stage competencies, and preferably not the one at the very centre of the job.
"I work too hard." "I care too much." "I am a perfectionist." Each one is a strength in a costume, and the listener knows it. They also leave you with nothing to say about a fix, because there is nothing to fix. A real weakness is slightly uncomfortable to say aloud. If it costs you nothing to say, it is probably not real.
The opposite mistake is just as unhelpful: a weakness that disqualifies you from the job in its first sentence. You want one that is real, whose fix is already under way. For the spoken version, see how to talk about your self-assessment in an interview.
One strength line and one weakness line for each competency
These are sample phrasings to adapt. Use your own detail, and do not borrow a story you did not live.
- Communication. Strength: "I write handover notes that someone can act on without asking me anything: what is done, what is blocked, who decides next." Weakness: "In meetings I go quiet when I disagree and speak up afterwards, when it is less useful. I now write my main concern down beforehand and say it first."
- Problem solving. Strength: "When something breaks, I write down what I know and what I am guessing before touching anything, so my fixes do not pile on top of each other." Weakness: "I jump to the first plausible cause and sometimes fix the wrong thing. I now list two other possible causes before I act."
- Leadership. Strength: "When nobody owns a task, I name an owner and a date, and I am happy for it to be someone else." Weakness: "I hold back from steering a group unless I am asked, so decisions drift. I now open the next meeting with a proposed decision instead of waiting."
- Planning. Strength: "I break a deadline back into dated steps and flag a slip on the first day, not the last." Weakness: "I plan the smooth path and under-count interruptions. I now keep a buffer day before any date someone else depends on."
- Adaptability. Strength: "When priorities changed mid-week, I re-sorted my list that morning and told the people affected what had moved." Weakness: "A sudden change annoys me for a day and slows my work. I now ask one question first: what changed, and what stays the same?"
- Teamwork. Strength: "I check whether a colleague is stuck before my own work is done, and I credit people by name." Weakness: "I take on other people's tasks instead of asking them to finish, so I get overloaded and they never learn. I now say 'I can help with this part, not all of it.'"
A fill-in template
Write this on paper first, then say it aloud once. Every bracket should end up holding something a colleague could have watched you do.
- My strongest area is [competency], which I mean as [plain description of the behavior].
- For example, [situation]: I [what you did], and [what happened].
- An area I am still building is [competency], where I tend to [honest habit].
- It has cost me [a small, real consequence].
- What I do about it now: [specific routine], [how often], and I notice it working when [a sign someone else could see].
Three checks before you use the answer
- Could a colleague confirm the strength example if the interviewer called them?
- Does the weakness cost something real, and would you be slightly reluctant to say it?
- Does the fix contain a verb and a rhythm, not just "I am working on it"?
If your answers come out vague, the cure is more evidence, not better adjectives. A month of small, tracked practice gives you exactly that, and build one work competency in 30 days lays out how. If you want a fuller picture of what each of the six means in daily work, read the six core work competencies explained, and for the skills side, the Skills Audit is the companion to the Competency Test.