Three Things

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Another question I received during an interview was, “name three things your co-workers would say about you.”  What an awesome stump question!  You know, the questions they ask to try to catch you off guard so they can see if you can think on your feet.  Typically I do not get nervous for interviews.  I’m pretty good on my feet when it comes to resolving technical issues or finding a creative solution for a problem, but when the interviewer turns the interview into an audition for a part, something just clicks.  Suddenly insecurities pop up and my normal confidence struggles to shine through.  This is when my anal-ness for preparation comes in handy and thank goodness I had been reviewing my LinkedIn profile, I knew exactly what my peers said:

  1. Driven
  2. Can-do attitude
  3. Enthusiastic

Whew! Easy peasy!  Then, of course, he didn’t stop with just one. He also asked me to “name three things they would say you need to improve.”  Gulp. It’s funny, we can be so automatically critical of ourselves when no one is looking, but in an interview you don’t want to your perceived vulnerabilities out there in front of God and your potential boss, right?!

All the interview pundits say that you should present your weaknesses in a way that they appear to be strengths, and I agree but believe in honesty in all things.  My responses to the standard version of this line of questioning is geared toward that end:

What’s your greatest strength/weakness?

Strength: Tenacity and passion for representing the needs of my customers. For example, when the Sarbanes-Oxley requirement of a document for every service created a problem for customers who needed the API activated for use with 3rd party integrations.  Before SOX we just submitted a ticket, after SOX we needed a piece of paper. I worked with the contracts team, application team, operations team and legal team to develop a process that allowed the activation to continue to be not only painless but free-of-charge.  It took 3 months of convincing but legal finally relented to draw up a contract amendment document that would allow us to track the activations in our contract management software without a fee.  This benefits all of my customers, the partners didn’t need to change their code, the customers didn’t need to pay twice for the same service, and best of all, the Customer Account Managers (and everyone else) had a defined process to follow.

Weakness:  Tenacity can also be a weakness.  If I think I’m right, I have a hard time letting go.  I’m not one to blindly follow if I have an alternate opinion.  I need you to convince me you’re way is the better way.

This story that gives them an example of my strength and then how that strength can also be interpreted as weakness.  This also demonstrates that my ability to look at things from a different perspective, which is an excellent skill to have for any role.

Oh! My answers for the three things co-workers would say I need to improve:

  1. Overly humble, never toots her own horn
  2. Better balance of work and personal time
  3. Enthusiastic
Side Note:
That’s not a typo, I did say enthusiastic.  Remember, perception is key.  When you’re an upbeat person who likes to have fun and enjoy her work, but you work with some boring, stuffed shirts … well, let’s just say while co-workers like to work with happy people, sometimes that exuberance is not always appreciated. [Think federal government.]  As we say when playing “Apples to Apples” — know your audience!

 

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