3 Strengths and Weaknesses Questions

2. What's your greatest strength? (update perhaps)

For this question, pick one strength and use one of your "short stories" to support it. This is a "softball question" that tests your preparation more than anything else. Sample "Good" Answer: "My greatest strength is my work ethic. I work well with team members, and I'm willing to work as hard as possible for my teams. For example, as the Treasurer for the South Asian Society, I dealt with an unexpected budget cut. Political tensions between the student budgetary committee and our old board led them to cut our budget unjustly. I quickly prepared a PPT that outlined why the budget cut was not fair and why our organization is important to campus. Also, updated our budget to reflect our new funding status. Won the appeal and got the money back Streamlined budget allowed us to put on some cool events at the en of the year

8. How would a former co-worker describe you?

This is another combined Strengths and Weaknesses question, and it's similar to the one about the three words your best friend would use to describe you. The difference is that you should be more formal with your response since you're discussing a former co-worker, not your best friend. You can mention 1-2 strengths and a single weakness for this one. Sample "Good" Answer: "My best friend from the internship described me as someone who works incredibly hard and who's very interesting and an intellectual. We both had very interesting conversations, talking at a high level about the work we were doing at late hours of the night. He loves how I have a copy of the Odyssey on my desk, too. But one thing he suggested I work on is learning how to communicate that you don't have the time to work on additional projects better. He saw firsthand how I got staffed on many projects because I was enthralled about learning a new vertical initially but then had many deliverables due at once."

9. What peer feedback have you received in group exercises at your business school? (mention integrity and attention to detail)

This is yet another combined Strengths and Weaknesses question, but the context is different: School rather than work. But the same strategy applies: Go back to one of your prepared "short stories," picking one that relates to a student activity, and give 1-2 strengths and a single weakness. Sample "Good" Answer: "In a recent group project, I worked with a team of four in my management class to present how a company could fix its organizational flaws. We got nearly perfect marks, and did really well! Everyone said I was efficient and had strong presentation skills - I explained our ideas very clearly to the class, so we were able to persuade them that our position was correct. I also contributed immensely to our brainstorming sessions and was always the person who did the final check before submitting the materials to the professor.. They said I could improve by not judging other peoples' ideas so harshly. I knew a lot about many of the companies we considered, so I had strong opinions and I wanted to save us time. But I didn't always express my opinions in a restrained way. So, I've been working to tone down my words a bit, even if I have strong opinions."

4. Why should we hire you? (Or "What value can you bring to our firm?") (talk about grit)

This one is a combined Strengths and "Work Experience" question, but you shouldn't just give your strengths and point to success stories. At the beginning of your answer, state that companies hire employees to earn more money, save time/money, and improve processes. And then explain how your strengths tie into these points and how you'd get the company results shortly after you join. "Companies hire people who can help them make more money or save time and money, and I'm confident I could do all of those. First, I've always added value for management in past internships by saving them time - I did that in my FDA internship when offered to take the lead on our projects when my supervisors were too busy, and I did it at Barclays when I acted as the full time analyst when the first year quit. Also, I've made teams perform better by helping team members to get along - one example is when I got team members get along during my management group project from last year. I could use all those skills at your firm and help you earn more and save more."

7. What feedback did you receive from your most recent internship or job?

This one is a combined Strengths and Weaknesses question, and like all "combined" questions, it's tough to give supporting stories and explain how you're fixing your weaknesses. You'll have to state something brief for the "fix," or, if you're using multiple stories to support your points, leave out the "fix" altogether. You don't need to give all 3 strengths and all 3 weaknesses; it's better to give 1-2 so that you have a few "in reserve" in case the person wants more. Sample "Good" Answer: "During mid-summer reviews, I was lauded for my enthusiasm for the job and my ability to work hard for long hours. They also noted my attention to detail and ability to conduct deep research. In one case, I found that we had misrepresented which sponsor owned a portfolio company because I read that the right sponsor had conducted a dividend recap in more daily news brief. I got special commendation from the Vice Chairman of the group for that find. For areas to improve on, they said I should work on managing my many different workstreams better. I threw myself into the work and at times it felt like too much. However, I refined how I planned my day with a dynamic to-do list that allowed me to communicate my how much work I had better. I was also told that I needed to make sure I used the Barclays formatting always."

11. If you worked in a group with multiple you's, what would happen? (vUpdate)

This one is also a combined Strengths and Weaknesses question, and you can also give more of a "real" weakness. It may also be OK to use more of a "borderline weakness," such as a lack of creativity, since this question asks you about a hypothetical situation. Sample "Good" Answer: "I tend to be very structured in my thinking, and I always like following a set process to get results. I'm also good at getting input from others and working long hours to finish urgent tasks. So, if I worked with cloned versions of myself, we would be very orderly and we would finish the work on-time and present it effectively. We would also come up with many creative ideas that could add complexity to our presentation. But, we would probably be juggling that presentation with so many other tasks because all of us might have over committed to helping other projects. But our presentation would be supported by a lot of facts , numbers, and a compelling story and it would be well-structured."

10. Why would we NOT give you a job offer today? (MC maybe but I'm proud of it)

This one is also a combined Strengths and Weaknesses question, but you give your strengths first, and then admit at the end that you do have 1-2 weaknesses that could hurt your chances. Also, you can cite something closer to your "real" weaknesses in this response. Admit that other candidates might have more coursework or internships or something else, and then explain why you still don't see that as a problem. It would sound a bit silly to say that you might not receive a job offer because of your time management skills or decision-making ability. "I see no reason why you wouldn't give me an offer because I can add value to your firm and help you earn more and save more. During my Barclays internship, my analysts have said that I made their lives easier by handling work that they were unable to touch and markedly simplifying transaction-related process like complying a list of overdue open DD items. If you did not give me an offer today, it might be because I went to a community college. However, I am extremely proud of that experience, and I think it made me a lot grittier."

5. How would your best friend describe you in three words? (vUp) (mention he just got return from cvp nyc)

This question is another Strengths one, but you can give more "casual" strengths that relate to your personality more than the skill set required by investment banking. You can still draw from the same list of strengths, but don't use words like "team player" or "attentive to detail" - who would use those words to describe a friend? Sample "Good" Answer: "Hardworking, careful, and outgoing. I've worked with my best friend on a lot of group projects at school, so he knows that I can work long hours and fix problems at the last minute. He would also say that I'm careful because I take a lot of time to make decisions and I put a lot of thought into details, like the speaking order in group presentations. Finally, he would describe me as outgoing because I made friends easily during my first year at Georgetown, and I like meeting new people at events and in student groups."

6. What's your biggest failure?

You can use your "Failure" story here. Just make sure that it is a decently big failure or you'll look silly. For example, don't say that earning a B+ in one class, despite earning A's everywhere else, was your "biggest failure." A "good" failure might be a job or internship that didn't go well, a business that failed, or a study-abroad experience that disappointed. S: • At MC, I was the recruiter for the social entrepreneurship organization, Enactus • I wanted to diversify the club's membership because a majority of them were business majors • From what I heard, it was sounding like an echo chamber and it need fresh ideas • Reached out to many faculty to ask if we could give their classes a brief pitch on Enactus—only a few allowed us • Organized a team of Enactus members and directed them to pitch in different classes • Pitches were pretty ineffective because we tailored the pitch to the classes, which were diverse • For example, we tailored a pitch to an English class but not everyone in the classroom is an English major A: • I noted that we would have probably had more success if we made tailored pitches to clubs and campus organizations instead • Had this realization too late because we were not communicating the results of the pitches effectively • I shared this suggestion with the incoming recruiter and she has since incorporated this element into her outreach campaign R: • This experience taught that communication is crucial for a team to be successful; even if news is bad, it is better to hear it sooner, so we can start working on a solution immediately instead of waiting until the end to tell it

3. What's your greatest weakness? (change to taking on too many projects)

You could pick any of your weaknesses for this one, but the one that's least damaging for the role is best. For example, if you're applying to Associate or VP-level roles, don't say that you have trouble delegating tasks since you'll have to delegate tasks all the time. You could say that you're structured and not too creative if you're applying to a startup or tech company, but it's not a great weakness for IB roles since they don't require much creativity. Once you've picked the best weakness, back it up with one of your "short stories" and briefly explain how you're working to improve it. "My greatest weakness is that I have trouble saying 'no' to requests from co-workers" S: • The group in which I worked was very busy • group was severely understaffed • I wanted to help out as much as I could • wound being staffed on 13-14 projects this summer • certainly times where I felt overworked • I threw myself into the work because I wanted to learn so much • was very efficient with my tasks, which likely explains why I kept picking up staffings R: • Towards the end of the summer, I worked on telling my staffer that I had more work than I thought I could handle • definitely could've done that better since I picked up 5 staffings • remember I was still working after our computers turned off on the last day of the internship

1. What are your strengths and weaknesses? (read guide and update maybe, use internship story)

You should present 2-3 strengths and 2-3 weaknesses and then give a short example - probably one of your "short stories" - to support them. If you don't have one story that illustrates everything, you can use one story for your strengths and another story for your weaknesses, but you have to make them CONCISE. You don't need to explain how you're improving or "fixing" your weaknesses because it will be almost impossible to do all of that in less than 150 words. Sample "Good" Answer: "My main strengths are my attention to detail, work ethic and ability to work long, stressful hours and multi-task, and my quantitative skills. I used those strengths in my summer internship at Barclays. I was tasked with building a preliminary LBO analysis for a new client that one of our directors had just added. I was extremely careful with my assumptions and honest with the results, which the director liked a lot. I also helped my summer group project team navigate our summer project through many, many long nights of work in order to eventually succeed in our summer presentation competition. My weaknesses are that I have trouble saying 'no' to requests from co-workers, that I find it tough to balance the work itself and also manage others and their questions in team settings, and that I sometimes forget to follow up and get good feedback though I complete work in a timely manner. At Barclays, I was staffed on 13 projects this summer. In the last week alone, I've been given 5 more projects. While I may have stretched myself too far sometimes, I could've said I don't have capacity many times. Also, I got my first feedback during my mid-summer reviews even though I would've liked to hear it earlier. However, I made it a point to follow up with my teams faster in order to get more direct feedback."