“Name 3 of your qualities and 3 faults” is a question that has stood the test of time. You will have little chance of missing it, which is why it is better to be prepared. What can you answer during the job interview? Here is how to avoid the pitfalls and turn this question to your advantage.
What are the 3 qualities to give in a job interview?
When asking you about your three qualities and three faults in a job interview, the recruiter’s goal is to see if your personality will fit with the company’s values and dynamics.
So you will have understood, that to score points in a job interview, you must reveal yourself in your best light while remaining true. To make the difference, focus on your behavioral skills, otherwise known as soft skills. This is the new hobby of recruiters.
You should also be careful not to give your interviewer too many qualities. If he asks you for a specific number, ” name three qualities “, just list what he is asking you. No more, no less. If the question is open-ended: “Name your qualities “, give one, two, or even three qualities maximum to your interviewer. By giving more qualities to the recruiter, you would come across as too sure of yourself.
Below are 5 qualities that recruiters appreciate, make your choice and mention 3 of them in a job interview:
- Optimism: Emphasize that you always see the glass as half full rather than half empty. You see the bright side of things and have a solution for everything.
- Adaptability: In companies, changes in strategy and organization are permanent. If you are flexible and adaptable, you will score points with the recruiter. Don’t hesitate to illustrate your point with a recent change in your current company.
- Curiosity: You can learn and train yourself on new techniques or new processes. The recruiter will see in you a candidate capable of acquiring new skills and evolving in new positions internally.
- Good interpersonal skills: you know how to create links with others, and you are comfortable during meetings. In certain positions that require working in project mode, this is a key quality! The same applies if you are aiming for managerial positions.
- Conviction: a convinced person is convincing. A reassured recruiter will want to hire you. Show that you love what you do and that you have a perfect command of your subject.
- Autonomy: Being able to get by on your own, take initiative, and lead a project alone is a quality highly valued by recruiters. This aspect is all the more important with the development of remote and/or asynchronous work (when everyone does not work the same hours): managers must know that they can trust their teams.
- Organization: this is a timeless expectation of recruiters, but it becomes even more important with more autonomous forms of work, such as teleworking. Some positions also require even more rigorous organization: managers, project managers, and, more generally, all those requiring juggling between different missions.
- Learning capacity: in an increasingly uncertain world, technical skills become obsolete very quickly. What matters is no longer so much the candidate’s mastery of a particular skill at a given time but their ability to learn continuously, to quickly grasp subjects that they have not yet mastered, and to quickly understand the basics of a new field.
- Empathy: This is a very useful quality when you find yourself working in a team. Even more so when you have to supervise one. It is therefore almost essential for a management position, where knowing how to listen to others and put yourself in their shoes can defuse many conflict situations.
- Problem-solving skills: This quality is highly valued by recruiters. It shows that the candidate does not just follow a script and apply the methods he has been taught, that he shows initiative, can think and analyze, and is proactive.
- Critical thinking: it allows you to constantly question yourself, and to identify what is not working in your work or what is likely to cause problems. Combined with analytical thinking and the capacity for innovation, it allows you to propose operational solutions.
- Leadership: this skill is increasingly essential for management positions and is very useful for all project management missions, requiring team building. Leadership allows you to get the people around you on board with a project through your strength of conviction and argumentation as well as your ability to generate enthusiasm.
To find out more, here is a list of 15 professional qualities to succeed in your job interview.
Tip: Use what people around you (e.g. your peers, team, or manager) say about you. This will also show that you are attentive to feedback from others.
What are the 3 flaws to give to shine in a job interview?
As is the case for qualities, the recruiter will surely ask you about your faults during the job interview.
By asking yourself “Name three flaws?”, the goal is the same as for the three qualities listed: to learn a little more about you and to check your compatibility with the position and the company.
Don’t rattle off an exhaustive list of flaws, or you’ll come across as a problem candidate. One or two flaws are enough to characterize you. List three if the recruiter asks you for three specifically.
⚠️ Exit the faults which are disguised qualities like “I am too perfectionist” or “I am too dynamic”… This is seen and reviewed by recruiters.
Below is a list of 4 flaws to choose from that you can state without fear in a job interview. Select the ones that best characterize you.
- I am ambitious: for a recruiter, having ambition is rather positive. It demonstrates the candidate’s ability to have self-confidence and to want to perform in the long term. On condition of course that they do not want to kill their father and mother to satisfy this ambition.
- I am impatient: the impatient candidate will tend to perform his tasks quickly and will quickly find solutions. Even if it means making mistakes sometimes. But failure is not an end in itself and can be transformed into a lever for success.
- I have a strong character: this notion suggests that you will be able to take the leadership of a project and/or a team or that you will assert yourself and will not give up easily. In an interview, associate this defect with courage and risk-taking, two highly appreciated virtues.
- I am a gourmand: expressing one’s flaws with a bit of humor can be judicious. Cooking brings together many French people and evoking one’s gourmandise is a clever way of sharing one’s appetite for new and different projects.
- I am shy: This is rarely a deal breaker for a job. While shy people need more time to build relationships, they can achieve deeper relationships. Even in positions that are perceived as extroverted, it can be an asset. For example, a shy salesperson can let their prospect talk more and listen better than a more outgoing salesperson, which will ensure good results.
- I am stubborn: this is the extreme version of tenacity, a quality highly sought after by companies. People with these characteristics persist until they succeed. Be careful, however: stubbornness sometimes prevents you from realizing that a project is going in the wrong direction or is doomed to failure. It is then better to be able to highlight your lucidity to compensate.
- I need to control everything: this shows a certain perfectionism and a serious commitment to one’s work. The recruiter may think that a person who seeks to control everything will be reliable and that it will be possible to entrust them with a project from start to finish without relying on the work of others. It is still necessary to succeed in reassuring them about their ability to work in a team and to delegate.
- I lack diplomacy: being too direct can cause conflicts. But this frankness can also lead to relationships of trust, based on transparency, a clear framework, and direct and constructive exchanges. Be careful to reassure the recruiter about your ability to integrate into a team. Furthermore, this can be a problem in large companies, where relationships are more civilized.
What are the flaws that scare recruiters away? Not all truths are good to tell. Don’t be fooled into admitting some nasty flaws that could give a bad image of you to your future employer. Among the flaws not to admit, here are some examples: aggressiveness, lack of rigor, and pretension.
Our advice: for a fault to be constructive, try to put a professional failure into perspective with a trait of your character and bounce back on an area for improvement.
To find out more, here are the top 10 professional faults for a job interview.
3 qualities and 3 faults in an interview: what not to do!
When the recruiter asks you to list your strengths and weaknesses during the interview, do not answer “none”. Or worse, do not answer at all. This question is not asked by chance.
Your interviewer is trying to assess your adaptability within the company: will you be in line with the values defended? Will you stay for a long time?
He will check that your temperament is compatible with your future manager and the members of your team. Are you a rather autonomous profile? Are you in a constant mood? Are you rather solitary?
Work in advance on the answer to the question about your qualities and faults that you will probably have in a job interview. You will shine on the big day.