What Are Your Strengths And Weaknesses As A Social Worker? (With 10 Sample Interview Answers)

We live in a crazy world. There are people who constantly pray and stay devoted to good ethics and practices, only to live and survive among the evils. If we observe the past statistics, after a steep but short-lived fall, since the mighty World War II, the crime rates, pains, and sufferings have grown and are growing at an alarming rate. In order to provide assistance, succor, or the much-needed help, a few people turned up and acted as a samaritan.

These good blokes are called social workers and find their employment opportunities in established non-government organizations and charity houses, designed specially to help the needy and the poor. Undoubtedly, this is an act of honor, pride, and commitment towards a good cause, but when there is evil there is good too, and the job positions of social workers are quite in demand. This requires you to prepare sincerely for the interview questions, which can be done by reading more and more quality sample answers.

Four Tips To Effectively Answer This Question

1) Respond Smartly

The best way to handle this question is to share the strengths that are extremely important and crucial for this job position. For this purpose, you have to understand and analyze the job description issued to you by your employer. Further, for the weakness part, always share those weaknesses that are not at all important for this job opening. By this, we do not mean to respond with wayward weaknesses, but to share only those weaknesses that will not lay any major impact on the duties and tasks to be executed.

2) Stick To The Time Limit

In the most probable situations, an interviewer does not have only you to interview. Usually, there is a big line of candidates waiting outside the interview room, to get interviewed and impress the interviewer. This means an interviewer is not left with much time to be spent upon an individual candidate. Hence, while answering this question, you are expected to share only a single strength and a single weakness with your interviewer.

3) Never Hide Your Weakness

It is crucial to know, that an interviewer is more interested in knowing your weakness rather than your strength. If you try to hide your weakness, by simply saying that you are a perfect candidate and have no weakness, then you are doing nothing to better your job prospects. This would severely hurt and deplete your chances of selection no matter how good your academic record is or how valuable is your work experience.

4) Follow The Sequence Of Answering

An interview is all about impressing and leaving an impression upon your interviewer. In order to do this, a candidate must answer by following a particular sequence. Prepmycareer has divided an ideal response to this question into three phases, which are:

• Phase I: Start the answer with your strength. This would give your answer an optimistic and hopeful start.
• Phase II: By this time an interviewer is already impressed with the strength that you have just recently shared with him or her. Now is the hard part. In this middle phase, you are required to share your weakness with your interviewer.
• Phase III: An interviewer after listening to your weakness, must have strated framing negative opinions about you. Don’t worry that is what weaknesses do. You can quickly change this perspective or negative attitude of your interviewer by closing your answer on a positive note. In this third and last phase of this answer, you must share the techniques, ways or procedures which you are adopting or have already adopted in order to overcome your weakness or shortcoming.

Ten Best Sample Answers To Consider

Sample Answer One

Sir, God made no one a perfect human being, though he tried a lot to do so. This is the primary reason that we all have a few strengths and weaknesses. The strength in me is to concentrate and focus on a particular job or task at long periods of time, and that too without taking any major break or recesses. This is primarily due to the high level of concentration and focus that I possess.

On the weakness front, sir I am too short-tempered and can be easily pestered by anyone. I believe, this is a very bad habit, and I am on due course to change this habit. I have even joined an online personality development course in order to get rid of this weakness of mine.

Sample Answer Two

A man is made of both talents and shortcomings, and I am no exception. Sir, I am a person who always holds his or her nerves in even the most inconducive and hectic working environment, which enables me to make effective business decisions. However, I have a major weakness in me, and that is my inability to maintain a good rapport with my colleagues and team members. I really aspire to overcome this shortcoming of mine and have even eliminated almost 75% of this issue with online help and counseling sessions.

Sample Answer Three

Sir, if you ask about my strengths, I am a hard-working and committed person, who has the willingness as well as the desire to travel to rural as well as semi-urban places without any complaints or issues. I have a burning desire inside me to really perform social activities at such underprivileged places and towns.

On the weakness front, I am not that creative. This handicaps my ability to prepare effective and appealing slogans as well as posters, that spread social awareness. However, I have plugged this loophole of mine and have even joined two art classes organized by prominent artists, in a bid to become more creative and innovative.

Sample Answer Four

I am a person with a high level of determination and clarity in my operations. I always perform the tasks and duties after having a clear understanding of the tasks to be performed as a part of my job routine. This increases my efficiency and accuracy. Further, I am a person who is too hard upon myself and always analyzes even a very small error on my part in great depth. Sometimes, this makes me too skeptical and I am not able to perform to the best of my abilities. I am well on course to plug this loophole of mine and have even joined online counseling sessions in regards to the same.

Sample Answer Five

Being a person with a high level of concentration, my greatest strength is my productivity and efficiency with which I perform and execute my tasks and duties. This enables me to perform to the best of my abilities and helps my employer organization with a high level of performance. However, I am a person who is pretty much weak in my computer skills, which is the need of the hour in this technologically driven world. I understand this shortcoming of mine and am pursuing an advanced online computer course, which would help me to hone and improve upon these skills.

Sample Answer Six

Sir, I am a person who is very creative and have the ability to innovate consistently. This coupled with my extensive editing knowledge, enables me to create effective and impressive marketing campaigns which not helps the NGOs and other similar institutions to spread the message with a greater impact but also helps in better fundraising. However, I am too much of a perfectionist and even after executing a task to the best of my abilities, I am able to find a fault in it. This prompts me to re-work the task and I miss the deadlines. However, with effective counseling and self-talks, I am well on course to eliminate a majority of this issue.

Sample Answer Seven

Sir, I am an extremely organized person, who is disciplined and loyal, to remain with the organization till the very end. My organization skills make me an efficient administrator and manager, which coupled with my drafting skills, enables me to execute all my tasks with a greater level of precision. Further, on the weakness side, I am not at all a team player. I am simply not able to maintain a good rapport or harmony with my team members. However, working in a team setting is a common requirement nowadays, and hence I am slowly but steadily plugging this problem of mine by changing my attitude and perception.

Sample Answer Eight

Sir, a non-governmental organization always needs the services and help of an employee who is trustworthy and credible. I am pleased to share with you, these attributes as my greatest strengths. I am very much trustworthy and an organization can confide in me. However, on the weakness front, I am very slow and not at all adaptable to any change. I recognize the harm that this shortcoming of mine can do to an organization, and hence, I have even joined an online course of a prominent motivational speaker in order to overcome these issues of mine.

Sample Answer Nine

Sir, My weakness, as well as strength, lies in the term ‘Detail-oriented’. When I do not overdo it, I am able to deliver a high-level performance that is both accurate and precise. But when I tend to overdo it, I am able to waste a lot of time and miss my deadlines. Hence, I am striving hard to find a perfect balance between the two, and I am even in touch with an industry veteran for help in this regard.

Sample Answer Ten

If you ask about my strength, I am a person with excellent communication skills and have the ability to multi-task and perform a variety of duties and tasks with precision. However, on the weakness part, I am too much of an extrovert, and sometimes I am just not able to control my speech and words, which sometimes hurts the other person’s feelings and emotions. But, I am on my way to maintain my emotional intelligence and achieve equilibrium.

References

1. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=SIfTaiCc0BsC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=What+Are+Your+Strengths+And+Weaknesses+As+A+Social+Worker%3F+&ots=22E_NpX33c&sig=xrayYduJ1rV1UYcFMaXU1GqMYsM
2. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230389090_7