Find your next role

Learn how to tell your career story. You can choose to start with your most recent experience and work backwards, explaining where you came from and how you ended up where you are, or start with your earliest relevant experience and create a narrative around your professional journey.

Be careful to keep it relevant and to keep it succinct. Avoid overly personal details – the interviewer is not looking for your favourite colour. They also do not need in-depth information about the responsibilities of each of your earlier roles. Highlight your skills and experiences that align to the role you are interviewing for.

The interviewer is asking for confidence and factual answers. You can prepare for this question in advance by isolating your qualifications and experiences that align well with the job description. Draw connections between what you know and what they need.

The interviewer is also looking for you to justify why you are a better pick than other candidates they’re interviewing. After using your factual qualifications as a jumping off point, expand into your soft skillset, or your personal values, and explain how this aligns with their team/their company/their mission.

Take some time to think of your Unique Selling Point (USP.)

The key to answering this question is to showcase your self-awareness. Recognising imperfection displays authenticity and humanness. At the same time, you also want to make sure you don’t undermine your competence for this particular role. Look inwards and choose a weakness that is not related to being successful in this role.

When answering this question, immediately follow your weakness with a strategy you have implemented in your life to improve on this weakness, to demonstrate your introspection and commitment to self-improvement.

For example, you can mention that you can be forgetful. However, this weakness has forced you to be hyper-organised to avoid missing things and utilise tools such as daily to-do lists and reminders. You have seen a significant improvement in your productivity ever since implementing these strategies.

This can be a disarming question, but the best approach is to always tell the truth. You may have a career gap for a multitude of reasons, including redundancy, tough job markets, personal health, raising families, and more. Remember that the person interviewing you is human too – they understand that life is not perfect, and circumstances arise where it can render you unable to work or unable to find a job.

Provide context for your career gap with confidence. If you come across as apologetic and ashamed, the interviewer will pick up on this. The more calm and confident you are when you speak, the more at ease the interviewer will be with your answer.

If you can, pick out good things that came out of your career gap. For example, if you were struggling to find a job after a redundancy, talk about how it was a good opportunity for you to upskill and develop professionally. If you took time off to care for a sick relative, talk about how it required high levels of time management, organisation, and empathy.

Make sure any career gaps are clearly outlined in your resume to ensure transparency.