A great deal of candidates unfortunately miss out on potential job offers due to the common question “what are your strengths and weaknesses?” Depending on how you answer can either land you a job offer or receive a rejection letter.

While promoting your strengths, follow-up your claim with an example of how you used your strength in a professional setting. Providing an example is more convincing to the employer stating that you possess this strength and can easily integrate it into the role you’re interviewing for. Additionally, detail strengths that relate directly to the role you’ve applied for, doing so will label you more desirable to the employer.

The second half of the question, weaknesses, is more important than you may think. Many stumble on the question and fail to provide qualified answers. What you should do is, list a weakness that points out a personal strength. Be honest! Admit that which you don’t know or feel comfortable with but are willing to work hard to learn and master. For example: “I sometimes get nervous while addressing a large crowd, but I’m trying to improve my fear of public speaking by registering to participate in public speaking course.” Another example, “I sometimes feel that I’m not good at managing multiple tasks. But I’ve begun to keep a more detailed schedule and set up calendar notifications, which have helped me stay focused and on track.”

It’s important to keep in mind that the weakness you mention should not be one that is vital to the position you are applying for. For instance, being bad at using technology when applying for a technology related position or being a terrible typist when applying for an admin role requiring strong typing skills.

The more you practice your response to the Strengths and Weaknesses questions, the better you will get at its delivery.