Making and holding eye contact with someone when you are talking to them shows that you are confident. People who lack confidence are more likely to shy away from making eye contact. Shy people might even look down or let their eyes wander around the room. While it is good to look away now and then once you have established good eye contact, make sure that you look at something that is eye level. Looking away now and then will also help you avoid seeming creepy, which can be a side effect of eye contact that is too intense. One way that you can establish an appearance of confidence is to look into someone’s eyes until he or she breaks the gaze and looks away. This technique will not only make you seem more confident to the other person, it will also help you to see that the other person is just as nervous as you are. Just remember that you do not need to do this more than one time. If you do it through your whole conversation, you risk seeming a bit creepy or even aggressive. People are attracted to smiling faces because people who smile seem more confident and approachable. Make sure to smile when you enter a room, when you meet new people, and as you talk to people. Just don’t smile in a way that seems forced or unnatural. Smile the way that you normally do.
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One-sentence summary -- Make eye contact. Stare until the other person looks away. Smile at people.


You can use all you've learned about yourself to help you in job interviews. Think about how your strengths and weaknesses are relevant to the particular job you are applying for. In order to prepare, think about what tasks might be required for the job you are applying for, and consider all of the times throughout your life when you were faced with similar tasks. Which personal attributes seemed like they’d be either strengths or weaknesses while you were involved in these tasks?  For example, if you are applying to be a computer programmer, talk about your strengths that relate to computers or problem solving. However, it might not be especially pertinent to go into detail about your strengths regarding ping pong, unless this is something the employer seems to have an interest in already. When you're asked about these characteristics in an interview, be honest when describing your strengths. When interviewers ask you about your strengths and weaknesses, they aren’t merely curious about your skills but also want to know how competent you are at talking about yourself. Social skills and an ability to market yourself is quickly becoming one of the most important set of skills for most jobs in the workforce. For an interviewer, this begins with how well the interviewee is able to describe his or her strengths and weaknesses, and how comfortable they appear doing so. In order to become more comfortable with this, practice interviewing with someone else. Ask a friend to interview you and practice describing yourself to her. Do this as many times and with as many people as possible, until you start to feel more comfortable describing your strengths and weaknesses to them. At first it might seem like reading a script, but after a while it should start to feel more and more natural.  Before going into the interview, think of as many concrete instances to talk about through which your personal strengths will be made apparent. Interviewers don’t just want to hear what you think your strengths are, but will likely ask for concrete situations within which your personal strengths were essential to how you engaged with whatever problems or obstacles came up. Reflect on these, maybe writing down as many as you can, so that you can go into the interview situation as prepared as possible.   For example, instead of saying "A strength is that I'm detail-oriented," give a concrete example: "In my previous job I was responsible for double-checking all the figures in our monthly budgets. In several cases I caught errors that would have cost our company significant money. This attention to detail will serve me well in this position with your company." " Potential employers are not stupid, and can see right through this cliche attempt. They sometimes interview hundreds of people for a position, and everyone's first instinct is to use what they believe is a strength and spin it as a weakness. However, what you see as "strengths" may not seem that way to employers, who are often looking for employees who value things like flexibility and teamwork. This type of response can often make it seem like you lack self-awareness. Very common spins include:  "I'm a perfectionist and I can't stand to get things wrong." Perfectionism is unlikely to strike employers as a true strength, as it suggests that you hold yourself and others to unreasonable standards and may also have trouble with procrastination.  "I'm stubborn and I don't let things go." This may suggest that you are not good at being flexible and adaptable. "I struggle to maintain a good work/life balance because I work so hard." This may suggest that you can't take care of yourself and are more likely to burn out or be an unpleasant colleague. When the interviewer asks you a question about your weaknesses, be honest. There wouldn't be any point in asking the question if all you gave the interviewer was some canned response about how awesome you are. The interviewer isn't looking for that. She is looking for a real discussion of things you can work on, a signpost of insight about yourself. Real challenges might include:  Being overly critical Being suspicious of authority, of peers Being too demanding Procrastinating Being too talkative Being too sensitive Exhibiting a lack of assertiveness Exhibiting a lack of social tact There are certain parts of these weaknesses that you need to address and speak about how they could affect your performance. It can be quite impressive to talk about how your challenge has affected or could potentially affect your work performance. It shows insight and truthfulness, although you still need to be tactful about what you say. For example, tell them "Right now I am a procrastinator. I realize that this affects the amount of work that I could get done, as well as potentially the work that my colleagues could get done. In college, I got away with it because I knew the system, found a way to game it, and still got my work done. I realize that this won't work in the professional world, because it's really not a great way to work, meet my goals, and get things done." Again, being practical here is better than being idealistic. Giving the idealistic response could seem unrealistic and make you seem like you are trying to talk yourself up. For example, tell the interviewer, "I'm taking serious steps to curb my habit of procrastination. I'm setting artificial deadlines for myself and offering personal incentives to meet those deadlines. This has considerably helped with my issue." You should sound self-assured, but not cocky. Try to be confident while still staying humble about your achievements and skills. Of course, try to truthfully pick strengths that could be in line with the individual, business, or organization to which you are applying. Real strengths fall into three main categories:  Knowledge-based skills, such as computer skills, languages, or technical know-how Transferable skills, such as communication and people management skills or problem solving Personal traits, such as sociability, confidence, or punctuality It's all well and good to say that you have amazing people skills, but it's another thing to show it. Illustrate what your strengths look like in real life by providing examples, either from your personal interactions or from your work history. For example:  "I am an excellent communicator. I care about the words that I use, and about avoiding ambiguity when I communicate. I'm not afraid to follow up with someone who's senior to me when I don't understand them. I take the time to imagine how different people might interpret questions or statements differently." You can also demonstrate your strengths and skill set by sharing what went well in the past and where you  have succeeded in your efforts. If you have won any awards or acknowledgements, you can mention them too.
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One-sentence summary --
Consider the relevancy of your strengths and weaknesses. Exhibit honesty and confidence. Practice interviewing skills. Do not try to "spin. Be honest about weaknesses. Acknowledge the bad parts of your challenges. Show the interviewer how you strive to overcome your challenges. Talk about your strengths confidently. Provide examples when talking about a strength.