By Chelsea Babin

Job interviews don’t have to be intimidating! With the right amount of preparation, a little relaxation, and a positive attitude you can be assured that you’re leaving employers with the best impression of you possible without all of the nerves and jitters. One great thing to do before your next interview is to find out what your strengths are. After all, potential employers want to know why they should hire you and if you don’t have a good grasp on what you’re best at, how can they? Here are four things you can do to figure out what your strengths are before your next interview.

1. Think of the Obstacles You’ve Overcome: No matter where you are in life or in your career, chances are you’ve overcome numerous obstacles to get there. Reflect on those situations and figure out which skills helped you overcome the obstacles you were facing. Congratulations, you’ve just figured out what a few of your greatest strengths are! And, if you overcame career obstacles, those skills will be particularly relevant in a job interview.

2. When it’s Natural or Easy: There are certain tasks at work that overwhelm you but there are others that come naturally or easily to you. The skills you use to complete those go-to tasks, the ones that you turn to when you’re feeling overwhelmed by a more thought-intensive project, are some of your career strengths.

3. Look at Your Accomplishments and Stand Out Moments: If you always won the spelling bee as a child you would consider spelling one of your strengths. If you always win approval for your engaging presentations at your current job you should consider public speaking and giving presentations as your strengths! Think back on all of your career accomplishments and stand out moments and figure out which skills got you there. Those skills should surely be considered some of your most promising career strengths.

4. The Compliments You Ignore: If you’ve done all of the self-reflection you can and still can’t come up with a good list of strengths, it’s time to keep your ears open. A lot of people tend to deflect compliments, especially when it comes to compliments given on the job, but paying attention to what people praise you for could lead to a great summary of your strengths!

When you’re in your next interview and you’re trying to convince the employer that you’re a valuable asset to have on their team, you’ll need to know what your strengths are! Take the aforementioned 4 steps before your next big job interview and you’ll head in prepared and ready to communicate your career-related strengths!