5 Social Work Interview Questions | Your Biggest Weakness? That's Actually Your Strength — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Hey everybody, it's Manica and welcome
2. 0:02to my channel where I help social
3. 0:03workers, therapists, and helping
4. 0:05professionals deepen their level of
5. 0:06self-awareness and increase their
6. 0:08competence and confidence in the
7. 0:09profession. So, for today's video, I
8. 0:11wanted to talk about how do you reframe
9. 0:13your weaknesses into a strength so that
10. 0:16it comes across as confidence in your
11. 0:18interview. So, if you're interested in
12. 0:19this topic, then please keep watching.
13. 0:21I'm Manica Thomas, [music] the founder
14. 0:23and clinical social worker at Kendrick
15. 0:25Connections Therapy Center. I've been a
16. 0:27social worker for over 12 years. [music]
17. 0:29I decided to do an entire YouTube
18. 0:31channel on my journey from cubicle
19. 0:33working social worker to successful
20. 0:35entrepreneur. [music]
21. 0:36Welcome to my channel.
22. 0:41So, this video is like a bonus to my
23. 0:4413-part series that I'm going to be
24. 0:46doing. So, for these two videos right
25. 0:48here that I created, when I went back
26. 0:50and watched them, I realized that all
27. 0:51the examples that I gave were
28. 0:53micro-level examples. So, I'm going to
29. 0:55be rerecording those videos but giving
30. 0:57macro-level examples. So, what I wanted
31. 1:00to do in this video is this is like a
32. 1:02bonus to the series that I'm going to be
33. 1:04doing. So, I just wanted to talk about
34. 1:07the how you translate your weaknesses
35. 1:09into a strength because I know that that
36. 1:11comes up a lot in your interview and
37. 1:13that's oftentimes asked. So, I wanted to
38. 1:15talk about five different weaknesses
39. 1:17that you could reframe into a strength.
40. 1:19And I think you can easily do this if in
41. 1:21fact these are skill sets that you
42. 1:23actually have. So, the first one is
43. 1:25taking on too much responsibility. So,
44. 1:28that can absolutely be a strength for an
45. 1:31organization because they want to know
46. 1:33that you take the initiative, that you
47. 1:34do take on responsibility, and that
48. 1:36you're just not shifting
49. 1:37responsibilities to your colleagues or
50. 1:39taking really long to accomplish a task.
51. 1:42They want to see that you take the
52. 1:43initiative and then you don't just wait
53. 1:45around for an assignment or a task or
54. 1:47for someone to tell you that something
55. 1:48needs to be done. Now, the downside of
56. 1:51that, when you say that you take on too
57. 1:53much responsibility, that can sound like
58. 1:55you don't have a strong no, you don't
59. 1:57have really strong boundaries in place,
60. 1:59and it's really hard for you to stand up
61. 2:00for yourself. So, that's the reason why
62. 2:02it can be a weakness and a strength. So,
63. 2:04let's talk about how you could say that
64. 2:06in an interview. So, you could say
65. 2:07something like, I tend to take ownership
66. 2:10of projects quickly, which sometimes
67. 2:12means I have to be mindful about
68. 2:15delegating appropriately. So, what that
69. 2:17response does is it shows that you have
70. 2:19the strength, but it also shows that you
71. 2:21have enough self-awareness to know that
72. 2:23you should be delegating some of that
73. 2:25responsibility. And demonstrating
74. 2:27self-awareness in an interview is really
75. 2:29going to take you far. Okay, [snorts] so
76. 2:31number two is being very
77. 2:32detail-oriented. So, being
78. 2:34detail-oriented could be a strength
79. 2:36because it means that you're very
80. 2:37thorough. It means that you're not going
81. 2:39to overlook things, that you're going to
82. 2:41pay attention to the things that other
83. 2:42people might overlook. It means that
84. 2:44you're going to take your time and not
85. 2:46rush through things. And that you're
86. 2:48going to produce quality work because
87. 2:50you comb through the things that you
88. 2:51were supposed to do. So, what that means
89. 2:53is your work won't have a lot of
90. 2:55grammatical errors, it won't have to go
91. 2:56back for revisions a lot because you
92. 2:58took your time. Now, the downside of
93. 3:01being detail-oriented is taking too much
94. 3:03time when deadlines are tight, when
95. 3:05things need to get out, when there's a
96. 3:06quick turnaround. You don't want to take
97. 3:09too much time to get things done. You
98. 3:11want to be thorough, but you want to be
99. 3:12efficient. You want to be able to work
100. 3:14quickly as well. So, that's the reason
101. 3:16why that one can be a strength and a
102. 3:17weakness. So, you'll see the pattern.
103. 3:19Like all of these things have the way
104. 3:21that it could be positive and really be
105. 3:22an asset to the organization, and then
106. 3:25they have the downside in the way that
107. 3:26it could be a liability to the
108. 3:27organization. So, what you could say for
109. 3:29this is, I pay close attention to
110. 3:32details, which helps with documentation,
111. 3:34but I've learned to balance that with
112. 3:36efficiency. So, again, you're giving
113. 3:39these answers that shows the weakness,
114. 3:41but then you balance it with how you are
115. 3:44managing it, how you have awareness
116. 3:46around you're not just kind of letting
117. 3:48it be something that continues to be a
118. 3:49weakness, but you have a way to offset
119. 3:51it. Number three is having a high level
120. 3:53of empathy. Now, that can be a strength
121. 3:55because we're in the social work
122. 3:56profession, you absolutely want to be
123. 3:58empathetic to client situations. You
124. 4:00want to be non-judgmental, you want to
125. 4:02listen in full, you want to put
126. 4:04yourselves in their shoes so you
127. 4:05understand what they're experiencing.
128. 4:07Now, being too empathetic can mean that
129. 4:10it's hard for you to hold people
130. 4:12accountable, for you to see the full
131. 4:13picture. You might blame systems or
132. 4:15things that really don't have anything
133. 4:17to do with the client taking
134. 4:19responsibility for the things that they
135. 4:21control. And when you're empathetic,
136. 4:23sometimes people don't know the
137. 4:24difference between sympathy and having
138. 4:26empathy. So, you might be thinking that
139. 4:28you're being empathetic with someone,
140. 4:30but you're really being sympathetic. And
141. 4:32the difference is when you're
142. 4:33sympathetic, you have pity on them, you
143. 4:35feel bad for them, but when you're
144. 4:36empathetic, you're simply just putting
145. 4:38yourselves in their shoes and you're
146. 4:39understanding what it would have felt
147. 4:41like to have gone through the thing that
148. 4:42they experienced. So, what you can say
149. 4:44there is, I'm naturally very empathetic,
150. 4:47which helps with rapport building, but
151. 4:49I've also developed some strong
152. 4:50boundaries to prevent emotional burnout.
153. 4:52So, again, there's that balance. Number
154. 4:54four is wanting to solve problems
155. 4:56quickly. So, the upside to that of
156. 4:58wanting to solve problems quickly,
157. 5:00especially if you're working like in a
158. 5:01crisis situation or if you're working at
159. 5:03a macro level role, decisions need to be
160. 5:05made around personnel or budget or
161. 5:07program implementation, you want to be
162. 5:09able to make decisions quickly. Now, the
163. 5:12downside of making decisions quickly is
164. 5:14if you don't get your team on board,
165. 5:16people don't have time to prepare or
166. 5:18plan, it can feel like people are thrown
167. 5:20into things, you don't really get a lot
168. 5:22of buy-in from your team, things can
169. 5:24feel chaotic and like they're done
170. 5:25haphazardly where you're not giving
171. 5:27people enough notice or enough say. So,
172. 5:30that's another one of those skills that
173. 5:32needs balance. So, what you can say for
174. 5:34that is, I like to move solutions
175. 5:36forward, but I've learned the importance
176. 5:38of collaborative decision-making. Now,
177. 5:40that is so key and it's so important for
178. 5:42you to again show that balance because
179. 5:44what that language of collaborative
180. 5:46decision-making means is that you
181. 5:48understand the value of input, that you
182. 5:50don't make decisions in isolation, that
183. 5:52you understand that quick decisions have
184. 5:54ripple effects to the people under you.
185. 5:56So, yes, there absolutely going to be
186. 5:58times when you need to make decisions
187. 6:00quickly, but there's also times where
188. 6:02you need to take your time and allow
189. 6:03your team to get on board so that they
190. 6:06can push the goals and initiatives
191. 6:07forward. And number five is you have
192. 6:10high standards for work quality. Now,
193. 6:11you might be thinking, how can having
194. 6:13high standards for work quality be and a
195. 6:15negative? So, I solely stopped relying
196. 6:17on my social work licenser to make
197. 6:19money, and here's why. So, within the
198. 6:21social work profession, we're taught to
199. 6:23design our social work career solely
200. 6:25around licenser. And when we do that,
201. 6:27there typically only two routes you can
202. 6:29go. Either you can work within a private
203. 6:32practice to make more money, or you will
204. 6:34operate your own private practice. So,
205. 6:36if you build your career around billable
206. 6:38hours and needing to see clients
207. 6:39one-to-one, that's really not scalable
208. 6:41because your income is always tied to
209. 6:43your need to show up. You can grow a
210. 6:45group practice with multiple therapists
211. 6:47under you, but not everyone wants to
212. 6:49operate within that business model. So,
213. 6:51the real shift happens when you
214. 6:53transition from one to one to one to
215. 6:55many using the knowledge that you
216. 6:57already have. So, this conversation is
217. 6:59mostly for social workers who understand
218. 7:01that there's more to our career than
219. 7:03micro, meso, and macro level work. So,
220. 7:05if you want to do this for your career,
221. 7:07comment the word offer and I'll send you
222. 7:08a link to my training how to move from
223. 7:09one to one to a one to many offer.
224. 7:17But, let's break it down. So, if you
225. 7:19have high quality for work standards,
226. 7:21that absolutely is what it is, meaning
227. 7:23that you like things to be done well,
228. 7:25you like for things to be thorough, you
229. 7:27like for the things that are done to be
230. 7:29a good reflection of you, of your team,
231. 7:31and of the organization. That's ideal.
232. 7:33Every company will want someone who
233. 7:35takes as much time to worry about their
234. 7:37image than the leadership team does. The
235. 7:40downside of that is when it leads into
236. 7:42perfection, meaning it takes a long time
237. 7:44to get things green-lit or it takes a
238. 7:46long time to get things approved because
239. 7:49it has to go back for revisions or it's
240. 7:51not good enough or you need this change
241. 7:53and you need that change. So, you want
242. 7:54to make sure that your standards are not
243. 7:56so high that it's negatively impacting
244. 7:58the quantity of work. So, that means if
245. 8:00you're too much of a perfectionist, the
246. 8:02quantity, meaning the output of the
247. 8:04work, can't get out as quickly because
248. 8:06things are being held up by your
249. 8:07approval and the fact that you need it
250. 8:09redone, revamped, or tweaked. So, this
251. 8:12is what you could say for that one. I
252. 8:14hold myself to high standards which
253. 8:16ensures quality work, but I've also
254. 8:18learned when something is good and
255. 8:20complete. So, what that means is you can
256. 8:22live by the philosophy that good is good
257. 8:24enough. It doesn't have to be perfect,
258. 8:26it doesn't have to be 100% {quote}
259. 8:28right, it has to be quality enough to
260. 8:31where it does show a good reflection of
261. 8:33you, your team, and the organization.
262. 8:34So, I hope you found those helpful. If
263. 8:36you did, please like, subscribe, or
264. 8:38share. I'll be releasing more videos to
265. 8:40help you deepen your level of
266. 8:41self-awareness [music] and to increase
267. 8:42your competence and confidence in the
268. 8:44profession. Thank you all so much for
269. 8:46watching and as always, be well. [music]