My weaknesses for summary. Which section of your resume do you think is the most important? positive qualities for a leader

A good resume structure necessarily includes a list of professional skills and strengths. Every job site or template has a similar section to fill out.

Why write strengths on a resume

This is to show the employer that you are the right fit. All in all.

If you correctly show your strengths character in the resume, the chances of getting an interview will increase.

What aspects of character to indicate

Firstly, proceed from the requirements of the vacancy.

Appreciated in different positions different qualities. Accounting requires patience and perseverance, management - activity and leadership skills, work as a driver - sobriety. And so on.

Secondly, be honest with yourself.

If you are calm and reasonable, do not write about leadership qualities. If you creative person and it is difficult for you to work under tight deadlines, do not write about discipline and punctuality.

Most common resume mistake

I write resumes for people of different job levels and before work I ask them to send their current resume. In almost everyone, I see a list of office superman.

  • Responsibility.
  • Mandatory.
  • Stress resistance.
  • Discipline.
  • Work for results.
  • Learnability.
  • Purposefulness.
  • Sociability.
  • And so on.

I constantly read and edit this nonsensical set of phrases. A good, "selling" resume should not be superfluous. Everything must be reasonable.

Fixing the error

In order not to be like everyone else, learn to stand out from the crowd. There are two great ways to list strengths on a resume.

First option- remove all these qualities from the resume. It's very simple.

Second option. Choose one (maximum two!) of your character traits and write about each of them in a sentence. Detailed and specific.

An example of indicating strengths in a resume:

  • Sociable (worked in sales, as well as in journalism, interviewed artists).
  • I prefer to work for the result - I know how to start and finish things, I make decisions quickly, I am straightforward and active in communication.

Think about what is your strongest quality and what will be especially needed for future work. Find this character trait and describe it deliciously and in detail. This will work much better than a banal list of meaningless words.

Which section of your resume do you think is the most important?

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When applying for a job, your profile becomes the only link with your employer. Get Good work difficult without proper presentation own capabilities. However, many serious ones require filling in an insidious item - weak sides character.

In a summary, every word written is important. Do not fill out this line in haste!

Weaknesses in the resume should be mirror image your strengths.

How to turn weaknesses into strengths on a resume

But you should not be too zealous in listing your shortcomings. Yes, and reproach yourself for your weaknesses of personality is not necessary. Remember what is good for one, not for another. For example, for someone you are wasteful, someone will consider you generous; some will see greed in you, others will say economical.

Present your employer negative traits character, wrapping them in a beautiful wrapper. For example, for an accountant, unsociableness is even useful in work, but a manager with this quality will have a hard time.

Expert opinion

Natalia Molchanova

HR manager

Find 2-3 traits of your character that will be considered a minus in ordinary life, but from the point of view of the chosen profession, they turn into indisputable advantages.

What weaknesses to indicate in the resume

This is where you need to think carefully. Sometimes writing a few words about yourself is much more difficult than you thought. After all, work in a reputable company is at stake, and the well-being of the whole family may depend on your ability to display weaknesses in the questionnaire.

Of course, there is no guarantee that the next employer will take you to their team. There is no doubt that the future boss will not only not put it aside, but will show his interest and will certainly want to meet. So what kind of trump cards will we save to beat the competition?

Be truthful

The habit of exaggerating will come in handy here. If the employer does not require dwelling on negative qualities, then you do not need to write anything. Then focus on your strengths as a specialist, mentioning your strengths. If the resume needs to be written in a free form, then focus on your positive aspects as a person and a specialist in the field.

But what shortcomings to indicate in the resume to become the first contender for the long-awaited position?

  1. Firstly, as we have already said, so that the employer does not get the impression of you as a person with a painfully high self-esteem, in no case do we ignore the paragraph on shortcomings.
  2. Secondly, do not deviate from the style of writing a resume. When talking with an interlocutor live, it is much easier to convey information to the listener: you can use gestures, facial expressions, and focus on his reaction. In the case of a resume, you need special approach, because the leader sees only what is written.
  3. Thirdly, the boss will not fail to note the honesty of the resume, where you briefly report your shortcomings, based on some important points.

Don't chase the standard

When considering a resume, each employer looks at the situation from his own angle. Sometimes the same character trait can be regarded in two ways. For some, it will turn out to be the positive side of the coin, and some may be blacklisted, having such character traits.

Expert opinion

Natalia Molchanova

HR manager

For every field of activity individual approach . In teamwork, leadership qualities will only interfere with the team, and for a manager, the ability to make his own decisions will be quite useful.

Be intellectually mature

It is important that you are aware of your imperfection and do not take criticism with hostility. After all, only an intellectually formed person can calmly and fairly conduct a personal assessment of his positive and negative sides.

It is undeniably easier for an employer to give preference to a mature person than to educate an unbalanced person.

Show willingness to work on yourself

Having presented to the general court their negative qualities, be sure to indicate that you are actively fighting the shortcoming you indicated. You can't let an employer think you're comfortable living with this negativity.

It could be shyness or impulsiveness. You can point to their manifestation in accordance with the situation, and make it clear that you are waging a stubborn struggle with the presence of these disadvantages: expanding your connections and striving to control your ardor.

Consider a simple example in a resume, where the weaknesses of the applicant turned into a positive side from a professional point of view.

"IN Everyday life you are unable to refuse people, and because of this you do not have your own personal life. However, the boss may find this quality more than beneficial for him. Having hired a trouble-free employee, the manager expects that he will always be able to rely on such an employee, no matter what issues the assignment concerns. This feature can become simply invaluable for personnel who work under someone's direct supervision.

Present your strengths as weaknesses

Psychology is a very interesting science. Of course, it is not worth filling the field for shortcomings with the phrases “increased responsibility” or “workaholism”. The leader will immediately convict you of dishonesty.

To take a highly paid position and with it the future boss you need:

  • credulity - you will be perceived as a person capable of concluding agreements exclusively with trusted partners;
  • self-confidence - they will see you as a leader who is inclined to move forward;
  • hyperactivity - they will bet on the speed of completing tasks commensurate with other employees;
  • slowness - they will find in your person a scrupulous worker who can see mistakes and notice important nuances;
  • increased anxiety - they will note a responsible approach to work and their duties;
  • straightforwardness – they will consider you a master of negotiation, who will confidently insist on the conditions and requirements of the company;
  • exactingness - they will think: if an employee is demanding of himself, then production processes you will be treated with no less responsibility;
  • pedantry - they will determine the ability to bring undertakings to the ideal through repeated checks;
  • restlessness - they will see you as an employee who is ready to perform new tasks and assignments, regardless of external factors;
  • modesty - will be credited to the number of employees who weigh what is said, which helps to prevent conflict situations and unnecessary misunderstandings.

For a summary of a future accountant, as an example of weaknesses, you can be guided by:

  • suspicion;
  • excessive pedantry;
  • increased anxiety;
  • straightness;
  • scrupulousness;
  • modesty;
  • inability to lie;
  • pride;
  • lack of complicity in working moments;
  • scrupulousness;
  • overestimated sense of responsibility;
  • inability to negotiate.

But for specialties that require direct communication with a wide audience, this list of qualities is extremely unsuitable.

For a manager, for example, you can indicate in your resume:

  • restlessness;
  • hyperactivity;
  • exactingness;
  • impudence;
  • stubbornness;
  • self-confidence;
  • straightness;
  • impulsiveness.

Why does the manager want to know about your shortcomings

If the future boss decided to include the “weak sides of character” column in the resume, then it cannot be ignored.

Stay yourself, believe in yourself and you will succeed, and finally the video

You can be an incredibly cool specialist and even a guru in some narrow field, but what's the point if the personal qualities for the resume were chosen incorrectly or completely forgotten about? It would seem: they should look at work experience, and the business qualities of an employee for a resume are already secondary. In fact, how you present yourself in the “personal qualities” column can become life-changing.

Before proceeding to the consideration of the qualities that the employer needs, a little advice: forget in the templates in the form of the words "purposefulness", "quick learner", "work for the result". This is great, but so old. Even if you want to write such qualities, let them not be the only ones on the honorary list. From the scarcity and stereotyped presentation, your characterization, as a future employee, will definitely not benefit.

Let's start with the general advice of professional HR specialists. In order not to waste their precious time on an interview not “Toy” or not “Togo”, they will definitely pay attention not only to work experience, but also to personal qualities. And here is what the HRs themselves advise:

  • You can really appreciate yourself as a specialist, but you don’t need to indicate more than 5 personal qualities
  • The qualities of an employee for a resume are indicated based on the position. We will write about this in more detail. But, for starters: an employee of a grocery warehouse will not need charisma when performing his direct job duties.
  • You can humor, but only if you are not applying for a leadership position. You can most often find out about the preferences of the employer in the job description.

The positive qualities of a person for a resume must match official duties. That is why we have prepared a list of positions and personal characteristics for them.

Examples of business qualities for employees by specialty

Example #1: accountant. A lot depends on this person. Sometimes, even the life of the company depends on him and his ability to properly manage money.

Strong professional quality accountants, which are important to indicate: stress resistance, perseverance, learning ability, loyalty, responsibility, non-conflict. And not just because we put stress resistance in the first place. Carrying out cash transactions of a company with a turnover of a million - why not a cause for stress? If the turnover is smaller, the nerves are safer and the sleep is stronger.

Example #2: Sales manager. The more you can sell, the better. The more new customers it attracts, the more confident the company will develop. Yes, the life of the company largely depends on the sales manager. True, not always the representatives of this position are rewarded with decent wages. But we will only talk about the good, and only about professional sales managers, for whom it is important to indicate the following qualities of an employee for a resume:

Communication skills, stress resistance, presentable appearance, well-delivered speech, learning, responsibility. In the case of the sales manager, we put communication skills in the first place. True, after all, what kind of sales can there be if the manager does not know how to start a conversation, and even more so, “lead” a conversation with a potential client to the result necessary for the company?

Example #3: Secretary. For some reason, there is a stereotyped opinion that the secretary is an exceptionally attractive appearance. And she, including, but on the shoulders of the secretary, depending on the needs of the company, lies a lot of complex routine tasks.

Personal qualities in a resume for a secretary: grammatically correct speech, attractive appearance, diligence, responsibility, perseverance, ability to work in a team, non-conflict. And here is the destruction of the pattern: the primacy of "literate speech."

Secretaries must be able to win over every visitor, whether it is an applicant for some position in the company or a potential business partner. The secretary is the first to create a general impression of the company. Have you met secretaries who could not say two words? If you met, you understand exactly why competent speech is so important.

Here we “walked” through one of the most common vacancies that appear daily on the Internet in the amount of several tens and even hundreds.

And why not pay special attention to IT-specialists?

The professional skills of IT specialists are especially valuable today. Many companies need unrealistically cool specialists who can catch up and overtake competitors, while increasing the company's income by several times.

Here is what IT professionals most often write about themselves in their resumes:

  • Analytic mind
  • industriousness
  • Skill to work in team
  • Ability to work with a large amount of information

Diligence, as it seems to us, is approximately the same pattern as “commitment” with “the ability to work for results. It is not diligence that potential employers want to see in the column of personal qualities of their future IT specialist. Do you want to know what they want to see?

And here's what:

  • Independence
  • Initiative
  • Stress resistance
  • Energy
  • Responsibility
  • Skill to work in team
  • Attentiveness
  • Mobility
  • Creativity

Here's a to-do list.

Business qualities for an IT specialist resume, as you can see, absolutely do not matter. In the first positions: independence and initiative.

True, what employer wants to get an IT specialist into their team, who will have to be constantly monitored or adjusted and reminded of something? Moreover, the IT-sphere is one of the few where narrow specialization does not allow the management to influence the result in any way.

So it turns out that an IT specialist should be independent, enterprising (where without it), creative, etc. Stress resistance is a plus for the karma not only of the IT specialist, but of the entire company. Without stressful situations this work is rarely costly, and deadlines cannot be missed, it is undesirable to demonstrate one's emotions and lose a client - like the collapse of one's own and corporate reputation.

And here is a list of qualities that IT professionals rarely indicate in their resumes:

  • Charm
  • Bravery
  • Eloquence
  • forethought
  • Strength of character
  • Skepticism

It seems to us that most of this list is very important personal characteristics for a resume. Especially if you want to get into the creative team. Why not indicate courage and charm? In dealing with customers and employees, these qualities will not be superfluous. True, everything should be in moderation.

Universal positive qualities for any resume

And finally, about the universal qualities that HR specialists recommend indicating in their resume without reference to the position and its requirements:

  • Fast learner
  • Honesty
  • Initiative
  • Stress resistance
  • No bad habits

This is such a small but versatile set. You can take note of it, but do not forget to indicate the personal qualities that the future employer expects from you.

And writing the right one is very simple: put yourself in the place of this employer. Think about what kind of specialist you would like to see in your team? The right qualities of an employee for a resume are not templates. Do you want to be paid attention to you? Then pay special attention to the column "personal qualities", and the position will be yours, we are sure.

Irina Davydova


Reading time: 4 minutes

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How to please the future boss if his profile contains an insidious item - weaknesses of character? In a summary, unlike a normal conversation, every word has weight, so it's better to prepare in advance for uncomfortable questions, and weak qualities in you must be presented as very useful for business.

  1. You can simply not indicate your weak professional qualities in your resume. Concentrate on your skills, experience, education, and you can talk about personal qualities at the interview. However, it is impossible to refuse that item if you fill out a resume in in electronic format. Read also:
  2. A dash instead of information is another mistake of future employees. If the boss decided to leave this column, it means that he is really interested in this information. And the point is not even in it, but in checking an adequate perception of oneself, the ability to learn and understand the leader. Emptiness can speak of excessively high self-esteem or, on the contrary, self-doubt. Read also:
  3. Of course, you should not list all the shortcomings in too much detail or engage in self-flagellation. It is enough to remember that any weaknesses in the resume have reverse side for the employer. And what may be a problem for one may be an advantage for another. For example, if you are an accountant, your lack of communication will be useful in your work. And if you are a manager, then this is a serious omission.
  4. Filling in the summary of strengths and weaknesses, try to build on the position you want to occupy. For example, select deficiencies that are not related to your activity. Restlessness for a sales manager is the norm, but for an accountant it is a minus.
  5. "Turn weaknesses into strengths" is the old approach. It works if you can think creatively. Otherwise, the efforts will be too primitive and they will figure you out. So the trick of "with a heightened sense of responsibility, workaholism and perfectionism" may not be successful.
  6. Remember that some bosses do not look for faults in you at all. , but only evaluate the adequacy, truthfulness and self-criticism.
  7. It is better to describe your weaknesses in a resume that can be improved. This should also be reported in the text of the questionnaire. There are some bosses who want to train employees for themselves. In this case, your frankness and willingness to work on yourself will be appreciated adequately.
  8. Indicate not only individual characteristics, but also your properties in teamwork .
  9. Do not use flowery phrases like "my flaws are extensions of my virtues." This will not surprise, but only show the unwillingness to conduct a dialogue with the employer.
  10. The optimal number of flaws is 2 or 3 . Don't get carried away!

Weaknesses in the resume - examples:

  • Selfishness, pride, scrupulousness, inflexibility in labor matters, the habit of telling the truth directly, inability to establish contact with strangers, increased demands.
  • Propensity for formalism, overweight, lack of punctuality, slowness, restlessness, fear of airplanes, impulsiveness.
  • Reliability, high anxiety, hyperactivity, incredulity, straightforwardness, need for external motivation.
  • Hot temper, isolation, self-confidence, stubbornness.
  • Among the weaknesses, you can indicate in your resume that you do not always express your thoughts perfectly or tend to reflect . And if you are asked why this interferes, answer that you would like to spend less time analyzing the problem.

Not everyone requires your resume to show your weaknesses. But if there is such an item in the form, then putting a dash will be a mistake. It is better to look at an example of the weaknesses of the character in the resume.

Please consider your answer before completing the deficiencies box. Don't skip it by any means. ideal people does not exist. As a rule, managers want to see how adequately you evaluate yourself. If you do not know what to write, look at the suggested options and choose something that suits you best.

The universal formula: select such character traits that are a virtue for performing this particular job, but in ordinary life can really be considered a human flaw.

You can write the following weaknesses:

  • excessive directness, the habit of telling the truth in the eye;
  • difficulty in establishing contact with strangers;
  • inability to be flexible in labor matters;
  • reliability;
  • increased anxiety;
  • excessive emotionality, irascibility;
  • love for formalism;
  • restlessness;
  • slowness;
  • hyperactivity;
  • fear of air travel.

All these weaknesses in the resume can become advantages if you look at them from a different angle. An example is restlessness. For a sales representative or an active sales manager, this can even be a plus. The same goes for reliability. For the manager, this is a signal that you may be the person who will do all the overtime work.

All applicants should think about how to correctly write my weaknesses for a resume. For example, future accountant or a design engineer might write:

  • incredulity;
  • excessive scrupulousness;
  • increased anxiety;
  • excessive demands on oneself;
  • straightness;
  • pedantry;
  • modesty;
  • inability to lie;
  • difficulty establishing contact with strangers;
  • pride;
  • lack of flexibility in labor matters;
  • adherence to principles;
  • overestimated sense of responsibility;
  • lack of diplomacy.
  • hyperactivity;
  • self-confidence;
  • restlessness;
  • impulsiveness;
  • the need for external motivation;
  • incredulity, desire to double-check and confirm all information.

Disadvantages for one profession can become advantages for another.

You can also indicate in your resume among your negative qualities:

  • straightness;
  • workaholism;
  • excessive love for communication.

Applicants for the position of manager need to prepare before filling out the specified column. It is better to think in advance what weaknesses to indicate in the resume. They can write about such character traits:

  • excessive emotionality;
  • pedantry;
  • love for little things;
  • thoughts about work, planning take up most of the free time;
  • increased demands on others.

A good example is the following:

  • inability to respond with rudeness to rudeness;
  • the tendency to make decisions based on one's own opinion;
  • mistrust of people and a love of confirmation of facts.

Some applicants choose to indicate that they:

  • overly trusting;
  • can raise their voice to subordinates;
  • straightforward, express their opinion without veiled embellishments;
  • quick-tempered;
  • always looking for confirmation of words;
  • have a hypertrophied sense of responsibility;
  • prone to formalism and pay too much attention to detail;
  • irritated by disorder;
  • slow;
  • do not like to do things for the sake of others.

Many are afraid to write about shortcomings, believing that the employer will immediately send their resume to the trash can. Of course, you should not be too frank, but you should not completely skip this section of the questionnaire. In this case, you can write about some neutral qualities that will not affect the work in any way. For a person applying for any vacancy, among the inherent weaknesses can be indicated:

  • fear of airplanes;
  • arachnophobia (fear of spiders), vespertiliophobia (fear of bats), ophidiophobia (fear of snakes);
  • excess weight;
  • lack of experience;
  • age (suitable for people over 40 years old);
  • love for shopping
  • sweet love.

This information does not characterize you in any way, it simply speaks of your fears or small weaknesses.

The following shortcomings can be stated:

  • I do not always accurately express my thoughts;
  • I trust people too much;
  • prone to reflection;
  • I often analyze past mistakes, focusing on them too much attention;
  • I spend a lot of time evaluating my actions.

These are negative qualities, but they should not affect the workflow.

Regardless of the position for which you are applying, you can write such weaknesses in your resume:

  • I get so carried away with work that I forget to take breaks;
  • I can’t build relationships with colleagues because I don’t like gossip;
  • I can’t fight back in response to a boorish appeal;
  • I constantly pass all situations through myself;
  • let people get too close;
  • I can't swear;
  • I noticeably worry when I have to lie.

Please note that there are items that are better left unmentioned. You should not write, for example, that you:

  • like to be lazy;
  • afraid to take responsibility;
  • do not like to make decisions;
  • not punctual;
  • are often distracted;
  • think only about salary;
  • love office romances.

For example, by writing about your laziness in your resume, you risk: the employer will decide that you do not want to work.


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