 When I volunteered to serve as a Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) rater at Stanford School of Medicine, I was determined to be a conscientious and fair evaluator. I quickly realized how challenging it was to rate responses to close-ended questions because candidates did not always clearly articulate their positions, and their reasoning lacked an organized flow.
This experience made one thing evident: Using a structured framework is key to helping raters understand your thought process. ARIA: Your MMI Answer Framework 🎶 For close-ended MMI questions, I recommend using the ARIA format: A — State your Answer R — Share and expand upon your Reasons for your answer I — Discuss Inverse or alternative perspectives A — Restate your Answer When a candidate used a clear, logical framework like ARIA and reasoned through both sides, that was music to my ears. Example MMI Scenario 🎤 A new, deadly pandemic began nine months ago. A vaccine is finally available. You feel relieved because you have diabetes, a risk factor for severe illness. Healthcare providers are first in line for the vaccine, followed by people over age 75. You’re currently shadowing a healthcare clinic remotely by video and have no direct patient contact. The director of the clinic offers to vaccinate you at the same time as the clinic’s physicians, which means you would cut the line. Do you accept the director’s offer? Applying ARIA 🎹 A — “While I appreciate the director’s generosity, I would not accept the offer.” R — “Here are three reasons why I would decline the vaccine:” (State and expand on each reason.) I — “That said, here are some reasons why accepting the vaccine might seem justified:” (State and expand on each reason.) A — “All things considered, I would still politely decline the offer.” Key Takeaway 🎼 Using the ARIA framework turns a meandering answer into one that’s focused, organized, and memorable: the sweet sound of music to your raters. © 2025 Debra Rosenfeld, LMFT, Career Coaching. All rights reserved.
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When you’re asked “What are your strengths?” in an interview, it’s your opportunity to shine a light on your skills. Here is the Secret Formula for responding to this question:
“Two of my strengths are ___________ (hard skill relevant to the job you’re applying for) + ___________ (soft skill relevant to the job you’re applying for). An example of my hard skill is___________. An example of my soft skill is___________.” What are hard and soft skills? A hard skill is a concrete, teachable skill, such as programming, teaching, counseling, and supervising. A soft skill is an interpersonal skill or personal quality that helps you do your job well, such as being diplomatic, flexible, organized, or detail oriented. Example of how to use the Secret Formula Let’s take a look at a job description, followed by an example of how to use the formula. Here’s the job description: Position Title: Senior Editor
Desired qualifications:
Now, here’s a response to “What are your strengths?” using the Secret Formula: “Two of my strengths are style guide development and time management. When I worked at XTREME Software, for example, I developed a 50-page corporate style guide that I used to ensure consistency across all our marketing materials and website. Not only did this result in consistent branding but it also enabled us to reinforce the use of our trademarks. In fact, the legal department commended me for contributing to the company’s trademark protection. My time-management skills have come in handy throughout my career. When I was working as an editor at XTREME, the webmaster took a leave of absence for six months. While she was gone, I managed both the website and my own job. As you can imagine, this was quite a juggling act, but because I’ve developed a scalable time-management system, I was able to successfully perform both jobs. And when it came time for my annual review, my manager recognized my efforts by giving me a five-percent raise.” The power of the Secret Formula The Secret Formula is powerful because it gives you the opportunity to highlight your accomplishments and achievements. Your examples prove your claims, and demonstrating your strengths is much more interesting than describing them. Before your next interview, make a list of your relevant strengths (use the job description as a guide) and examples of each one. Plug them into the Secret Formula, and practice answering “What are your strengths?” a few times. You’ll have a compelling answer that gives you confidence. The SAR format is a simple, effective way to respond to behavioral interview questions. It helps you structure your answer so that you clearly demonstrate how you approach and solve problems.
SAR stands for: Situation Action Results Situation: Briefly present a challenge you encountered at work that relates to the employer’s question. Actions: What did you do to resolve the problem? Results: What was the outcome of your actions? Here’s an example of how to use the SAR format: Interviewer: “Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager.” Interviewee: “My manager and I disagreed about how many times a month I should call on Dr. Smith to promote Product X. My manager thought I should call on Dr. Smith twice a month, while I believed I should call on him four times a month. (Situation) Here is how I approached the situation. I analyzed my sales data for the last six months. The data showed that as long as I was calling on Dr. Smith four times a month, his sales were increasing by 3 percent monthly. At a meeting with my manager, I showed him my findings. He acknowledged that calling on Dr. Smith four times a month resulted in a 3 percent increase in sales and agreed that I should call on Dr. Smith four times a month. (Actions) The result of my conversation with my manager was that I continued to call on Dr. Smith four times a month, and I achieved 3 percent increases in sales over time.” (Results) So, you can see how the SAR format helps you structure your answers and demonstrate how you approach and solve problems. Practice using the SAR format, and you’ll feel confident that you can respond successfully to all behavioral interview questions. “What is one of your weaknesses?” is a traditional interview question that makes jobseekers feel uncomfortable and defensive. It also provides little useful information to the employer, because most people answer with a strength spun as a weakness: “I’m a perfectionist, so I stay up late making my work perfect and don’t get enough sleep.”
Savvy employers no longer inquire about your weaknesses and instead ask: “What area of professional development are you working on?” “What skills are you trying to improve?” “Tell me about a time you took steps to improve your professional skills.” Since you may still be asked about your weaknesses in an interview, it’s best to prepare an answer that shows one of the following: 1. You actively strive to identify and strengthen your weaker skills or lack of knowledge. 2. You accept and respond well to constructive criticism. How to Choose an Example Choose an example that:
Three Easy Ways to Answer Here are three formulas you can use to answer “Tell me about one of your weaknesses.” 1. Talk about how you improved a process or procedure: I used to do _____, but I realized it was inefficient/ineffective. Here are the steps I took to resolve this problem: _____. As a result, _____. Example: “I’ve always been a very organized person. However, in my current position, I’m managing large-scale projects for the first time, and I realized fairly quickly that it was taking too long for me to find emails and files. So, I set aside a half day to develop a new organizational system, which included creating email and desktop filing systems. The result is that I can now find emails and files quickly, and I’m more organized than ever before.” 2. Discuss how you responded well to your manager’s suggestion for improvement. In my last performance review, my manager said I should _____. Here are the steps I took to resolve the problem: _____. As a result, _____. Example: “In my last mid-year review, my manager said that she would like me to improve my presentation skills. So, I joined Toastmasters and have been practicing my presentations weekly. I also watched YouTube videos on how to make great presentations. The result is that the quality of my presentations has improved dramatically, and my manager gave me an “exceeds expectations” for presentation skills on my year-end review.” 3. Talk about knowledge or a skill set you needed to gain in order to be successful in your job. I discovered that I didn’t know enough about _____to do my job as well as I could. So, I took these steps to gain this knowledge/skill set: _____. As a result, _____. Example: “In my current job, I handle a large amount of data. I realized that my Excel skills weren’t strong enough to manage it all, so I took two advanced Excel courses and completed some online tutorials. As a result, my Excel skills are now quite advanced, and I can easily handle the large volume of data.” The Next Time You’re Asked this Question Before your next interview, prepare an example using one of the three formulas and practice saying it out loud a few times. You’ll be pleased to find that when an employer asks you “What is one of your weaknesses?” you’ll feel strong and confident when you respond. |
AuthorDebra Rosenfeld, LMFT Archives
August 2025
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