SkillSurvey, a firm that checks applicants’ references for employers, did a survey of 12,800 online references to analyse what sort of feedback is most common with regard to job applicants’ strengths and weaknesses. According to SkillSurvey’s data, the most-mentioned strength was ‘commitment/dedication’, mentioned by 21.8pc of references. The top weakness was ‘confidence’ (or a lack thereof), which was mentioned by 7.8pc of the references in the sample.

(Harvard Business Review)

Published in Dawn, Business & Finance weekly, August 22nd, 2016