Strengths and Weaknesses
Trying to figure out what I have to offer.
I started working with a career coach recently. Figured I’ve been looking for a full-time staff writer job for eons now —without much luck — so perhaps I needed to refine my resume, hone my job search strategy (or say, develop one), find out what I’m missing, what I might highlight, and explore self-awareness and improvement in the wayward professional landscape known as my career.
The thing is, many people my age are at this unexpected stage, particularly us “creatives.” The Times wrote about the Gen X career meltdown the other day. “Talk with people in their late 40s and 50s who once imagined they would be able to achieve great heights — or at least a solid career while flexing their creative muscles — and you are likely to hear about the photographer whose work dried up, the designer who can’t get hired or the magazine journalist who isn’t doing much of anything,” wrote Steven Kurutz. I feel that deeply.
But I don’t want to do anything else. This is my third career!!! Wahhh!!! I know whining isn’t useful here, but I can’t help it. I like this career. I love writing, telling stories, meeting people and learning what makes them hum and sharing that with the world. And you know, this is my third career – I was a lawyer, I ran restaurants, and I’ve got two kids, so I’m good on career changes (both paid and unpaid). I want to keep doing this one, and I figured maybe a career coach could help me.
My friend Diana recommended Sarah O’Brien Hammond and she has been fantastic. We had three sessions where she taught me a lot about how to make opportunity happen, how to plant seeds, how to create luck, not wait for it to land in your lap like an eager ICE agent after you’ve exercised your once-Constitutional right to free speech. Anyway, one of the things she asked me to prepare for potential interviews was a list of answers to questions they would no doubt ask me.
Questions like:
Why did you want to work here, Andrea?
That’s easy, because it would mean a full-time salary and health benefits and retirement savings which at the moment consists of what I have in my couch cushions.
And what about this particular role appeals to you?
It would enable me to pay rent every month not just in months ending in “R” like when they say it’s safe to eat oysters.
Why would you want to stop freelancing after all this time?
Because I can’t pay my rent and the kids’ orthodontist bill at the same time. But you know, since The White Lotus, Aimee Lou Wood has normalized what I’m calling alternative tooth pathways, so I’m going with rent over straight teeth.
In addition to revising my answers to these questions, Sarah suggested I go about figuring out my strengths and weaknesses. Lord. Where to begin. I decided I’d try to make a list to help work out what I have to offer and what shortcomings I have that I might try and sell as true superpowers in disguise. Here is a bit of a script I have developed that summarizes my strengths and weaknesses.
ANDREA STRONG’S STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES
Strengths
I’m very good at slow running. I don’t mean to brag here, but really, I am one of the best slow runners in Brooklyn, if not all of New York City. By way of example, in the time it took me to run the NYC Marathon in 2023, you could have taken the A train to JFK, had a leisurely cocktail by the gate, boarded a flight to Paris, and had a morning croissant from Terroir D'Avenir in the 11th. Seriously. I finished in just under six and a half hours (yes, I did get injured, but the year before when I was in the best condition of my life it took me five and a half hours, so you know, not swift).
That said, all that time on the road, pounding the pavement gives me time to think about stories, story ideas, and ways to improve our editorial strategy! If that’s not a strength I don’t know what is.
Another strength is my ability to lose things: my phone (if you’re one of those people who always knows where your phone is, how do you do that?!!!); my coffee cup (these keep turning up in the darndest places, all half full of cold coffee); my car (I have to move it so often for alternate side, I have no idea where it is half the time), my eyeglasses (I am like Velma from Scooby Doo). Also, thoughts. Thoughts come and go, too. I think I have one, then it’s gone. I walk into a room, and the reason for being there, poof! I go to the store, and come back with a variety of items, none of which relates to the reason I went in the first place. But other than that, I’m good and I probably won’t misplace anything at the office! Wait, do I have to go into an office? If so we should talk about that because going into an office is definitely NOT a strength of mine.
Another strength? Yes, I have another one! Losing socks. Some people misplace one or two socks a year, but I misplace sock mates every time I do the wash, which with two kids and the amount of time I spend running slowly (even though it’s slow I do sweat a lot), is about four times a week. Nearly all my socks are partnerless at this point. And I am partnerless! Maybe this is related? Have to give that some thought.
Oh, I’m also very good at taking other people’s witty words and memes and adding them to my Instagram stories so that by some warped sense of osmosis I come off as clever. Sure, I’m just stealing someone else’s wit and using it as my own, which doesn't really sound like a strength, but I pride myself on stealing only the FUNNIEST memes. No one curates and usurps other people’s brilliant humor like I do! Look at this one!
Weaknesses
Dating is definitely a weakness, so hopefully the role does not require me to do a lot of that. I have a weakness for men who aren’t really emotionally available, and by that I mean, men who are definitely not emotionally available. Also men who are about to go to prison. Also, men who are alcoholics. Also men who are emotionally unavailable, about to go to prison, and who are alcoholics. That’s a big weakness. So being single seems to be less work at the moment than dating.
Parenting is also a weakness, but that’s pretty much something I do on my own time so we should be good. Oh don’t worry, my kids are happy, well cared for, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that I’ve read all these articles recently about how kids need to stay off screens, and develop hobbies, leave the house, and be active, and then I think, well that sounds like a lot of work. And I look over at my kids cuddled together on the couch in the soft glow of their devices, and you know, they look so happy on their screens, all sedentary and maybe catatonic but definitely peaceful, so, why bother them? Particularly because while they’re all cozy with their screens, I can read my books and open as many bottles of wine as I like, all in peace. Who wants to disturb domestic serenity? Not me.
Sleep is a huge weakness. I close my eyes around 11pm and then from about 2:30am until about 5:47am is a time my body reserves for being wide awake. So I am super productive in those overnight hours which is probably good for you. The problem is that I do like to nap during the day, so I hope there is a pull-out couch or a comfortable bed in my office. I will have an office, right? I’m not so into the open plan seating thing.
My last weakness is finding full-time employment. Really not good at that, which brings us to why I’m here, in this job interview where I hope you’ll see that I’m an acclaimed writer with 25 years of journalism experience, telling some of the most important stories about food and restaurants and business and policy over those decades and have even had my work chosen for the Best Food Writing Anthology twice, and have the ability to bring my unique brand of storytelling to your publication, where I will no doubt continue to run slowly, lie awake at night, lose all the socks, usurp other people’s most clever memes, and nap during the day. As long as you’re okay with that I think we’ll get along just fine.
Strength: one hell of a writer.
Loved this so much. ❤️