do you know how to articulate your value
in an interview
i'm jen a career coach at indeed and
today i'm going to share some advice on
answering a very important interview
question
why should we hire you in this video
i'll explain
how and why employers ask this question
the three pieces
of information they're listening for in
an answer and the best strategy for
preparing for this question
make sure to stick around until the end
where i'll provide a complete example
answer
and a common mistake first let me
explain how and why employers present
this question
as for how they ask employers typically
ask this question at the end of an
interview
and instead of directly asking why
should we hire you
they may also frame it in one of the
following ways
what makes you the best candidate for
this position
what can you offer our company that
others can't
why are you a good fit for this role and
how can our team benefit from you
joining us
now as for why they ask there are three
important pieces of information
employers are listening for in a
response
they want to understand your value in
terms of your strengths accomplishments
and qualifications
they want to see how well you understand
what the role is and the needs of the
job
and they want to give you one last
opportunity to sell yourself as the best
candidate for the position
remember they want you to be the best
candidate so they can end their hiring
search
because of these reasons your answer to
this question should address the unique
skills and experience you offer in this
particular position
and why your values align with the
companies so let's talk about how to do
that
my first tip for answering the interview
question why should we hire you
is to research the company and study the
job description
now before we move on we'd love to hear
from you is this information helpful
let us know by liking and subscribing to
see more videos like this on our channel
if you've watched our job interview
guide which you can check out right here
you know that the goal of the question
and answer portion of an interview
is to understand two things are you
qualified for the role
and do you align with the company's
values this question is no exception
the best way to demonstrate to the
employer that you meet those two
criteria
is to both research the company and
study the job posting
when you research the company you want
to learn the company's mission and goals
you want to be able to make a connection
between you and the company
so look for any information that will
help you explain
how you share their values and can
ultimately help them accomplish their
goals
starting with the company website take a
look at their about section
most companies will display their
mission statement at the very top of the
page
or you may even see a theme repeated
throughout the website so for example at
indeed
our mission is to help people get jobs
every person who works at this company
supports this mission so if you were
applying for a job at indeed
you could make a connection to being
service minded and also to listening to
your customers and clients to address
their needs
and when you review the job posting look
for commonalities between what the
company is seeking in the candidate
and the qualities experiences and skills
that you personally possess
start with reviewing the required skills
and experience
think about three of your own qualities
and experiences that match closely with
what they have listed
identifying these in the research phase
will help you build talking points for
the interview later on
another important note here pay special
attention to the preferred skills
on a job description the required skills
are the must-haves
they're the minimum requirements so the
preferred skills can be viewed as the
nice to haves
these are the special qualifications
they know not everyone has
but for those that do have them it would
make them even more qualified for the
role
if you have any of the preferred skills
be sure to mention those in your
response because they're considered
icing on the cake and it can help you
stand out from other candidates
now you might also see the company's
mission statement included in the job
posting
and this is really common because each
role in the company should support the
mission in its own way
start to think about how you've
supported a mission like theirs in your
previous roles
this is going to prepare you for tip
number two my next tip for answering the
interview question
why should we hire you is to highlight
your proven impact
as you prepare your answer for the
question aim to explain how your
experience skills and character traits
make you the best candidate
just like when you're drafting a bullet
point to include on your resume you need
to do more than just
list experience you want to provide
context and demonstrate impact by
quantifying your accomplishments
skills and experience with numerical
data for example if you're interviewing
for a marketing associate position
and one of the preferred skills is
working with a particular piece of
software
instead of just saying i have experience
working with the software
you would want to share the details of
your experience such as
the number of months or years that
you've used the software your level of
experience with the software
like if you were a system administrator
and you could modify and add new
features
and the number of team members that you
trained to use the piece of software
if you don't have direct experience
working with a specific requirement
you can still draw a comparison to a
similar qualification
let's take our software example perhaps
you never worked with that specific
piece of software
but you have experience using a similar
one speak to how quickly you were able
to learn the new system
and how frequently you used it you can
still paint a picture for the
interviewer of your experience using
similar tools
and your ability to learn new tools and
adapt to new situations
qualities that could still make you a
really good fit for the role
the goal is to provide enough context so
the interviewer can see that you're
qualified for the position
quantifying accomplishments and
experience helps to do that
and this applies to character traits as
well if you're applying for a role that
mentions being service-minded
speak to the number of years you've
supported clients or worked in a
customer-facing role
for example let's say that in your
current role you support customers
through an online chat system
and you're applying for a client success
position at a new company
you could say i'm personally driven to
leave customers feeling like their
concerns have been heard
and resolved to the best of my ability
this is evidenced through my 98.7
customer satisfaction rating that i
received last month after responding to
over 200 customer chats
with an average response time of under
90 seconds
in the best case scenario you can tie a
quantifiable impact to your work
but i know that this isn't always
possible in this instance
just focus on the positive outcome on a
resume a formula that i like to use to
show impact in a bullet point is
strong verb plus what you did plus
reason
outcome or quantified results in an
interview setting
it would be more along the lines of
personal attribute statement
followed by work example with supporting
detail plus
positive outcome with quantifiable
results when possible
let's see how that works let's say that
you're a firefighter candidate
when answering a question like why
should we hire you
you can speak to the personal attributes
that would make a successful firefighter
here's an example i care about making my
community a better place
over the last few years i've volunteered
my time to local food banks and shelters
i feel proud when i can help someone
else in need and i've developed
relationships with many members of the
community because of it
the way that you speak about yourself
should align closely with the job
description
identify examples in your work history
education and training
that you can share with your
interviewers to illustrate the
characteristics and skills that you have
that match the characteristics and
skills that they're looking for
this leads me to my third tip for
answering the interview question why
should we hire you
speak confidently about what makes you
uniquely qualified
in other words sell it what sets you
apart from other candidates
this is the question that you're really
answering when an interviewer asks
why should we hire you think back to the
research that you conducted on the
company
and the role in tip number one the three
main points about your skills and
experience that you identified in tip
number two
can be used to create talking points
this should also remove
any self-doubt that you aren't qualified
for the role you've already made
connections between yourself and the job
now you just have to sell it do this by
being confident
this tip applies to any interviewing
situation
you know why you're qualified for the
role so be confident as you speak to it
confidence builds trust and interviewers
want to know that you're trustworthy
project confidence by making eye contact
with the interviewer
take notice of your posture sit up
straight with your shoulders back
i always like to imagine that there's an
imaginary string at the top of my head
that i can pull to correct my posture
even further
project your voice and speak clearly and
slowly
keep your hands steady and avoid
fidgeting or using any distracting hand
gestures
body language is just as important in a
virtual setting
where your face is often all an employer
can see so
try to remember to look directly into
your camera this communicates that
you're engaged and that you care about
what the interviewer has to say
prepping a few books under your computer
is a great way to ensure that your
camera is at eye height
now let's talk about what to do if
you're growing or transitioning in your
career
and don't quite meet all the
qualifications or preferred experience
the company is looking for
if you found yourself in an interview
there's something on your resume that
attracted the attention of the recruiter
don't forget that as you prepare for the
interview
take another look at your resume and
remind yourself about the transferable
skills you have
that apply to the role it's not always
about direct experience that gets you a
job
sometimes it comes down to a willingness
to learn proven adaptability and a
positive and confident attitude in
addition to focusing on transferable
skills and the exact qualifications that
you have
consider explaining how your different
or unique background positions you to
offer a fresh and valuable perspective
now that you understand how and why
employers ask why should we hire you
and you know how to prepare let's take a
look at an example
if you're a recent graduate you could
say i've recently graduated with a
bachelor's degree in communications
and i'm passionate about developing
innovative and user-centric email
marketing campaigns
my internship as an email marketer for a
pr firm equipped me with the experience
of creating impactful content
in a fast-paced environment i was able
to develop and execute an email campaign
that improved engagement rate by 10
this experience in addition to the
knowledge i gained at school about
creating testing and managing campaigns
to increase sales
improve brand loyalty and deliver
important information to customers
makes me confident that i would be a
valuable asset to your email marketing
team
if you're a case manager you could say
you should hire me for this role because
of my proven ability to maintain
strong interpersonal relationships with
several clients
i am passionate about providing care to
those in need in my community
which keeps me motivated and excited
about doing my best work
for the last three years i've managed a
caseload of 30 clients
i understand that you need a candidate
who can be consistently available for
events and clients lives
i have a 100 attendance rate for weekly
case proceedings
and meetings for my clients in addition
i can bring leadership experience to
your team
having trained over 15 new hires to
become familiar with day-to-day
operations
and to feel comfortable in their new
roles for additional advice on how to
answer common interview questions
be sure to check out the video that we
have on the topic you can find right
here
one of the most common mistakes i see
people make when answering this question
is speaking about other candidates and i
see how this can happen
when answering why you think you're the
best person for the job
it's natural to think about what makes
others less qualified
but the purpose of your interview is to
present yourself as the best
use i statements in your answer and when
speaking about unique qualifications
or different perspectives that you can
offer let them stand on their own value
it can be especially hard to avoid this
when you're applying for an internal
position
for example let's say that you're
applying for a promotion for a
leadership role
and you know that you have a better
rapport with the team than the other
person that's interviewing
you don't need to say that outright to
make your point
concentrate on yourself focus on sharing
how teammates already come to you for
guidance
share how you created a systems training
that became part of the onboarding
process for new team members
these are the things that you've done
that make you uniquely qualified for the
role
let's recap my tips for answering why
should we hire you
are research the role and study the job
description
highlight your proven impact speak
confidently about what makes you
uniquely qualified and don't speak about
other candidates
focus on yourself if you found this
helpful
please hit the like button and subscribe
down below and for more tips on
interviewing i recommend checking out
this playlist here
or watching our video on how to answer
another tricky interview question
tell me about yourself which you can
find right here
i hope that you're able to apply these
tips to your next interview prep
the ability to present yourself as the
best qualified candidate
comes down to research self-awareness
and confidence
thank you so much for watching i'll see
you next time