- Many people make the mistake of thinking
the why are you good fit for this role question
should only focus on what you bring to the table.
Well, that is certainly a part of it.
We'll see in this video that adding an honest,
selfish element to your answer,
will help you come off as more genuine and memorable.
So let's get started.
such as why should we hire you?
And what makes you a good candidate?
But they're all really trying
to uncover the same three things.
Number one, what can you bring to the role?
Number two, what you are trying to get out of it?
And number three, what makes you unique?
You should definitely address
all three of these underlying questions,
but you want to make sure your answer
is structured with the right proportions as well.
In my experience, 50% of your answer
should be dedicated to one.
30 percent of the time spent on two,
and the remaining 20% left for three.
Let's start breaking each one of these down.
Starting with the first part of your answer,
what can you bring to the role?
You want to spend the most time on this part
because this is where you get to match a strength of yours
to the job requirement.
In other words, your value proposition.
First, you want to do some research,
and this is where it gets interesting.
A small trick I like to use
when reading through the job description
is to copy and paste all the text
into a free word cloud generator
to see which words or phrases come up the most frequently.
While the job description
doesn't usually paint a complete picture of the role,
this gives you a great starting point
to see which one of your experiences are most relevant.
For the next step, if you already have experience
in the area you have identified, perfect.
Mention how the new role represents a new challenge for you
and how you're looking to further grow your expertise
in that particular field.
If on the other hand, you are a fresh grad
or working professional looking to move
to another industry altogether,
you want to highlight relevant attributes
that are transferable to the new role.
In other words, if you have relevant work experience,
double down on it.
If you don't, mention skills you have developed
that will help you succeed in the new position.
Finally, because 50% of your answer
is allocated to this first part,
you can have a full story prepared using the star format.
If you're not familiar with star or need a quick refresher,
feel free to check out my behavioral interview video
linked down below.
So for example, let's say I'm applying
for a position at Tesla and totally
not because of their latest stock price or anything.
The job post on LinkedIn is that of a manager position
and their global operations team.
I copy and paste all the text in their job description
to a free workout generator that I'll also link down below.
And here are some of the key words that stand out team,
global team, supply chain, logistics,
system implementation, new process.
For me, my supply chain experience
is limited to tracking my package on Amazon.
So that's not really an area I can speak to.
But I do manage a team and I do optimize
a lot of internal processes in my current role
as a B2B product marketer.
So my answer, I probably highlight my leadership abilities
and give examples on internal processes I work on right now
and how those experiences
might be applicable to this new role.
If you found this first part helpful,
drop a like and comment down below
or whether the word cloud tip
is something you're planning to use.
On to the second part of your answer.
What do you want to take away from this role?
Many candidates are hesitant
to say what they want to get out of the job
because they think the answer
should just be about pitching themselves to the company.
But the thing is,
by saying what you are selfishly looking for,
not only does it help you come up as more authentic,
but it shows the interviewer
that you have done the research.
Because otherwise you wouldn't know
about the specifics in the first place.
For example, when I was interviewing
for my initial role at Google,
the account manager position in the sales team,
I specifically mentioned how I get a rush
from seeing my clients immediately adopt
my recommendations in their Google Ads accounts.
This was a big deal for me because of my previous
management consulting position,
it took weeks or even months to see the fruits of my labor.
But in a sales position at Google,
I saw it almost immediately.
Short term dopamine addiction aside,
my answer showed the hiring manager that number one,
Jeff is pretty results driven,
since he's excited about the impact that he's made.
Number two, Jeff has done the research
to know that part of the job
revolves around the Google Ads platform and number three,
he is a genuine person for admitting
part of the reason he's applying
is for the dopamine hit that he gets.
If you're having trouble with this part,
it's helpful to think about the ideal end result
if you were to get the job.
What would happen if you did the job really well?
Would you feel some personal satisfaction like I do?
Would you be able to further grow in your area of expertise?
Would you be able to build connections in a space
that you're unable to before?
For example, I know some legal counsels
who start off in corporate law,
that went on to join tech companies
because they want a more practical experience
about the laws regulating the Internet and technology space.
Final tip for this part is to find someone
working in the role that you're applying for,
and asking them whether they're happy with their job.
If yes, why?
Their answer might give you some inspiration.
By the way, I have a Facebook group
where I share weekly tips.
Consider joining if you haven't already.
I'll link it down below.
Finally, closing out your answer
with something unique about you.
The reason for this is very simple and slightly superficial.
And that's to make you memorable
in the mind of the interviewer.
There are two ways to go about this.
Number one, mention something truly unique
or at least uncommon about you
and how that relates to the role you're applying for.
Or number two, mention a common strength
and give a memorable example.
For me, I spent half my life in the US
and half around Greater China.
While this background doesn't even make me close
to being a unique special snowflake,
I could and I did mention how my international upbringing
would benefit a multinational company like Google,
or I should mention how I'm proactive
which is a common strength and give the memorable example
that to better engage my clients,
I went out of my way to create how to videos
when I was still in the sales team.
So to quickly recap.
Your answer to the why are you good fit
for this role question,
should address all three points,
the interviewer wants to uncover.
Number one, what can you bring to the role?
Number two, what do you want to get out of it?
And number three, what makes you unique?
Similar to the tell me about yourself question,
limit your answer to two, to two and a half minutes
while allocating 50% of your time to point one,
30 percent to point two,
and the remaining 20% to point three,