How to Answer This Interview Question: Why Should We Hire You?

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I know a lot of you are unemployed or are looking for better work right now. Over the coming weeks I’m going to be presenting much more career information on the blog, starting with today’s post on answering a difficult interview question.

The main argument in The Inner View of Your Interview is that job seekers should match their abilities, experience, education, and skills to the interviewer’s greatest needs. To do that, you’ll have to do more than just a little research – you’ll need to know this company inside and out. You’ll have to know this company’s challenges, its strengths, its weaknesses, and its goals.

One of the biggest questions an interviewer has, whether asked or not, is:

Question 6: Why should we hire you?

If you don’t know why, should the interviewer know why? You have to partner the interviewer’s needs with what you can do for him. That will be the recurring theme throughout this entire book. Believe it or not, this is a killer question because so many candidates are unprepared for it. If you stammer or ad-lib you’ve blown it. By anticipating this question you’ll be able to deliver a knock-out punch to any doubts your interviewer may have. It will also make you the stand-out candidate because you answered the central question to ALL job interviews.

WORST ANSWER: Having no answer or stalling while you think about it. If you’re being interviewed by a committee, trust me, one of the interviewers is kicking another under the table as they muse at your inability to convince them you’re worth hiring.

BEST ANSWER: Hopefully, I’ve been able by now to convince you of the critical nature of uncovering your interviewer’s needs before you answer a single question. Despite the jarring nature of this question, knowing the employer’s greatest needs and desires will give you a big leg up over other candidates because you will give him better reasons for hiring you than anyone else is likely to … reasons related directly to his needs.

It really doesn’t matter whether your interviewer asks you this question – this is arguably the most important question of your interview because he must answer it favorably in his own mind before you will be hired. So help him out! Lead the interviewer through each of the position’s requirements as you understand them and as they have been communicated to you, and follow each one with a reason why you meet that requirement better than anyone.

Every one of these duos (his needs matched by your qualifications) is a home run that drives up your personal score. It is your best opportunity to outshine your competition and get to work as quickly as possible.

This is a guest post from Ron Haynes, editor of The Wisdom Journal and author of a new eBook, The Inner View of Your Interview, exposing the motivations behind today’s top 100 job interview questions. Ron has been interviewing people for various positions for over two decades and uses his new eBook to give job seekers an insider’s peek into the mind of an interviewer.

If you’d like to read more about how to prepare for your next job interview, check out The Inner View of Your Interview (at a 33% discount) today and read the motivations behind and the best answers to the other 99 questions!

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