Monday Motivation: Why should I hire you?

The episode emphasizes the importance of preparing for the interview question, "Why should I hire you?" and how this preparation can enhance your overall confidence and interview performance. Key strategies discussed include focusing on your skills, communicating your passion for the role, highlighting your unique qualifications, and making the hiring manager's decision easier.

Use the free resource mentioned in today's episode, the "Why Should I Hire You? 4-Step Template". Just download and fill it out to prep today!

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• Understanding the significance of the "Why should I hire you?" question 
• Preparing for the question can enhance overall interview confidence 
• Clarity on personal value proposition 
• Focusing on relevant skills aligned with employer needs 
• Communicating passion and excitement for the role 
• Identifying unique qualities that differentiate you from other candidates 
• Mitigating hiring manager concerns to make their decision easier 
• 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:14

Hey everyone and welcome to the Equipped Interview Podcast. With a combined 30 plus years of being interviewed and interviewing thousands of others, we're here to build your confidence, help you stand out and get your dream job. Your hosts are Joshua Tinkey and Linda Kamali. Let's get you equipped. As a reminder, in these short Monday episodes we bring you some motivation to help you keep interview prep top of mind, so you can always be prepping. We share quick, hit, practical tips, reminders and steps you can take to start your week strong.

Speaker 1: 0:42

For today's topic, we're going to follow up on one of the top five items from last week, digging in a little bit deeper but also serving as a reminder to take action today. So last week I gave the top five interview secrets I tell my younger self. One of them was to prepare for certain questions, even if I didn't think I'd get asked. The most important one of these questions that you should prepare for, no matter what is, why should I hire you? So we talked about that last week. We're going to dive a little bit deeper. You may be asked this question directly, you may not. Either way, you should prepare to answer this head on. Even if you aren't asked this directly, preparing for it will be wildly helpful to you when answering almost any other interview question. The good news is, there's some easy ways to get ready and help yourself stand out along the way, and it really is critical for you to think through this response and how to answer it, and not just any response a good response, a bad response, obviously to this question can really significantly hurt your chances of getting the job offer, and so it really is a reason I harp on this question. It really helps set your mind and actually it might surprise you. It's actually better for you if you are asked this question. It really helps set your mind and actually it might surprise you. It's actually better for you if you are asked this question directly. I find it way more helpful than if I'm not asked. So why is that? Because it gives you a perfect opportunity to straight up tell the hiring manager why you think you're the best fit for the role, without feeling like you're bragging. Right. Isn't this overkill? I mean because in most cases, you won't be asked this question directly. Right, you may get the question what? Maybe 10, 20% of the time. If that, you still need to prepare for it, and not just in case you get the question.

Speaker 1: 2:11

There is a ton of benefit to simply thinking this through well. You need clarity in your own mind why you're a good fit for the role and what you specifically bring to the figurative table. What's your value proposition? Why should they hire you? Think about that. You better understand the answer yourself. If you want to clearly articulate it to someone else in a simple, efficient way in an interview Separately, this always helps you navigate the entire remaining part of the interview. You can always draw from your prep for this answer to help connect the dots for the hiring manager as why you're the best fit. This kind of clarity always leads to a boost in confidence. So how should you prepare? Prepare, as if you need to answer, how would you answer it? Then Do these next four steps. Oh, and if you're driving, you're at the gym or somewhere, you can't write these down, I have a free template you can fill out that helps you fill in the blanks. So just go to equippedinterviewcom and go to the free resources section and choose the why should I hire you four-step template. It's just our website, equippedinterviewcom, free resources. Then choose the why should I hire you template. It's the first one on the list. Promise you'll find it Okay. Here are those four steps.

Speaker 1: 3:19

One focus on your skills. What do I mean by that? More specifically, think about it. What skills are the hiring manager looking for and which ones do you offer? What are your strengths? I'll give you a hint. If you want to take this a little step further and add some credibility to the strengths and skills you talk about, make sure you've completed something like the StrengthsFinder assessment. When you receive your top five strengths, you can add that credibility to your own claim that you have a certain strength, because you can say, hey, I took this assessment, google it, search for it or other resources on our free resources page.

Speaker 1: 3:53

Number two focus on your passion and excitement. Why do I want the job? What is it about this specific role, organization, industry, what attracted me to apply? Be really specific here. This is the framework for answering the questions. So the skills, the passion and excitement, why you really want it. What excites you, what fires you up about this opportunity?

Speaker 1: 4:14

Number three focus on the unique. So what specific needs does the hiring manager have? This could be a specific skill the team is lacking. It could be a personality fit that the team needs somehow that you might know if it's an internal role you're going for, it could be a particular type of experience unique to this team in this time that they're looking for, or something that you have. Ask someone in the organization. Reread the job description. Try to read between the lines. Ask the recruiter, but find out something here. Then write it down, something that they need. Also, what specific skills do you uniquely offer? This could be a unique combination of experience and skill you bring to the table. It could be a connection or a network you bring to the role or organization. Maybe this is your second career and you bring a wealth of knowledge from a separate but related industry. Either way, write down something that all or most other candidates won't have.

Speaker 1: 5:02

And then four, focus on making their decision and life easier. You may not realize it, but the hiring manager has risk, too right. They might be thinking what if I make the wrong decision, or I like this candidate, but what if I overlooked something in the interview process? Make their decision easier. Remove some of the common risks and hesitations on their mind. So, for example, that could be share why you'll learn quickly, making it up that learning curve faster than other candidates, and why that would be true.

Speaker 1: 5:28

Explain how maybe your unique background means they don't have to train you on a particular system, which can be costly or a software program, or a designation, a license, something you already have. Focus on that. Make sure to call it out. Don't assume they'll connect those dots. Share how you transition seamlessly into a previous role, maybe a new job you took before, making things easier, how quickly you got up to speed with your former manager. So write down how you'll make the hiring manager's life easier by choosing you. So, to repeat those four steps, focus on your skills, focus on your passion and excitement, focus on the unique and focus on making the hiring manager's decision and life easier. Well, hope you enjoyed this Quick Hit Monday Motivation episode. Stay tuned for our regular episodes on Wednesday and another Quick Hit episode next week. That's all for today, but let's keep the conversation going. Check out equippedinterviewcom, be intentional, do the work and build your confidence to stand out in your next job interview. Thank you.