If you have gone to a number of job interviews, then you probably heard this at the end of one or two such interviews: “Why should I hire you?” Maybe the person interviewing you framed the question this way: “Why should we pick you over the other applicants?” Both of those questions offer a glimpse into the biggest problem facing any potential employer.
Finding employees with the needed skills for a given job is a big problem, but not the employer’s biggest problem. Identifying motivated workers is a bigger problem, but not any employer’s biggest problem. No job applicant can get a job, unless he or she can demonstrate the ability to solve the employer’s biggest problem. How can you show that you have the ability to solve the employer’s biggest problem?
In order to solve an employer’s biggest problem you must be ready to answer the question, “Why should I hire you?” You need to highlight those aspects of your behavior that are most apt to help you, as you seek to fit in with “the team.” If you can work with the team that he or she has already put in place, then you will have handed your potential employer a valuable piece of assurance—assurance that you will not disrupt the productive force of the existing “team.”
In other words, if you are a job candidate, then you really need to put the limelight on character traits such as flexibility, tolerance, tact and optimism. If you can convince a potential employer that your character matches well with the general environment in a company of organization, then you will have provided that employer with an added bit of control.
In the mind of an employer, that added control translates into a guarantee, a guarantee that you will solve that employer’s biggest problem. The job applicant who can best help any one employer is the applicant most apt to get a desired position. If you can convince a potential employer that have all the qualities that will help that employer to solve his or her biggest problem, then you are likely to head the list of favored job candidates.
Put yourself “in the shoes of your potential employer.” Remember everything that you ever learned about getting along with others. Then make a point of sharing a story that demonstrates your knowledge of those very qualities. That story could help you to answer the question “Why should I hire you?”
