Why should we hire you?

The interview season  is now well and truly upon us and many of you are preparing as we speak.

I am going to write a series of blogs over the coming months on  interview questions and how to devise answers to these.

It is impossible to plan and prepare for every scenario in an interview. That is good though as the employer wants to see how you to respond to questions ‘out of the blue’.

And your replies to be responsive, natural and unrehearsed.

However in this blog I am going to cover the ‘known’, so covering what you can prepare  for.

All of you are individuals so have your own experiences and thoughts to relay so I am not going to be too prescriptive but I will make some suggestions and give you ideas to work with.

Firstly then it is very good to reach the interview stage as not every applicant will.  So congratulations!

Imagine  yourself  in the interview room and the question then comes – ‘Why do you want the job?’

This can come in different  guises ‘Why are a good fit for this organisation? Why should we hire you?  But essentially they are looking for you to show them how you can benefit their company and not the other way round.

You might find yourself going blank and muttering something . But there are no excuses for this. Its a sure fire question so you need to be ready.

So here are some suggestions to consider.

Think back to the original job advert, what were they asking for in skills, qualities  and experience.

What can you offer that meets their criteria?

Have you worked elsewhere were you made a suggestion about a different way of working?

Have you managed to save  a company  money? Introduced a new system.

All of these can be good.

But even  if you haven’t  there is a still a lot the company will value.

So here are some phrases that might be worth starting with and working on.

I want this job because it would allow me to use and develop my skills in …

I understand this  is a growing company with prospects … and I would like to be involved in some of the projects such as xyz

I have worked as a … and enjoyed it. I would now like to build on that experience and do…

In my previous role with … I …

This role is a good fit as it offers me the chance to…

I have looked at the company website and admire the work you are doing in…

In my final year project I researched … which is relevant to this industry.  My key findings were …

You get the idea. Try and work on these ideas and see what you can come up with… look out for the next blog on another interview question and how to answer this.

If you want more information on interviews go to our website.

https://www.brighton.ac.uk/careers/looking-for-a-job/cvs-applications-and-interviews/preparing-for-interviews/index.aspx

Mark Whittaker via Compfight