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Ask HN: How to answer properly “Why we should hire you” question?
21–30 of 128 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to answer properly “Why we should hire you” question?
#22Assuming they ask this at the end of the interview after you've shown your skills and discussed your experience: "I believe I've demonstrated that I'll deliver significantly more value with my work than I'll cost you in salary and benefits." That's pretty much the reason anyone should hire you, for any role, in any industry. Most interviews are really about demonstrating the value you'll deliver. Keep that in mind wi…
Yeah. "If you can't make considerably more money from my work for than the amount you're paying me, you have problems that I can't solve." That said, I'd judge the audience before I phrased it like that... (and you'd have to _actually_ be good)
Yes, this is predicated on actually being able to deliver.
If you're looking to edge your way into a BigCo role where you can look busy without actually doing much (hey, I'm not going to judge you if that's your cup of tea), you're more likely to succeed with equivocation, pontification, and bloviation (though not necessarily in that order).
Re: Ask HN: How to answer properly “Why we should hire you” question?
#23For what it's worth, it's a horrid interview question. But I'll put that aside for a second.
Having candor and talking as though you were the interviewer can show empathy for their thought process while deliberately disconnecting you from the answer. This can kinda disarm the awkwardness of selling yourself so blatantly.
Example:
"If I were in your shoes - I would be looking for someone who would be the best fit for the team and can demonstrate X, Y, and Z skills [Note: great time to demonstrate understanding of what they're hiring for and pander towards your specific skill set. The real important thing here is knowing what X, Y, and Z should be]. Hopefully I have demonstrated that I fulfill those requirements through our interview, but certainly let me know if there are any areas that I can provide additional clarity. [In a sales interview, sometimes someone goes for a close here. Asks the interviewer if they have any objections about moving them forward to the next step. That's too aggressive in an engineering interview, but this might eek out an additional question or two. But in all likelihood, they'll just move right along]".
Re: Ask HN: How to answer properly “Why we should hire you” question?
#24Assuming they ask this at the end of the interview after you've shown your skills and discussed your experience: "I believe I've demonstrated that I'll deliver significantly more value with my work than I'll cost you in salary and benefits." That's pretty much the reason anyone should hire you, for any role, in any industry. Most interviews are really about demonstrating the value you'll deliver. Keep that in mind wi…
This is solid. Not purely the phrase, but more so what you say about explaining how you'd add value. Thanks
Re: Ask HN: How to answer properly “Why we should hire you” question?
#25The main thing that an interviewer is asking you when they ask you this is to essentially repeat back what you've heard them say. The best answer to this question is, "I've heard you say that you are looking for a, b and c, and I think that I can mesh well with your team and accomplish these things."
Good advice, this works for any verbal communication; by repeating the issues the other person has first you show that you have in fact listened to them. People love it when they feel as if people are listening to them.
Re: Ask HN: How to answer properly “Why we should hire you” question?
#26It' a non-technical way to see if it's a great fit or not. Before an interview, you should always prepare the following 3 key points:
- My XXX will help your company succeed.
- Your YYY will help me grow
- I believe in your ZZZ
XXX: skills, experience, etc. YYY: technology, project, product, etc. ZZZ: vision, culture, values.
Re: Ask HN: How to answer properly “Why we should hire you” question?
#27Was this question not originally intended as a nudge to drop some of the implicit formality of an interview -- where even if the atmosphere is colloquial, the power balance tilts in favor of the company -- and prompt the candidate to plainly speak about their thoughts?
Some might propose that it's advantageous to play the mind games and construct an answer tailored to the culture fit of the company. I question the wisdom of this: this is akin to lying on a dating site, where the truth, irrespective of its subtlety, will come out in a relationship sooner or later.
In my opinion, the point is to find a good employer-to-employee match, and you won't know what answer the interviewer is looking for -- so it's best to drop all pretenses and fall back to primal emotions: excitement, desire, etc. I want this. I want the challenge of working here. I think I'd be a great fit because .
I don't think this is akin to a retail employee reluctantly feeling pressured to pledge their allegiance to the brand, but rather a plain assessment of why you felt to apply there. Perhaps they're looking for a little reassurance that they're not an interchangeable cog in your plan, just like you want to feel like you're valued as a person, not just the sum of all your skills.
Re: Ask HN: How to answer properly “Why we should hire you” question?
#28Ask yourself what you haven't covered. My go-to answer on this is cultural, not technical. Explain the perspective you approach problems with, how you interact with others, the experience you have that might not be obvious in a resume. Maybe even reach a little and go back to something a family member taught you, or how some life hardship improved your outlook.
This is a great question to me as it provides so much opportunity. If you can't answer this with enthusiasm, then I think you should reflect on what makes you valuable. I promise that there is something...
Re: Ask HN: How to answer properly “Why we should hire you” question?
#29Businesses hire people to solve a problem. (Big surprise.) Therefore, to answer the question effectively, you need to figure out what problems they need to have solved[0]. Figuring this out includes the research on the company you've (hopefully) done before applying, reading and fully understanding the job description, and asking questions during the screening & interview loop along the lines of "What issues is your business trying to solve?", "What role(s) do you want the person that you hire to play?", "What pain points does your organization have?", etc.
From there, the response should more or less write itself: "My experience/skills in X, Y, and Z are going to help you solve problems A, B, and C that you're having" or, for less senior applicants, "I'm very interested in learning more about the technologies/skills you need me to have to solve problems A, B, C and my past work in I, J, K shows that I can acquire those skills easily and will be effective in applying them to your problems."
[0] This includes ones that they may not even know they needed to have solved.
Re: Ask HN: How to answer properly “Why we should hire you” question?
#30Assuming they ask this at the end of the interview after you've shown your skills and discussed your experience: "I believe I've demonstrated that I'll deliver significantly more value with my work than I'll cost you in salary and benefits." That's pretty much the reason anyone should hire you, for any role, in any industry. Most interviews are really about demonstrating the value you'll deliver. Keep that in mind wi…
Your reasoning makes perfect sense, but the answer is a bit dry and, I don't know how to describe it, robotic? As someone who has sat in the hiring chair, if I heard "You'll make more money from my work than I'll cost in salary and benefits.", I'd get the impression of that person someone who maybe views themselves as a profit-generating widget in the grand scheme of the company. I'd wonder a bit what enjoyment/passion that person gets from their work. I know that's completely unfair, but it's just not a very natural-sounding response. I just think there are, I don't know, "warmer" ways to phrase it?
Keep in mind, the person deciding to hire you is often somewhat removed from the bottom line of the company's financials. Even though the end-goal is to make the company more money, the hiring manager is often not primarily motivated by that. They're looking for someone who will deliver quality work while fitting in well with the rest of the team (this part is so important).
So my advice would be to add a tinge of enthusiasm and a display of personality that you believe would mesh well with the "vibe" of the existing team. Something like "Given that you're working on projects A, B, and C, I think my experience with X, Y, and Z can really help improve both the velocity of the team, as well as the quality of our output". You're saying basically the same thing, but more in manager-speak (depends on the manager, of course).
I know these are all qualitative/subjective things whereas your statement is very objective, but that's because I don't believe the hiring process is all about technical merit and productivity. As much as we might dislike it, it's about "fit", whatever that means.