Hi Nie!

We're just past Labor Day, which usually means hiring will pick up a bit here in the US and there may be more opportunities avaiable than there were during the summer. So what better time to start planning ahead for upcoming interviews? The more prepared you are, the better you'll perform. So this is the first in a four-part series on how to answer a really tricky interview question: "Why should we hire you?"

You're ready to make a change, so you throw your hat in the ring for a few opportunities that look interesting. You quickly get a couple of calls to set up interviews, talk to a couple of hiring managers, and...you don't hear back.

This is frustrating because the company wouldn't interview you if you didn't look like a reasonable candidate on paper or if you didn't come with a recommendation from your professional network.

So your resume and recommendations are strong enough to get interviews, but then the opportunities just sort of dry up.

What's going on?

This is almost always a sign that the you need better positioning.

"What is positioning?"

Positioning is how you describe yourself as the hero this company needs, turning your skillset and experience into superpowers by matching them with the outcomes the business wants.

Let's start with an example you may have experienced: Your sink is clogged and that's a big problem because you have friends coming over for dinner later on.

You've tried all the normal tricks to get it unclogged, but it's really clogged and you can't seem to make any progress. It's time to call a plumber.

You want to get the best plumber for the best price, so you call two plumbers and have them come out to take a look at your clogged sink and tell you if they can fix it.

The first plumber

The first plumber looks at the sink and you ask, "Can you fix it?" He says, "I think so. I have an opening tomorrow afternoon, and I can come by and take a shot at fixing it then."

Ok, so that's not really ideal. He can probably fix the clogged sink, but you have to wait until tomorrow—after your friends come over for dinner—before you can find out for sure.

Maybe the second plumber can do better.

The second plumber

The second plumber looks at your clogged sink. "Can you fix it?" He says, "Definitely. With these pipes and the city water, the problem is usually just that the p-trap is plugged up, and there might be some gunk in the pipes beyond the p-trap. I fix this sort of thing all the time. I have everything I need on the truck and I can fix it right now if you want me to go ahead and get started."

The second plumber is clearly the better option—you prefer to work with him if possible—so let's talk about how you might think about pricing in this case.

How would you think about the cost of each plumber?

For the first plumber, you might think something like, "What's the lowest price I can pay this plumber to fix my sink?" For the second plumber, you're probably thinking something like, "How much can I afford to have this plumber fix my sink today?"

It's a subtle difference, but an important one: The second plumber has you thinking about the most you can afford to pay to have your sink unclogged today; the first plumber has you wondering how cheap it would be if you wait until tomorrow.

You're mentally prepared to pay a lot more for the second plumber than for the first plumber.

Why?

Because the second plumber used positioning like a pro.

A before and after example

Here's a more concrete example where you are the one trying to get hired.

Let's say you've applied for a job as a software developer and you're being interviewed by someone on the team you might work with.

Suddenly, you're asked a common interview question that scares most people:

"Why should we hire you?"

You're definitely qualified for the job, but this question catches you off guard, so you freeze up and say something like this:

"I'm a software developer."

Maybe you elaborate a bit and mention the school you went to or the programming languages you're familiar with. But in the end, your answer doesn't really tell the interviewer anything new or compelling.

You're not alone—that's what most people would say! They might use more words, but their answer boils down to "I read the job description and I think I can do that job."

Here's what your answer might sound like when you leveraging strong positioning to stand out as the candidate for the job:

“You’re transitioning your application to Ruby on Rails, and I’ve been using Ruby on Rails for production client projects for two years. I can save your team a lot of time because I can start writing production code right away.”

Well, hello there! That's a compelling answer that will impress your interviewer and significantly increase your chances of getting another interview and ultimately getting a high-quality job offer.

There's a straightforward process you can follow to consistently give strong answers like the second one, and this process works for any job.

Over the next few weeks, you'll learn that process so you can use positioning to stand out as the candidate for the job—just like the second plumber did—so you get more interviews that result in more high-quality job offers.

Until next time!

Josh

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