Often when you are interviewing, you will get the question, “Why should we hire you?” Or “Tell me why you are the best candidate?” To answer this question effectively, you need to understand what this hiring manager and the employer are looking for in a candidate. Hopefully though the interview process, you have researched the company, asked questions about the position, and gotten a sense of the priorities of the hiring manager. This information will help you craft an answer that sells your skills as the best fit of all of the applicants for the job.

To answer this question well, you will need to consider the following:

1. What is the problem or problems that the hiring manager/team/company currently has or potentially will have?

2. What are the skills, knowledge, and abilities that you possess (and have demonstrated) that can address the problems?

Problem To Be Solved

There is no need to hire someone unless that person solves a problem for the company. That might be as simple as answering customer service calls. It might be as complicated as developing a strategy to enter a new market. No matter what the problem, the hiring manager is going to want someone who has the skills, knowledge, and abilities to solve that problem. Your job in the recruitment process is to understand the problem that needs to be addressed. To answer this question well, you should have researched the company to understand it better. Do your own SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) to deduce what is happening with this employer. Read the job description carefully to understand what is being asked for and to understand what are the priorities. 

Backfill Position

The person that was in the role before may have been awful, okay, or a superstar. The hiring manager is going to take into account how the previous person performed and will either want a duplicate, in the case of a good performer, or will want someone with different skills in the case of a poor or just okay performer. It is always a good idea in the interview process to ask about the person previously in the position and how they performed to get intelligence on the expectation for the role. If you have not had a chance to ask about the person previously in the role, try to listen well for the types of questions that are being asked. It should give you some clues about the critical hiring criteria for this manager. As an example, if you hear a question such as “how would you handle X situation?” know that the situation described is one that the person in this role will face. It is important enough for the employer to ask you specifically about this. This is a clue that this is one of the problems that they need someone to solve for them.

New Position

With a new position, the manager cannot rely on anyone doing the job previously as a basis of comparison. A new position is needed because of a new need - maybe additional work or clients or a change in the process. Sometimes a new position is well defined, often though the manager has an idea at a high level of what is needed, but the specifics of the role may be a bit nebulous. Sometimes the new hire will be asked to figure out (with guidance) how the role will work in the organization. It is important to listen well to the type of questions being asked. This will help you gauge what is essential in the mind of the hiring manager. Especially look for signs that the person in this role will need to be flexible and have excellent relationship skills. A new hire in this type of situation may not have well-delineated work processes and may need to rely on help from others, especially at the beginning, for their success.

What You Offer

You may have many skills, abilities, and knowledge in a lot of areas. The only thing the hiring manager is concerned about is the skills, abilities, and knowledge that apply to their problem. All the other things you could offer has much less weight for the hiring manager. Therefore, you need to emphasize in your answer only what you offer to a hiring manager that s/he will value. As an example, do not talk about all the certifications you have in areas that are not relevant to the job. That weakens your answer to the question. If the hiring manager needs someone with excellent oral communication skills, then you need to talk about your great verbal communication skills and not about your creative skills. 

Example

Through your company research, which includes reading about the company and the industry, and understanding the needs of the role by reviewing the job description, you should have some idea of the priorities of this role. By listening to the questions asked of you during phone interviews and in-person interviews, you should be able to come up with a list of priorities for the role. Here is an example of potential priorities you could discover for a position as a senior accountant.

• The company was a private company that was recently acquired by a public company

• The company has several subsidiaries

• The accounting systems have recently changed to those of the new company

• Detail orientation is required. The person previously in the role made many mistakes that cost the company money and time

• Looking for someone that is a leader

• Understanding of the restaurant industry is a plus

• CPA a plus

Here is what you offer that is a match to the needs of the company/hiring manager.

• You have worked at both a private and public company.

• You have worked in multiple accounting systems

• You were attracted to the accounting profession because you were good with numbers and like being able to find the right answer. You are the go-to person for reviewing other people’s work for accuracy

• You have a record of success in roles that has results in two promotions

• You had taken on a leadership role for the accounting department when the Accounting Manager was out on maternity leave

• You have not worked in the restaurant industry in an accounting role, but you did an accounting internship for an accounting firm that had a hotel client, and you worked on that account

• You have completed two of the part of the CPA 

So with this information, here is how you might answer the question, “why should we hire you?”

You should hire me because I can do this job and do it well. Here is what I offer to you. I have accounting experience in both the public and private sector, so I know the regulatory requirements of each type of entity. I have worked in multiple accounting systems, including SAP, Acumatica, and Oracle. In my last position, I was in charge of the integration of the debt collection module, so I am very comfortable learning new systems. I do have some experience, not in the restaurant industry, but the hospitality industry, so I do understand how a service industry operates on the accounting side. I am working on my CPA, with two parts of the exam completed. I feel that getting my CPA will further enhance my knowledge in the accounting field and think that it gives me a lot of credibility among my peers. I have always been a leader, and, when my manager was out on maternity leave, I was able to manage the department in her absence successfully. With the debt collection module integration, I volunteered for that project and was able to meet your deadline for getting it up and running. I was given a special bonus for my work and recognized by the President of the company. I am very detail-oriented and am the go-to person when we have tight deadlines, and work needs to be reviewed. I recently found an error by one of my coworkers that would have cost the company several thousands of dollars. I have always received excellent reviews, and my work performance has resulted in two promotions. This is why you should hire me.

The best answer to the question “why should we hire you?” is the one that allows the hiring managers to check off on his or her list that you meet the job requirements.