Why should anyone hire you? Tell them why.

One of my favorite recent personal enrichment exercises has been creating for myself a document titled “10 Reasons Why You Should Hire Me”. In my case, this document doesn’t have a specific audience in mind other than myself as I’m not actively looking for a job right now. But this was an incredibly helpful experience for myself in a time when I really needed some uplifting. I’d love for it to uplift you!

Why you should go through this exercise

1. It’s beneficial to your self esteem and confidence. It feels good to take a step back and analyze where you’ve been and what makes you a valuable contributor to your company. On the hardest of days, you have a resource you can look at that confirms that you deserve to be where you are and that you’ve come a long way.
2. It helps you look at your career through a lens that guides your next move. You can see your skillset from a macro level and fit the pieces together in a way that makes for logical transitions to new roles, laterally or otherwise.
3. It helps establish your own personal unique value proposition. I think it’s important to see yourself as a marketable human being with value within whatever industry you work in. Being clear about what you bring to the table will help you perform confidently and impress in your next job interview.
4. It facilitates you noticing the holes in your experience that you can fill through mentorship or independent learning. While writing this document it became clear that I can’t call myself a “jack of all trades” without knowing how to program. Alas, I signed up for a course almost immediately after finishing the document.
5. If you are looking for a new job, it’s something that you can easily link in your cover letter as a succinct document that explains why you are valuable to the potential company.
6. Instead of focusing on specific titles and roles, it helps you look at the skills and less tangible benefits such as personality and leadership traits. These things are crucial to setting you apart from the competition, especially if you may be under-experienced for the role you’re applying for.
7. It answers the question that recruiters and HR staff are asking while they’re looking at your cover letter and resume: “Why should I hire this person over my other candidates?” Generally, this is a question that isn’t answered until the interview process. Providing this answer on your first contact allows you to give out pertinent information that you might not have the chance to share otherwise.

You might even end up learning a bit about yourself and what makes you an awesome and employable person.

Did you follow my advice and create this kind of document for yourself? Let me know how it went on Twitter @cuppy!