Why should I hire you? The question I couldn’t answer.
And it was not an interview.
Earlier this week, I had the pleasure to be the guest speaker at a panel discussion organized by the Women’s Network at our GE Global Operations Center in Budapest.
As the session was very engaging, we never got to the last question in the original agenda. So, I thought I would answer this now, in writing.
“Why should I hire you?”
When I first saw this question at the bottom of the list I had received just two hours before the event, I felt a bit puzzled.
“Intriguing”, I thought “I cannot really remember being ever asked this before”.
Even though I have interviewed an uncountable number of people in the last 10 years, I’ve never been fond of the cliché set of questions. However, I’ve heard this particular one being asked quite a few times by my colleagues during shared interviews. Unsurprisingly, most responses sound like this:
“I am very reliable”
“I am a great team player”
“I’m very motivated”
(I could add a few more to the list… but I guess you already see what I’m getting at)
There is nothing wrong with these answers. If not already articulated by the candidate, they would certainly trigger a number of other questions to go deeper. But the reality is, these qualities do not make anybody particularly different. Not anymore.
Most people I work with are very reliable.
Majority of them are good team players as well, meaning they can cooperate effectively at basic level. To me, a great team player is someone that has the ability to lift the entire team’s performance. I only know a few of these.
Being motivated is not necessarily a virtue in itself. What actually matters is “by what?”. Are you motivated by salary, promotions, bonuses, power, etc. OR by learning opportunities, human connections, a positive work environment, networking, process improvements? There are significant differences between the two sets of motivations.
I think that a good answer to this question should be able to tell me, in one minute, the story of what makes you different.
So here’s what I thought I would answer to the never-asked question (under the assumption it would come somewhere around the end of an interview):
By now, you must have a more or less clear picture of my expertise and my leadership skills.
Now let me tell you the two main reasons why you should hire me. The first one is that I care.
I care, first and foremost, about people. I strive to create an environment where my team members can work efficiently and healthily. I spend time coaching them, providing guidance and feedback because I want them to grow, thrive, and fly to the next level.
I think of my peers as my primary team: I know I cannot call success anything they wouldn’t label as such. I listen because I want to learn their perspective and be able to look at the situations holistically. I value diversity of opinions and divergent thoughts that constructively converge to a solution.
I want my manager to be successful. I will support him/her when he/she is under pressure and needs help. I offer my honest opinion and challenge what I don’t agree with or doesn’t feel right.
I care about resources: I don’t waste waste money or assets. I respect people’s physical and emotional energies and balance.
The second reason is that I’m happy and joyful. This is my way of expressing gratefulness for being alive and for all the opportunities I have. With this attitude, I can lift the morale of others. I make jokes to break the tension of the daily rush. I bring my positive energy from Monday 8:30 AM till Friday 6:00 PM. I spread it as much as I can.
Yes I have bad days too. But I don’t let them change my approach to life. They are just occasional and inevitable background noises in my symphony. I accept them as such. When people ask me how I am, I normally say: “Excellent”. Sometimes people laugh at this. Sometimes I get comments like: “How can you feel excellent on a Monday morning?”, “Oh you cannot possibly feel great all the time, Vale!”, “Yeah, right” or “What is your secret?”
Well. Perhaps I do have a secret. And that’s the reason why you should hire me.
Now it’s your turn. Why should I hire YOU?
Vale
If you enjoyed reading this article, I’d really appreciate if you could recommend it by clicking on the ❤ button below. Here is my previous article: “Perfectionism isn’t that fancy anymore”. Follow me on Medium or Facebook. For more stories like this follow InSpiral.
