In the world of freshers and those early in their careers, everyone is like an Alice in wonderland. There are multitudes of options for the field and company that you can choose for building a good career. However, a few positions and companies are highly coveted by hundreds of thousands of job applicants. The competition for such job opportunities can be almost maddening. The uncertainty of getting selected may overwhelm you, even before you appear for the first round of your interview. So, you want to prepare well for every common but important fresher interview question. One such question that you must prepare for is, “Why should we hire you?”
In this article, we will cover:
1. Why to prepare for “Why should we hire you?”
2. Similar Questions you will face
3. Why interviewers ask this fresher interview question?
4. How to answer “Why should we hire you?”
4.1 – 5 steps to prepare for this question
4.2 – 4 Tips to deliver Impactful Answer
4.3 – 3 things to Avoid while delivering your answer
5. 4 Powerful Detailed Sample Answers
6. Framework to deliver Powerful Answer
Let us dive in!
Why to prepare for “Why should we hire you?”
Let us look at a few stats, to understand the level of competition a candidate faces for companies and job positions in demand.
1. On average, each job opportunity attracts 250 or more applications.
2. Only 4 to 6 candidates out of these 250 may be invited for an interview round. This means less than 4% of the applicants get a call for an interview.
3. Normally, the first conversation is telephonic and can last for a maximum of 15 minutes. So you have a short time to impress the first interviewer, who is only screening for the best candidates available.
4. Less than 20% or one-fifth of the candidates pass their screening round.
5. The next interviews are in person or on video calls. They tend to last for 30 minutes to 45 minutes.
6. Freshers or those in the first 3-5 years of their career may face 3 to 4 such in-person or video interview rounds.
By now, you can understand that the whole process for highly coveted jobs is challenging. You will need to prepare on all fronts and for all fresher interview questions.
However, there is one question that can seal the deal for you. It can get you across the line and get you selected. It gives you the biggest opportunity you can have during your interview to leave an impeccable impression. And that question is, “Why should we hire you?”
Similar Questions to “Why should we hire you?”
We dive deep into how to prepare like a pro for this tough interview question and deliver a masterful response. But before that, we need to know how this same question can be asked to you in different ways.
Here are a few similar questions –
1. Why should we hire you with no experience?
2. Why should we hire you as you are a fresher and without any experience?
3. Why are you the best candidate for this position?
4. Why should we hire you (or a variant like “why should I hire you”)?
5. Why would you be a good fit for this position?
6. What makes you unique?
7. Why are you the best person for this job? Explain why your background would be a good fit for this job.
8. Do you think there is no better candidate than you in this interview round?
Why interviewers ask this fresher interview question?
For you to understand this, just look at the number of resumes, screening calls, and interview rounds that the interviewers themselves need to involve in. Thousands of resumes, hundreds of screening calls, and final long video or in-person conversations are hectic for the HRs and recruiters. So from their perspective, the central question driving this entire quest and process is, “Who will be the best fit for this position?”
To come to a conclusion about this, they need to know a lot of things about any job applicant.
Let us go over…
9 things that interviewers look for in job applicants
1. They want to see if you have a high level of enthusiasm or passion for the projects, tasks, or work that you have done so far.
2. Apart from the energy or effort you have put in, have you shown any specific abilities consistently across all the projects or assignments you have been a part of.
3. Many candidates may have similar experience in any given field like sales or marketing or software development. So, the interviewers look for any special experience that differentiates you over others.
4. Being enthusiastic or showing passion in a one-off project may not be good enough. Some candidates show a different level of drive consistency across all work experiences. Some of them tend to show more determination, especially in challenging situations. Interviewers love to see this.
5. Beyond these things, they want to see unique skills or qualities you may have. This can be technical skills or life skills.
6. In any company, one common factor that defines an individual’s success is his/her ability to work in a team. So interviewers want to know, how you perform when it comes to working in a group.
7. Interviewers ask themselves, “Can this applicant add to our current strengths or skills as a team?” or “Will this individual improve the overall team performance?” What you add to their existing team matters a lot.
8. They want to know if you understand their organization. They want to know how you feel about their company and believe in their possibilities, vision, and mission. In other words, are you naturally aligned with the culture and focus of their organization?
9. Finally, how well does everything about you align with the role or position offered?
With so many angles and questions playing on their mind, they need a few questions to explore this in you. Your response to, “Why should I hire you?” can help the interviewers immensely in this quest.
How to Answer “Why should we hire you?”
While preparing and answering this question, you want to remember that your goal is to prove to the interviewer that you are the best match, they can have, for the job.
Before you work on your answer, let us look at a few tips that will help you prepare for this common but tough interview question.
5 Steps to prepare for, “Why should we hire you?”
1. Carefully think about your strengths and weaknesses. This awareness is super helpful when you consider the next steps.
2. Study the company website in detail. You want to know their vision, mission, latest news, their culture code, and what distinguishes them as an organization. Almost 50% of the applicants lose in their interview because they do not have proper information out of lack of research.
3. Go over the details of the job posting. Study the requirements of the job carefully. You will be amazed to know, how many miss this simple step.
4. Carefully go over your own resume and consider what can differentiate you over others for the given opportunity.
5. Get a feel of how the interviews generally happen from social media and conversations with your friends or contacts who have experienced it.
4 Tips to deliver Impactful Answer for this fresher interview question
1. Focus on “Combination” of 3-4 strengths, skills, qualities, or experiences
How you stand out for the given job opening often tends to be a combination of multiple skills or strengths you have. You need to combine 3-4 of them at least in your response.
Talking about just one or 2 such things may leave you a tad short of the finishing line.
Remember, the skills or qualities may be from your professional life or personal life experiences. The skills may be technical or behavioral in nature.
2. Highlight your past achievements and awards
These are the proofs you need to convincingly establish your credibility around your strengths and differentiation.
3. Choose relevant differentiation factors
You may have a lot to showcase, but most of it may be totally irrelevant from the interviewer’s perspective.
This is where your company’s research and study of job requirements come in handy.
4. Exhibit strong body language and Assertive tone
Your body language and your tone speak a lot about you. Virtues like confidence, patience, calmness, and carefulness can easily be exhibited with just these 2 things.
So focus on your posture, your tone, speed of delivery of words, and even choice of your words. Maintain good eye contact. Avoid any kind of hurry or unnecessary excitement.
3 Things to avoid while answering this interview question
1. Don’t Lie
When interviewees get a chance to boast about themselves, there is a subtle temptation to lie. Interviewers are well trained to detect this. Their counter questions can quickly expose your lie. So avoid the temptation!
2. Avoid sounding arrogant or over-confident
This question gives you a chance to sell. So while selling yourself, remember that there is a thin line between being confident and being arrogant or overconfident.
A bit of practice of answering it before the mirror at your home can give you the feel of how you are coming across when answering.
3. Don’t take too much time
This may sound generic, but our experience shows that freshers or amateurs take a lot of time while answering this question. This can be irritating to the interviewer.
Being specific and relevant is the key to impress here.
4 Sample Answers for, “Why should we hire you?”
1. “During 4 years of engineering, I worked on several projects which have given me a 360 degree understanding of software development.
I have carefully built an experience of 100+ small projects to know ins and outs of back end and front end development.
It also exposed me to working with different groups of people. I needed to work in teams of 2 to 20 people. This gave me a deep understanding of how to excel in working in teams and how a group of people is always better than being a one-man army.
I, fortunately, got an opportunity to lead a small team of 6 of my classmates for a programming competition in Mumbai. It was a national-level competition where we secured 2nd spot. We were especially praised for the simplicity of our user interface.
When I went over the details of what this job entails, I felt that my experience, skills, and experience of working and leading teams can be very handy. I feel that I can thrive and deliver well in this role.”
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2. “When I was going over the job requirements, I almost felt that this job is designed for me. It connects deeply with my interests, inclination, skills, and experience.
During the days of BBA, I got deeply interested in entrepreneurship. I soon realized that ability to sell well is central to success in building any business.
So in my 3 years of BBA, I have participated in 5 business plan competitions and interned for 4 companies while completing my education.
The business plans helped me understand the thought process behind product promotion and its pricing. It helped me with insights of how and where to sell your product. In a state-level business plan competition held in Bangalore, our team stood 3rd, which boosted my confidence.
During my internships, I was able to grasp the products and their applications quickly. This helped me in selling them to the leads I could handle. Overall, my performance was at par with the junior sales reps who had 1 or 2 years of experience. My average monthly sales closures were around 2 lacs. I have even received an offer letter for them to join their sales team.
Sales and taking products to market fascinates me. When I went over your website and the details of your products, I felt that this is the kind of stuff that I want to represent in the market. I can see the value it delivers to its customers.
The company culture and job description tell me that I have strong growth possibilities here. I feel confident of performing very well in this position.”
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3. “When I read the job requirements, I can see that they require a very high level of analytical skills and conceptual understanding of computer science.
During my 4 years in the Government College of Engineering, I have consistently been in the top 5 and my average yearly percentage has been 75% or more.
To gain more experience and understanding, I have ventured into many state and national level programming competitions. To date, I have won 4 of them and secured 2nd or 3rd place in 10 of them.
Data science has attracted me the most during this time. I can see the breadth and depth of impact it can deliver in multitudes of fields. I have helped one photo-sharing application to find travelers using it so that they can push specific promotions towards that specific category of users.
I have also participated in sports. This has helped me with my interpersonal skills and ability to work well in teams.
Besides, I have been in a college hostel for the last 4 years. This has made me understand the different mindsets and lifestyles that people choose.
I believe that my education, experience, and exposure align me naturally for the position on offer.”
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4. “Since my childhood, I am a voracious reader. I generally finish at least 1 book every week in my spare time. This resulted in my interest in writing.
From the age of 10, I have been writing blogs, stories, poems, and various other genres. I have been fairly consistent in it over the years. This exposed me to various ways of writing and its tonality based on the output needed.
I went on to intern as a content writer for an NGO, then for a software company, and recently completed my internship with a magazine. My articles have received thousands of views. Some of them got widely shared as well.
I got an opportunity to help these teams in distributing the content too.
With this experience during my college days, I was certain that I want to build my career in content marketing. I have experienced how content plays a central role in marketing and brand building.
My creative instincts, voracious reading, internship experience, and the results I have achieved make me a strong fit for this position.
I feel I align with the company culture and its style of content quite naturally. I can also see how well I can deliver here given an opportunity!”
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Related Useful Article: 16+ Powerful Answers for – Why should we hire you?”
Framework to deliver powerful answer for “Why should we hire you?”
As you can see, there is a framework in place in all the sample answers above. Here are the pillars of that framework.
1. Ensure that you refer to or mention job requirements in your response. Bring out the important responsibilities of the role. It shows your understanding of that role.
2. Talk about experiences in your education, projects, and internships that highlight your skills and qualities that align with these key responsibilities.
3. Mention your key achievements to bolster your claim about your skills.
4. Combine all of this in a way that not only shows you to be a great fit but also exhibits your deep desire to join in that role.
In Conclusion
By now, you can see why preparing for this question is critical for you to get your dream job or dream company.
This article provides you with an in-depth guide to excel in convincing the interviewer to hire you.
In fact, if an interviewer asks this question, he or she is definitely interested in hiring you.
So buckle up and deliver!