“So Why Should We Hire You?”
If you are currently in a job search chances are you've been asked that question already. Undoubtedly, it is the most feared interview question, but one of the most common. It pays to be ready to answer it. helps to understand that the question is an invitation for you to sell yourself. This is a good thing. No one is going to hire you until they have been sold on you. This is your chance to state your value to the prospective employer. The best way to answer this question is to prepare for it like a sales person. There are three steps to selling yourself with confidence.
1. Know your product “YOU.”
Every successful salesperson knows their product inside and out. They understand the benefits of each product feature. In like manner, you must be able to articulate your transferable skills. First, take inventory of your skills. Make sure the skills you focus on are in demand for the position you seek. Next, take stock of the times of crisis when you've used those skills to solve problems. Finally, ask yourself what your employer got out of your successes on the job. Did you save time or money, increase revenue, improve service or increase productivity? Your success stories carry more weight when you can quantify the results. These success stories make up your selling points.
2. Know the challenges of the position.
Before you can tell them why they should hire you, you must understand their current challenges. After all, you couldn't sell a car unless you knew understood how it was to be used. Until you know what challenges go with the position you won't know which of your selling points to talk about. To learn about their challenges you must ask them.
In the beginning of the interview ask your interviewer, “What challenges do you see as most significant for this position in the first six months?” Take careful note of his/her response. You will learn the “hot button” issues that you must sell you.
3. Match your skills to their challenges.
Here is where you get to sell yourself. Once you understand the critical skills they need for the job you simply share with them your success stories of when you have faced similar problems and how you solved them. Be sure to include the all-important benefit your company received. Start off your value statements with phrases like:
“I found a significant savings opportunity when...”
“My team gained efficiency when I discovered how to...”
“My boss achieved his quarterly objective when I...”
Remember, even if you don't get asked “why should we hire you” it is the underlying question and the point of the whole interview. Job interviews are your chance to sell your skills, talents and expertise. Before your next interview practice good salesmanship and prepare to sell yourself like a pro.
Deborah Walker, Certified Career Management Coach
Read more career tips and see sample resumes at: www.AlphaAdvantage.com
Resume Tips: Five Ways to Grab Employers' Attention
With today's level of competition for good jobs your resume has got only one chance to make a great first impression. To be considered for interviews your resume must have that special something that grabs the reader's attention and motivates them to call you. Here are five strategies for transforming a blah document into a WOW resume that will get employers calling you.
1. Keep your focus clear and to the point.
The first thing potential employers need to know is what you do and the position you are interested in. In the past job seekers have used an objective statement at the top of their resume to indicate their employment interest. With the lightning speed scanning approach that recruiters take in viewing resumes, a wordy, vague objective statement taking up three or more lines of text just doesn't get the job done. In most cases they don't get read. Instead, write a short, direct professional summery that clearly illustrates your career focus. Your statement should include your profession, how long you've done it and your particular areas of expertise. Something to the effect of:
Senior purchasing professions with 10 years' procurement expertise in: strategic sourcing, contract negotiation, financial analysis, strategic planning, leadership, contract law and process improvement.
Remember, your resume is not an historical tell-all. To keep your focus clear make sure that everything following in your resume relates to your focus. Leave off extraneous details.
2. Stuff your resume with key words.
The more key words you use the more frequently your resume will show up in online searches like LinkedIn, TheLadders and CareerBuilder, etc.. Additionally, employer resume data bases also use key words to query for qualifying candidates. Without appropriate key words your resume will be electronically ignored. Without key words, your resume is being shot off into a black void each time you submit it.
A good way to make sure your resume is full of key words is to check it against job postings. Use as many of the key words found in the responsibilities and qualifications sections of job postings. As much as you can, match up your terminology with what you find in job postings.
3. Keep your resume reader-friendly.
Nothing gets ignored like a resume full of lengthy blocks of text. No one has time to read through that much information. Resume screeners need to be able to absorb your information quickly. Leave out extraneous details so that key facts show up easily. Separate blocks of text into smaller easy-to-digest snippets of information. Use white space to separate bullet points so that each stand out. Be sure that your font size is readable: nothing smaller than 11 point.
4. Include plenty of accomplishments.
If you want to stand out from the crowd you must include accomplishments throughout your resume. Write accomplishments that show how you solve universal problems such as saving time, cutting costs, improving performance and increasing customer satisfaction. Your accomplishments should stand out on your resume in bullets separate from your responsibilities. Don't make the common mistake of combining responsibilities and accomplishments in a long list of bullets. List your responsibilities in a small block of text and your accomplishments in bullet form following.
5. Get your best information on page one.
It's true, if you can't grab their attention on page one they won't stick it out to find out the wonderful things you've got on page two or three. This presents a problem for those who experienced their most productive work five or more years back. The solution is to use the hybrid resume format that allows you to create a highlight of accomplishments section at the top of page one of your resume. This area of your resume is reserved for the best examples of your work. The accomplishments you include should illustrate the key transferable skills needed for the position you are interested in. Don't delay in implementing these resume changes. Employers are waiting for you with opportunities for a better career and a better life.
Deborah Walker, Certified Career Management Coach
Read more career tips and see sample resumes at: www.AlphaAdvantage.com
THE UN-COMFORT ZONEwith Robert Wilson
the early 1970s I was a young teenager who was completely caught up in the Zeitgeist. I admired the long-haired rebels and radicals who were engaged in protesting the establishment and developing the counter-culture. I didn’t really know what any of that meant, but to me it was all about empowering youth and declaring our independence from the adults. My parents in particular.
As with any normal teenager, I was trying to grow up as fast as I could. And, because it annoyed my parents, wearing my hair long was its perfect expression. That, and it was de rigueur among all the teenagers who wanted to be cool. So, the longer the better – or in the immortal words from the title song to the 1968 Broadway Musical HAIR, “Oh, say can you see, My eyes if you can... Then my hair's too short!”
It drove my parents completely crazy. They could not understand why any male would want to wear long hair. We fought about it all the time.
Meanwhile, I was in my first year of high school and the transition to a new school was causing my grades to drop dramatically. My parents saw an advantage, and the law was laid down: keep my grades above a certain minimum or cut my hair. It worked. I brought home a dismal report card, and it was off to the barber shop. Not surprisingly, my next report card met the minimum.
The formula is simple: if you can find out what is valuable to someone, then you have the key to motivating them. For me, at age 13, the length of my hair became the coin of the realm.
A year later, I accidentally made the Honor Roll. I say it was an accident because I was only trying to meet the minimum grades required by my parents and I somehow exceeded that. When I received the engraved certificate with the embossed gold seal, I was surprised by the feeling it gave me. I felt important – especially when my teachers praised me. I liked that feeling, and I wanted to experience it again. Suddenly the coin of the realm changed, and it was no longer the length of my hair that was motivating me. It was high grades and the sense of pride they gave me. Oh, my hair continued to grow, but my grades were all about achievement. From that point forward until I graduated, I never failed to make the Honor Roll.
Find out what is valuable to the person you want to motivate. What hobbies do they have? What are they passionate about? How do they spend their spare time? Then when you learn what rocks their world, find a way to tie your goals to it.
If you’re not sure what is valuable to someone, you can always make them feel important with an award or some other public acknowledgment. Everyone likes to hear their name announced in recognition at company or association meetings. Everyone likes to read their name in print in the organizational newsletter or website. Many business newspapers have a section where you can post your employees promotions and accomplishments. These low-cost to no-cost incentives truly have the power to motivate.
Robert Evans Wilson, Jr. is a motivational speaker and humorist. He works with companies that want to be more competitive and with people who want to think like innovators. For more information on Robert's programs please visit www.jumpstartyourmeeting.com.