There’s three questions that matter the most on any job interview; why do you want to work here? Why should I hire you? And why did you leave your last job? Those are the most important questions on any job interview. If you want to know how to answer those. You can ace your next interview, hit the “Like” button and we’ll dive right in.
All right. Those questions, “Why do you want to work here?” “Why should I hire you?” “Why did you leave your last job?” are so important, you are going to get asked those.
It doesn’t matter what kind of job interview you have; you could be interviewing for the CEO of a company, you could be interviewing at Walmart, with an administrative position, doctor or lawyer; it doesn’t matter, car salesmen. Those three questions are going to get asked of you on your next interview; guaranteed.
Now, the cool thing is if you mail all three of those questions, you pretty much got the job. Now, you’ve got to be qualified too, but those are really, really important. So, let’s dive into it.
Why do you want to work here?
Now, most people, when they get asked this question, they scratch their heads and they’re like, “Well, because they need a job” or “Because they need a paycheck.”
And you know what? I’m going to see that in the comments right now. There’s going to be all kinds of people saying, “Well, I want I need this job because I need a paycheck. I’ve got to feed my family.”
You know what? Those are great reasons, but those are not reasons that an employer wants to hear when they ask, “Why you want to work here?”
What is it about that company that means something to you? What is attracting you to them? These are the questions I want you to ask of yourself; this is how you come to the realization of why do you want to work there?
Now, I love to use Google and Amazon as examples, because those are thriving cultures. Those are places where people can go and expand their careers, they can expand their minds and there’s so much room for growth in those companies that you can take {indistinct 2:03}; whether you’re a software programmer, you’re a sales person; it doesn’t matter. There’s a lot of opportunity for you to work with a lot of different people to help you grow and contribute.
So, I love to use Google as an example because they build all kinds of products; so is Apple too. They build all kinds of products that impact people in their everyday lives; you know, Google Maps. People love Google Maps. It helps them get everywhere they want to go.
So, if you were interviewing with Google and maybe you were interviewing on the Google Maps team, you could say, “You know what? I love Google and I specifically love what they do with Google Maps, because that project helps people every day, millions of people every day all over the world get where they want to go. And that means something to me.”
So, if they ask you, “Why you want to work here?” “It’s because that means something to me.” That’s the key to answering, “Why do you want to work here?” You want to connect it? You want to connect your reasons to working there for how that job is going to fulfill you inside and help you grow and give you the opportunity to contribute back to the employer; to a bigger cause. And not just contribute to the employer, but you’re contributing to the whole world.
And you can do this with any type of position. I mean, you might say, “Well, you know what, Don? I’m only interviewing for an I.T. Assistant position. How is that going to help me?”
Well, think about it. If you are interviewing for an I.T. position, you are going in there to help other people; that’s what I.T. does. I.T. creates all the information technology structure in a company and they help all the users get what they need to get, so that they can do their job. So, it’s your way of contributing to a bigger cause.
You might say, “Well, you know what, Don? I’m interviewing a Walmart. How does that matter? Why do I want to work there?” “Well, you know what? Walmart gets a lot of people coming in every single day. And interacting with those customers and helping them get what they need is fulfilling inside.
So, you connect your needs to what their needs are and you show them how you want to contribute and help them grow and that helps you grow inside. That is how you answer, “Why do I want to work here?” You got it? Okay. So, let’s move on to the next question.
Why should I hire you?
Now, you can’t just say, “Well, because I have the skills that are needed for the job, so that’s why I think you should hire me.” You know what? There’s a lot of people that have the skills.
What they’re really asking you is, “Why should I have you over this guy or this woman?” “What is it about you that stands out?” “What’s different about you?” These are questions I want you to ask of yourself. You have to compare yourself to the other people who are interviewing for the job.
And maybe you don’t know who they are. Obviously, you don’t know who they are because you’re not going to get a chance to meet them. But what is it about you that’s unique? Why should they hire you? What can you do to contribute to them? What can you do to help them solve their problems?
I mean, think about it. Why are you even there interviewing for a job? It’s because they have a problem and they are looking to you to help them solve their problem; that’s the key to the question.
So, you have to understand what the problem is. If you don’t know what the problem is, then how are you going to help him solve it? You can’t. How do you find out what people’s problems are? You ask them.
And, you know, not just say, “Hey, what are your problems?” But you dig deep and you ask them, “What are some of the challenges you guys are facing?” And you can dig deep and find out what they’re facing and then present yourself as a solution. And you say, “Well, you know what? I can help you with those kinds of things because I’ve done those kinds of things in my past jobs” or “I have done those kind of things in college?” or “I’ve done those kind of things, volunteering”; whatever it is or “That’s a passion of mine. I’ve learned how to do that. I’ve studied that and I can help you do it. And here’s how I can help you do it.”
So, that question about, “Why should we hire you?” That’s more like a problem solving question. They want to know how you can help them solve the problems. So, you have to connect what you can do best to what they need you to do.
But first, you have to understand what they need and expect of you and then you can say, “Well, you know what? I can do all these things” and you might even want to think about how you can help them do those things better than anyone else.
So, it helps to know a little bit about maybe some of the people who were interviewing for the job or some of the demographics of the people that are interviewing for that job. And just think about think about, “What skill sets do those other people have and why am I better?” “What makes me stand out from everyone else?” And that’s how you answer, “Why should I hire you?” Got it? All right, Next one; last question. Number three.
“Why did you leave your last job?” or “Why are you looking?”
Now, a lot of people might say, “Well, I left my last job because I was fired” and they don’t want to talk about it or they left the last job because they get laid off. Or you know what? Maybe you’re still working, but you want out.
So, the employer wants to know, “Why do you want to leave?” Why do you want to leave what are you doing over there to come and do it over here?”
You see, employers are smart. They know that most people leave their jobs because they don’t like it or they don’t like the people they work with or number one; they don’t like the boss.
It’s not about salary. Yeah, sure, some people might leave because they’re underpaid, but usually, a bigger driving reason is the boss. They hate the boss.
You don’t want to go in there and say, “Well, I hate my boss; that’s why I’m leaving”, because they’re going to think, “Well, if you hate your boss, who’s to say that you’re going to like this boss over here?” And they don’t want to bring you into their company and hope that you work out.
So, they want to know why you leave; what is it about this other place that doesn’t appeal to you anymore that they can bring you in and you can be in a position where you’re going to thrive and you’re going to grow and you’re going to be happy?
Because that’s what they really want; they want you to grow and they want you to be happy. They don’t want you to come into their company and to just have the same environment that you had in the last company, because the same thing’s going to happen.
Sure, you’ll come in and you work for six months, maybe a year; you’ll be happy and then you’ll be like, “You know what? It’s just the same old thing. The grass really isn’t greener on the other side” and then you’re got to quit.
And then after they’ve spent a whole year helping you grow, onboarding you, nurture you, training you, teaching you and then you just leave in a year. They want to avoid that because you leaving within a year is considered a miss hire and miss hires cost the company a lot of money.
A typical miss hire can cost the company anywhere from $250 thousand, in direct and indirect costs, all the way up to a million bucks. So, they’re very serious about who they bring into this role. And they want to make sure this role is going to help you grow and it’s going to fulfill you.
So, when they ask you, “Why do you want to leave your job?” or “Why did you quit?” or “Why were you let go?” you want to let them know that it’s because you are looking for more growth opportunities than you have in your current position.
And you want to identify that; you want identify the lack of opportunities that you are getting in your current position and you want to show them that, “Hey, if I were to come here, I think I have a lot more opportunity to grow and contribute. Over here, there’s a ceiling and I just keep bumping up against it and I just feel very unfulfilled. But over here, I think you have a lot of opportunity to help you grow.”
Now, you also want to connect your needs to what their needs are. So, you want to understand the job description, you want to understand where it’s going and what they’re looking for and what the plans are for this position.
And then get them to talk about this; ask them these questions, “Where is this position going?” things like that. And then connect your needs to that and say, “You know what? These are the things that I am looking for. You have what I’m looking for. This is why I’m leaving, because I don’t have it over here, but you have it over here and this is going to make me happy. And because I’m happy, I’m going to work hard for you and I’m going to help you guys grow and help you get what you need.”
Does all that make sense? Is that simple enough? I mean, you know, why do you want to leave your job? It’s because they don’t have what you need.
But you also don’t want to say things like, “Well, because they make me work weekends” or “They make me travel a lot.” And let’s say this position here is 50 percent travel and you just said, “Well, I don’t want to work in my old job because they make me travel a lot.” Well, they’re not going to want to bring you in here because this job is mostly travel, so they’re not interested in you. Does that make sense?
Bow, if you say things like, “You know, it’s the long hours. They make me work 40 to 60-hour weeks there.” And they might say, “Well, this job here, the average is 55 to 60 hours a week too.”
So, that’s not a good reason either that they make you work long hours because, “Well, hey, this company, we work long hours too.” So, you have to understand these things. You have to understand these subtleties.
So, how do you find these things out? You ask them questions. You ask them questions what the job is like. “You know, what are the hours like?”
Take what you really don’t like about your old job, think about the questions that would qualify you to either work there or not work there and ask these people the same questions. Make sure that this company doesn’t have the same problems that the old one does. It’s all there is to it.
So, you got it? Those three questions; “Why do you want to work here?” “Why should we hire you?” “Why did you leave your last job?” Nail those three questions and be qualified. And you will ace it.
You’ll ace the interview and you will be in the top three contenders for the position. And you’re going to get the job; maybe, maybe not. It’s hard to say. You’re not going to get every job you interview; nobody does. But at least you are positioning yourself to be in the top round picks. And that’s where you want to be. That’s where we have the most chance.
Now, to go a little bit further, because they’re going to ask you more than three questions, I’ve got a great guide for it’s called The Complete Interview Answer Guide.
This book has over 140 different questions in it. It’s got over 40 different behavioral questions in it. And it’s going to cover those three questions that we talked about, but it’s going to also cover, “Tell me about yourself”, “What your weaknesses?” “What are your strengths?” All those questions, because obviously they are going to ask you more than three questions.
Your interviews are probably going to go on for a few hours and they’re probably going to ask you maybe 30 or 40 questions.
But this guide has got most of those questions. And are they going to cover the experience questions like, “Tell me how you solved the computer problem?” No, because you have to know that; that’s an experience related question.
This guide here is going to cover all the general questions that they’re going to ask you and it’s going to give you the right framework to use when you answer any type of questions.
So, when they ask you those tricky STAR questions or those problem solving questions or whatever they are, this guide is going to give you the right framework and show you the right words to use and how to pitch yourself so you can answer any type of question.
This guide is awesome. This guide has been around for over 10 years. It’s available in hard copy. This book right here like you see. If you order this copy, I’ll ship that out to you.
It’s also available in an e-book. You can just download that really fast from our website and get started. Now, if you get the hard copy, it also comes with the e-book option, too.
Now, this book also is available in audio in video format. So, if you like to listen or watch, you can download all of the audio tracks to your phone and you can listen to them in your car until you get sick of listening to me because there is over a couple of hundred different audio tracks that make up this book.
Now, this is the only book on the planet that I know of that is available in hardcopy, audio, track MP3, video and e-book; nobody else does that. They either come out with a hardback or they come out with an e-book, but they don’t do all three.
I’m the only one who does that and probably because I’ve been doing this so long that I’m able to put it in all those different formats, so to appeal to all the different styles that people have of learning.
Some people like to learn by reading a physical book; they don’t want to listen to audio. Other people does love listening and watching and other people are happy just to download the e-book, put it on the phone or their computer and they can just scroll through it and they can download that instantly.
So, grab this book before your next interview; it is going to make a difference. I guarantee you, it’s going to make a big, fat difference on your next interview. It’s going to help you go farther. It’s going to make you shine in the interview. It’s going to make you shine. You are going to look awesome in your next interview. I totally guarantee it.
All right, my friend. That’s all I have for you today. If you like this video, “Like” it and share it with a friend. And subscribe to my channel, so you can get updates every time I release a new video.
All right, that’s all I’ve got you. See you in the next video. Good luck on your next interview. Take care. Bye now.
