How to Sell Yourself to a Hiring Manager

How to Sell Yourself to a Hiring ManagerHow to Sell Yourself to a Hiring Manager Youre ready to make a change, so you throw your hat in the ring for a few opportunities that look interesting. You quickly get a couple of calls to set up bewerbereinstellungsgesprchs, talk to a couple of hiring managers, andyou dont hear back.This is frustrating because the company wouldnt interview you if you didnt look like a reasonable candidate on paper or if you didnt come with a recommendation from your professional network.So your resume and recommendations are strong enough to get interviews, but then the opportunities just sort of dry up.This is almost always a sign that you need better positioning .Your job interviews are a part of your negotiation. The better you perform, the better your offer will be and the better youll be able make your case when you begin the formal salary negotiation.Every question youre asked is a chance to move them in this direction. Imagine you have a power meter that fills up a little mora every time you give a great answer to an interview question. The more full that power meter is when they make you an offer, the better the offer will be.Once you get into your interviews your job is to change the companys thinking from Whats the minimum we can offer this candidate to get them into this role? to Whats it going to take to convince this candidate to take this job?See the difference? You want to shift their thinking from Whats the minimum salary we can offer? to Whats it going to take?Positioning is how you describe yourself as the hero this company needs, turning your skillset and experience into superpowers by matching them with the outcomes the business wants.Lets illustrate this with an example you may have experienced Lets say youve applied for a job as a software developer and youre being interviewed by someone on the gruppe you might work with.Suddenly, youre asked a common interview question that scares most peopleYoure definitely qualified for the job, but this question catches you off guard, so you freeze up and say something like thisMaybe you elaborate a bit and mention the school you went to or the programming languages youre familiar with. But in the end, your answer doesnt really tell the interviewer anything new or compelling.Youre not alone- thats what most people would say They might use more words, but their answer boils down to I read the job description and I think I can do that job.Heres what your answer might sound like when you leveraging strong positioning to stand out as the candidate for the jobYoure transitioning your application to Ruby on Rails, and Ive been using Ruby on Rails for production client projects for two years. I can save your team a lot of time because I can start writing production code right away.Well, hello there Thats a compelling answer that will impress your interviewer and significantly increase your chances of getting another interview and ultimately getti ng a high-quality job offer. And theres a straightforward process you can follow to consistently give strong answers like the second one.In a nutshell, positioning is how you show a company that youre the person they need for a specific job.But how do you do that? How did the Software Developer know the company was transitioning their application to Ruby on Rails?Youll start with basic research and careful preparation for your interviews. Your goal is to learn enough about the company and job youre pursuing so that you understand exactly what they need. Once you have that information, will tell them why you are exactly what they need.Heres a short list of things you should look for as you discover exactly what the company needsKnowing that information before you go into an interview will help you be prepared to talk about the specific company and job youre considering. And, more importantly, youll be able to tell a more detailed story about how their company will be better if youre a part of it.So where do you start? There are three main places where youll find pretty much everything you need their company website,Google and Glassdoor .This doesnt need to be complicated- youre simply doing the work that others wont do. Here are the types of information youre looking forIn general, bigger companies will have more information available than smaller companies. Thats ok. For now, all youre doing is building a list of data sources you can use.Use the short list of above to discover exactly what the company needs. Most of the information is publicly available, and some companies will have more information than others. But thats ok because you just need basic information to get through the first interview or two.This is the key question you want to answer before your interviews. When you can tell the hiring manager how youll help the company or team achieve its goals and address its challenges, they will want to hire you.Remember, theyre interviewing you because the y need to fill an open position. That position is open because the company has needs or challenges that the person who does that job will help address. So when you tell them that youll help them address those needs and challenges, and you tell them how youll do it, youre saying, I am the candidate you opened this job for.Lets go back to the very beginning. The question were considering isMost people are intimidated by this question because its so vague and open-ended. Usually, theyll say something like, Because Im a software developer.A more experienced interviewer might say something likeIve been in this industry for 10 years, and I worked on a major project for ACME Corp and carried a lot of responsibility there. I also have experience managing teams and I have published five white papers on various topics.But look at who this candidate is talking about Ive, I, I, I.Dont just talk about yourself. Talk about how you can help the company achieve its goals or address its pain points. Youll still say I, but youll say it in the context of you.This is a softball question, the perfect setup for you to tell them how youll help them meet one of their goals or resolve a challenge theyre having Take advantage of itIf youve done your research before the interview, then the first thing youll do when confronted with this question is think, What is their most urgent need or challenge? It will probably be pretty obvious since youve spent time reading about their company, but its ok to just pick something from your list if there isnt any particular outstanding one.Now that youve identified their most urgent need, ask yourself, How can I help them address that need? Youve already been thinking about this before the interview, so its a slam dunk.Then you put them together into a nice, short answer that tells them how youll help them address their most urgent need with your skillset and experience.When companies hire people, they have a sortiment theyre able to pay to fill the position, and theyre more inclined to pay at the higher end of that range if they find the right candidate. You want to be that candidate.Before we wrap up, lets jump back to the software developer example we saw earlier. Now that you know how to use positioning to answer interview questions, see if you can spot the need and how the developer describes the solution when asked Why should we hire you?Youre transitioning your application to Ruby on Rails, and Ive been using Ruby on Rails for production client projects for two years. I can save your team a lot of time because I can start writing production code right away.Do you see it now? This answer is much more focused on the company and their needs.The most urgent need this developer identified was a big transition to a new technology. The developer could directly help address that need because he had a few years experience with that specific technology.All he had to do was tell the interviewer how he could help meet that need.That s an excellent use of positioning to answer a tricky interview question.Lets go back to our Positioning definition from the beginning of this seriesPositioning is how you describe yourself as the hero this company needs, turning your skillset and experience into superpowers by matching them with the outcomes the business wants.For each opportunity you pursue, do the research described above, and consider the companys goals and challenges. Then think about how you can use your skillset and experience to help the company address those goals and challenges.Do that for every opportunity and youll stand out from other candidates and get more high-quality job offers.A version of this article was originally published on FearlessSalaryNegotiation.com . Reprinted with permission