Do an inventory of your skills to find what’s important

Now that you know what the company is looking for, you should do a full inventory of your skills to find what matches.

Some of these will seem obvious but others might not be. You would be surprised if you knew how often interviewers forget to mention a past skill or experience that could differentiate themselves from the rest of the candidates.

That is what makes this step so important.

If you go through and list out everything you can do or plan on learning you’ll be able to quickly match it with what your potential employer is looking for. These will be the core points you’ll touch on when explaining what makes you unique.

Spending a moment on this ahead of time means you’ll be able to easily recall and convey this information without having to think about it too much.

This means if you get nervous or if they sneak “Tell us what makes you unique” into a portion of the interview that you didn’t expect, you’ll easily be able to hit all of the main points of value you offer.

Remember, it’s not just what you say but how you say it.

A great answer that’s delivered poorly can be a missed opportunity, and a poor answer delivered with confidence can make you look like a doofus.

Spend a little extra time to make sure you can answer this with confidence and clarity!

Sometimes the small stuff can be more compelling.

Once you have a full list of samples, prioritize which ones look like the best fit for the job you’re applying to. Time can sometimes run short, or the interviewer can steer the conversation in another direction.

Make sure you take advantage of your window of opportunity by mentioning the best stuff. If you have time to hit some of the secondary examples that’s great.

The main thing to remember is you don’t want to leave the room thinking “I wish I had a chance to mention X.” Leading with the important examples first will make sure this doesn’t happen.

Share how this can help the company

This is where you tie everything together and get back to the most important bit:

What you can do for them.

Like we said, when they ask “What makes you unique” they’re really looking for what makes you a perfect fit to help their company.

And now that you have everything laid out it’s time to show them.

This is where the knowledge of the company and position come into play. A lot of the time you can find what they want written word for word on the job description page.

It might be growing sales 5% month over month. It could be drafting grants for various departments.

Whatever it is, explain how everything that makes you unique can help them accomplish their expected goals (and more).

This will put a nice bow on your answer that’ll leave the interviewer thinking “wow” and give your chances of getting hired a massive boost.