What would be one best way to explain why you need a job?
To help you best explain to a job interviewer why you need a job, we asked interview coaches, recruiters and hiring managers this question for their best insights. From being honest and professional about what you are looking for to alluding to an alignment in values, there are several ways to convince job interviewers with the reasons why you need the job you are applying for.
Here are six ways these leaders advise candidates to explain why they need a job:
- Be Honest and Professional About What You Are Looking for
- Discuss Your Passion and Motivation Passionately
- Frame Your Job Search as Seeking Challenge for Growth and Fulfillment
- Explain it as Your Need For Career Development
- Demonstrate How Your Traits and Skills Would Benefit the Company
- Allude to an Alignment in Values
Be Honest and Professional About What You Are Looking for
Let them know what you’re looking for. Perhaps the best way to explain why you need a job is to simply be honest but professionally minded. This will be especially useful when talking to employers. Instead of saying, “I need to pay my bills” you could say “I’m looking for compensation that matches my current needs.” It’s not about what you say so much as how you say it.
Consider how you answer the question, but there is no need to embellish or make anything up. You want to get your needs across while maintaining a proper air of professionalism. This will help to demonstrate that you’re serious about taking on a job, not just desperately searching for anything you can find.
Caleb Ulffers, Haven Athletic
Discuss Your Passion and Motivation Passionately
Discuss your passion and motivation for the role and how it could shape your future in the industry. Most employers want to hear how you will change or develop within a role while helping the company. Passion will keep you motivated and interested. It drives you to succeed, and as a candidate, it expresses your desire to overcome obstacles while enjoying the role. It is still possible to discuss or even emphasize the importance of the job to you, and it will spark the hiring manager to hire you.
Anamika Goyal, Cottage
Frame Your Job Search as Seeking Challenge for Growth and Fulfillment
Explain that you are looking for a new challenge. By framing your job search as needing growth and fulfillment from a role, it can show you will be dedicated to your new role. It is a best practice to not only express your enthusiasm for a new job but how you are motivated to grow with the job. You want to show you can bring meaningful contributions to the company. Seeking a challenge in your new job lets the hiring manager know you are serious.
Zachary Hamed, Clay
Explain it as Your Need For Career Development
By far one of the best ways to explain why you need a job during an interview would be for your own career development! There will be some instances where an interviewer will throw this curve-ball question at you and it can be quite challenging to answer, as one wrong response could lead to your name being thrown off the list of candidates to choose from.
To avoid this, and respond with a great answer, you should always explain what your career goals are, how and why this job will increase your career development, and how that development can help improve the companies’ future work as well.
Giving any sort of smart, honest response such as this when being asked why you need a job will always be a fantastic answer.
Amy Adlerstein, Canvas People
Demonstrate How Your Traits and Skills Would Benefit the Company
The best approach in answering this question is by explaining how your work traits and skills would benefit the company. “When reading through the job description, I noticed that my skills in “blank” would be beneficial in helping the company develop more efficiently.” Examining in depth on how your skills would be beneficial for the job will help one best craft a response.
Lyudmyla Dobrynina, Optimeal
Allude to an Alignment in Values
There’s nothing as fulfilling as working in a company where your values are in alignment with theirs. Work becomes much smoother and an employee is more likely to stay and remain satisfied in the long term. A match in values is not only beneficial to the candidate, but also to the company. Thus, if you are asked why you need a job, you could explain how you’ve been on the hunt for a job that shares your values and you’re making progress with your search.
Eleanor Turner, The Cheeky Panda
