It's Your Passion, Not Your Skills, That Get You The Job

I've been noticing a trend with many of my clients when discussing interview tips, tricks and secrets; they all want to figure out how to tackle questions related to their skills. Now, without a doubt, you must be prepared to discuss your background and experience, that's a given. I want to put that aside for right now and discuss passion and how it relates to interviewing.


It's Your Passion, Not Your Skills, That Get You The Job

Many job seekers put such a strong focus on their inventory of skills and stories, that they forget to really show the interviewer their passion for the job. Passion comes in many forms; for the job, the industry, career, company mission or a personal reason. Whatever it is, it doesn't really matter.

The secret is...

People want to hire people who want to be there

How do you "be there"? You show your love for any of the aforementioned reasons. Anyone who picks a job or has a job simply for the money will always lose in the end.

I've hired many people before who were really good at their jobs and you know what happened to them? They did a phenomenal job! *Bet you didn't expect that* They had the exact skills I was looking for and they fulfilled the job responsibilities to a "T", but there was only one problem. These people never went above and beyond, they only did what their job required. In addition to that, they never lasted much more than 3-4 years on the job, if that. The reason being was that they were not passionate about what they were doing; they didn't love it.

So what's this have to do with interviewing? Well, in the previous story, to answer your question that you're probably thinking, yes, of course you can land a job simply off skills alone, but you will be doing yourself a disservice and you will lose in the end. However, there are plenty of you out there who are probably thinking, "I have minimal experience, I am transitioning into a new career/industry or I have a lot skills, but they are never the 'right' skills." This is where passion comes in.

I can tell you that you had a successful interview when the interviewer can honestly answer the question, "Why does (your name) want this job?" Nobody ever "wants" a job because they have great skills that relate to it. No! Everyone wants a particular job because it excites them and they feel they can offer a lot of value.

You need to show your passion in the interview. The interviewer needs to know WHY you want the job. You need to tell the interviewer this is my passion, I love what I do and you (the interviewer) need to know why I'm the best for the job. Don't be afraid to go in to the interview with an agenda; I encourage it! You want to be sure that when you leave that interview, the interviewer can say, "wow, (your name) really loves what he/she does. What a tremendous asset they would be to the company."

At the end of the day, I can train anyone to do any job, but I can't train you to love your job! - Marc DeBoer