Question

When applying for a job, our written documentation is the first exposure a potential employer has to who we are and what we could offer to the company. How have you used your resume, cover letter, or follow-up letter to distinguish yourself in a positive way from others applying for the same position? Have you experienced any negative feedback from these documents in the past? How have you incorporated this feedback (positive or negative) into these documents in future situations?

Answer 1

When you apply for a job, there’s a good chance many of your skills and personality traits overlap with other candidates who have applied for the same role. At the same time, there are certainly experiences and abilities that you uniquely possess.

To identify what sets you apart from other professionals in your field, employers might ask the popular interview question, “What makes you unique?” Use this opportunity to expand on relevant qualities that make you the best fit for the position. By preparing an honest, informative answer, you can help the employer recognize the valuable assets you’ll bring to their organization. Here are some helpful tips and examples to help you determine how to answer what makes you unique.

Why do interviewers ask “What makes you unique?”

Employers often include this question to identify what skills or qualities make you a better fit for the role than other candidates they might be interviewing. In other words, if dozens of other professionals with nearly identical skill sets have also applied for the role, why should they hire you instead?

A second reason employers ask this question is to understand what you value about yourself. The things you emphasize in your answer may also be critical strengths you’re continually working to improve upon. The employer is looking for exceptional strengths or soft skills you might not have included in your resume or application but will help you do well on the job.

Tips to prepare you for this question

INTERVIEWING

Interview Question: "What Makes You Unique?"

March 26, 2020

When you apply for a job, there’s a good chance many of your skills and personality traits overlap with other candidates who have applied for the same role. At the same time, there are certainly experiences and abilities that you uniquely possess.

To identify what sets you apart from other professionals in your field, employers might ask the popular interview question, “What makes you unique?” Use this opportunity to expand on relevant qualities that make you the best fit for the position. By preparing an honest, informative answer, you can help the employer recognize the valuable assets you’ll bring to their organization. Here are some helpful tips and examples to help you determine how to answer what makes you unique.

Why do interviewers ask “What makes you unique?”

Employers often include this question to identify what skills or qualities make you a better fit for the role than other candidates they might be interviewing. In other words, if dozens of other professionals with nearly identical skill sets have also applied for the role, why should they hire you instead?

A second reason employers ask this question is to understand what you value about yourself. The things you emphasize in your answer may also be critical strengths you’re continually working to improve upon. The employer is looking for exceptional strengths or soft skills you might not have included in your resume or application but will help you do well on the job.

Tips to prepare you for this question

Instead of trying to identify a feature that distinguishes you from all other applicants, focus instead on why hiring you would benefit the employer. Since you don’t know the other applicants, it can be challenging to think about your answer in relation to them. Addressing why your background makes you a good fit will let employers know why your traits and qualifications make you well prepared.

Here are four things you can do to help you identify your most relevant, unique traits:

• Consider what the employer may find valuable.
  Employers want candidates who will bring a perspective, skill set or ability that will help them achieve business goals. Take time to carefully review the job description and look for information about specific objectives the employer is hoping the new employee will meet, then identify the strengths you possess that align with these needs.

  For example, if you’re applying for a team management position and the job description highlights the company’s drive to facilitate cross-department communication, you might share your ability to bring people together around a common goal and create drive in a group setting.

• Look to your background and previous experiences.
  Think back on times you were successful in previous positions or times you were praised or rewarded by your employer. What did you do to earn recognition? What traits, skills or abilities helped you achieve success? Whatever you accomplished is likely something other employers would also appreciate in a new employee.

  For example, a particularly gifted sales professional may have experience handling unhappy clients or bringing back lost accounts. In this case, their unique skill may be their ability to perceive when someone is unhappy and quickly mobilize a strategy to diffuse and address their concerns.

• Acknowledge your most popular personality traits.
  Consider strengths highlighted by previous employees and traits your friends and family have celebrated. Then, look for ways you could apply these aspects of your personality to excel in the job.

  For example, let’s say other people have recognized you’re patient and dedicated. In this case, you could share how your patience and persistence has allowed you to remain calm and collected in high-stress scenarios or your determination to meet goals despite outside pressures or setbacks.

• Remember: You don’t have to be a one-of-a-kind.
  Don’t let the word “unique” confuse or intimidate you. While employers are looking for interesting skills, they don’t expect you to share something that’s unlike any answer they’ve ever heard—especially if it’s not relevant to the job.

  For example, if you’re applying for a customer service position, the employer probably isn’t interested in hearing about your unique trapeze skills. Alternatively, fluency in multiple languages might not be especially uncommon but this valuable skill may be enough to set a customer service candidate apart from other applicants.

Tip: If you’ve received peer or manager feedback that highlights some of your strengths, you could include this in your answer. This can provide further evidence for the traits you claim to have. For example, you might begin your response by saying: “In my peer feedback, I’ve been regularly recognized for my ability to collaborate…” You can then go into more detail.

When answering any interview question, use specific details or real-life scenarios whenever possible. The better you demonstrate your abilities through examples, the more memorable and reliable your answer.

During a job interview, a hiring manager may ask you this classic job interview question—“Can you describe a time when your work was criticized?” A question along these lines might sound like an attempt to get you to admit your worst on-the-job mistakes.

While hiring managers might be interested to hear about your work gaffes, what they really want to know is how you respond to stressful situations, and whether you can take suggestions and corrections with the right attitude.

They also want to get a handle on how well you could work under a variety of management styles, and if criticism of any stripe (constructive, or downright negative) makes you defensive, angry or undervalued.

“Successful conflict management results in greater productivity and positive working relationships.”

• Mistakes You Should Avoid

It may be easy to only describe times when your work was criticized incorrectly or unfairly if you are not thoughtful about the matter, leaving the bad impression that your work is always above reproach. This is why you must prep an answer in advance to the “Can you describe a time when your work was criticized?” interview question.

To make sure you leave a positive rather than a negative impression, watch out for these common blunders:

• Do not say that you have never been criticized at work, as this sounds as if you are bragging (or saying you are perfect).
• If you feel that you have never been criticized, dig deeper. Nobody’s perfect. If you don’t have much work experience yet, reach back to school projects, volunteering gigs, or extracurricular group activities.
• Whatever you do, do not make up a story when answering “Can you describe a time when your work was criticized?” Hiring managers can sniff out lies and exaggerations.
• Do not make the mistake of going into excessive detail about any work slip-ups—instead, focus on your positive reaction to criticism.
• Do not talk about whether the person who criticized you was in a position to offer that criticism.

Don’t disparage anyone with your response, including yourself.

• Only giving negative feedback

This does not mean that when you give feedback to someone you must give them good feedback at the same time. As illustrated in earlier examples, giving stand alone positive feedback, at the right time, can be a big motivator to your project team. Too often, and project managers in particular, people only see the negatives and believe that the positives are just team members “doing their job”.

• Being non-specific with feedback

Saying “great job” without indicating what originated the comment doesn't help at all. The same applies to the reverse condition. When giving negative feedback to someone, such as “You were very late to the status meeting, don't let it happen again”, give additional details and impacts. Now the comment “You were very late to the status meeting, don't let it happen again” becomes “Because you were late to this morning's status meeting, all the other participants were held up and delayed in their next meetings. We could not proceed until you were there because your status was on the critical path and everyone needed to hear it first. Please ensure you are on time for future meetings.”