A terrific way to differentiate yourself is to show your prospective employer that you understand needs – and that you are uniquely qualified to meet those needs.

No. 3: Help your prospective employer understand how you will make his life easier.

You are a terrific human being who has the skills, drive, and determination to succeed in the position. Your dog and your mother love you. Why is it so hard to get a prospective employer to love you back?

The answer is simple: You have not looked at the hiring experience from the employer’s perspective.

You might believe that since you are competing for the job against a cast of thousands, you need to trumpet how wonderful you are so that you shine in comparison to other applicants. There is some truth to that thought. But unlike your dog and your mother who love you unconditionally, your prospective employer will love you only if you first give some love to the firm.

Look at the hiring experience through the employer’s perspective. The hiring partner is taking time away from her busy practice to meet with you. While the two of you are chatting, clients are calling, emails are landing in her inbox, and judges are scheduling trial deadlines. Moreover, her partners will judge her competence based on the performance of whichever applicant she ultimately chooses to hire. She has a lot on her mind.

If you want to land the job, you must show her that you are a safe choice.

You may think that you are applying for work because you need a job. In reality, however, you are interviewing for a position only because the employer needs help. If you want to get hired, you need to prove that you will make the employer’s job easier.

Show your prospective employer that you understand her needs and that you can meet those needs. Professional competence is the ticket that admits you to this dance. Tell her about experiences in your background that prove your dependability. Explain how you work well with others. Describe your ability to adapt to changing circumstances. It is your job to convince her that her life will be easier with you on board.

To do so, you must forget your own interests and instead view things from the perspective of your prospective employer. Take a genuine interest in the firm, the clients it services, and its practice areas. Ask yourself, “How can I uniquely meet this firm’s needs?” Then convince the hiring partner that you are not only a safe choice, but that her partners will consider her a genius for having the good sense to hire you.

Be careful how you express your love to the prospective employer. I remember a young lady who said in her cover letter that my firm would be a “good place to start my career.” By saying that she wanted to “start” her career with my firm, she (perhaps unknowingly) suggested that she would leave as soon as she found a “better” opportunity. As a small law firm, we could not afford to hire someone, train her for a year or two, and have her bolt the first time a “better” job came along. I liken her letter to a young man proposing marriage to his girlfriend by asking, “Will you be my first wife?” It’s not a good look.

Once you begin to view your job search through the employer’s perspective, you quickly will understand how to position yourself to meet the employer’s needs.

(To be continued)