How to Answer Interview Questions – Q13

How can you apply your specific skills to help the organization achieve sustainable growth and generate revenue?

To answer this question, it’s very important that you understand the role you’re applying to fill.

If they ask you in the interview how you can apply your skills in “X, Y, and Z” to help the organization achieve growth and generate revenue, you’re probably interviewing for a higher-level position. At that level, you should be very clear and very specific on how you can help. What benefits do you bring to the table? Why should they hire you over someone else? If you can name 3-4 ways in which you would benefit the company in achieving those twin goals of growth and revenue, you’re in good shape.

That means that you better have expended considerable effort to research the position and the company before your interview. And you’ve moved into bonus territory if you’ve put that into a 30-60-90-day plan to show them how you plan to get started achieving success for them. There are lots of reasons why 30/60/90-day plans help you stand out, and this is a big one.

But the truth is, this question about growth and revenue is important to answer for every position. Every position has financial value for the company, or it wouldn’t exist. There’s really only one purpose or mission for every job, and that’s to make the company money—either directly or as a supportive role. Every role contributes to the bottom line.

Even the janitor does his part by keeping the place spic-and-span so that customers enjoy and feel comfortable in that space (increasing revenue) and so that workplace accidents are kept to a minimum (reducing costs).

A waitress does not just serve food. She’s the face of the company that owns the restaurant. She directly affects the customer’s image and opinion of the business, and whether or not they come back.

I was once asked by someone trying to stump me, “What about the person who puts the screws into the plane?” To them, that person was the lowest on the totem pole. In reality, that person is crucial to the success of the business. No one wants a plane falling apart in the sky, do they? That would definitely be bad for business.

So what does the role you’re applying for do for that business? How will your skills contribute to the growth of the business and generate more revenue?

If you understand how your job fits into the bigger picture goals and can show the interviewer how your skills contribute to those goals, you’re going to do very well.