How to Answer: “Why should we hire you? (Graduate / Entry level)”
A complete guide to answering this common interview question — including what interviewers are really looking for, practical tips, and a worked example answer.
What interviewers are really asking
As a graduate you lack professional experience, so lead with demonstrated potential: academic projects, internships, extracurriculars, or self-directed work that shows you can do this job. Be specific — generic 'I'm a fast learner' answers are forgettable.
Tips
- Lead with your most relevant experience, however brief.
- Show proof of the skills they're hiring for — academic or otherwise.
- Demonstrate genuine enthusiasm for this specific company and role.
- Show self-awareness about what you still need to learn.
- End with what you will bring — not just what you want to gain.
Example answer
Sample response
“I won't pretend I have years of commercial experience — but I have three things that I think matter here. First, I built a data pipeline during my final year project that processed 50k records daily, which is directly relevant to what your data team does. Second, I interned at a startup where I shipped a feature end-to-end in a team of four — so I understand how production code works in a real team, not just in theory. Third, I've been following your technical blog for 18 months and I can tell your team thinks carefully about engineering quality. That's the kind of environment I want to learn in.”
Adapt this to your own experience — never use any example answer verbatim.
Use the STAR method
Structure your answer as: Situation (brief context), Task (your specific responsibility), Action (what you personally did), Result (the quantified outcome). Most strong interview answers follow this pattern.
Full STAR method guide