You’re fresh out of school, interviewing for a job. Your major didn’t require you to get an internship anywhere, and you never tried getting any experience in your field on your own.

You get asked that question at the end: “Why should we hire you?”

I’ve always thought this question is really asking “So what experience do you have that you can apply?”

My current pinnacle of geekdom came last Christmas vacation, when I wrote a Web-based inventory management application and decision support system for my dad’s business. I used PHP for the language, MySQL for the back end and Apache to serve it up.

There was only one class I had taken that had any relevance to the project. It was database management, and the things I pulled from it were more theoretical than practical.

In essence, I acquired about 95 percent of the knowledge to build this application from staying up late at night writing scripts to do different, random things such as control Winamp or append lyrics to the currently playing song at the bottom of an Apache directory listing.

Basically, just playing around.

“You should hire me because I’ve written an inventory management application utilizing PHP and MySQL for a $2 million company, and I can bring this experience to yours” is how I might answer the question posed at a job interview.

The moral of the story is that even if it’s not structured (like an internship), people should go out and play around. Don’t worry about the fact it’s not related to your intended career path. In fact, seemingly non-related hobbies and experiences can pay dividends on the job hunt.

For example, photography is one of my hobbies. This certainly has nothing to do with Business Information Systems, but let’s come up with another fictitious interview scenario.

Say I’m trying to get into a BIS position at a photography studio straight out of Central Michigan University. The interview goes well, and it’s time for that one question: “Why should we hire you?”

“My experience with photographic work flow utilizing Light Room and Photoshop will allow me to better understand and fulfill your information system needs” should do the trick, especially given the real possibility I’m competing with people who have more experience in MIS than I might have.

Suddenly, my photography experience proved useful in snagging a BIS gig.
Don’t get me wrong. Formal education shouldn’t be discounted — not at all. It can, and will, give the theoretical basis of knowledge for what you do.

However, going out and “getting your hands dirty” just for the sake of it or otherwise is what’s going to make potential employers go, “Yeah, we want this kid.”

E-mail the author: Jason Gillman