The Secret to Acing Interviews: Show Them You're the Solution to Their Problems

At the end of every interview, the pivotal question inevitably comes: “Why do you want to work here?”

Most candidates offer predictable answers: “I’ve visited your website, and I like your values…” Responses that could come from anyone, lacking in real impact. But the true secret, whether in marketing, sales, or any form of human interaction—be it approaching someone in a bar or making connections while networking—is not about talking about yourself. It's about making the other person see why they need you.

When I faced that question in a recent interview, I employed exactly this strategy. I didn’t just browse the company’s website—I went deeper. I pored over the past four years of financial reports, studied the market, and examined their positioning. I showed up prepared, armed with a clear vision. My focus wasn’t on discussing myself; it was on how my understanding of their clients, their challenges, and their opportunities made me the solution they needed.

To illustrate my point, I shared a story from my past. As General Manager of a small but innovative telecom company, we didn’t own our own network. We bought the last mile from major carriers and bundled it with our own services, offering 100% proactive customer support, solving issues before the clients even noticed. This value-added service set us apart from giants like Telecom Italia and Fastweb.

One of our key clients was PSA Peugeot Citroen. That year, our supplier, Infracom, tried to edge us out by pitching directly to PSA, attempting to eliminate us as middlemen. When I learned of their plan, I acted swiftly. I contacted PSA’s infrastructure director and proposed a radical overhaul of their network—offering a tenfold increase in speed without raising costs. It was an offer they couldn’t refuse, and they accepted it eagerly.

The challenge? We had only four months to migrate an entire network, a task that would normally have taken at least a year. No one had ever done it before, but it wasn’t just about having a determined team. We completely revolutionized our processes: eliminated bottlenecks, optimized the installation of lines and routers, and accelerated network testing times, delivering an unprecedented level of service in the industry. And all without any additional costs for either us or the client. The result? We managed to complete 80% of the migration by December, leaving Infracom out of the game before they even realized it.

I still remember the confident smile of Claudio Lippi, CEO of Infracom, on December 30th, when he assumed he was about to take over PSA Peugeot Citroen. What he didn’t know was that the network had already been migrated.

And that’s the point: the company I was interviewing with needed me. Not just someone willing to take on challenges that seem impossible, but someone who proves that the impossible can be done.

So when you answer the question, “Why do you want to work here?”, the response should never be about you. It should be about how you are the answer to their problems. Not because they say it can’t be done, but because you didn’t know it couldn’t be done—and so, you did it.