Giving job interviews is a part of the work culture that one really can’t get away with. Of course, many of us want to land jobs with fat paychecks, and one of the questions that we get asked often is, “Why should we hire you?”
Each of us will have a different answer to it, depending on our knowledge and experience. The same question was recently thrown in front of Bill Gates, who built one of the biggest tech companies on the planet. So, it immediately sparks interest in what the billionaire has to say, which can be a good piece of advice.
During an interview (via CNN), NBA star Steph Curry asked Gates, “Let’s say you’re interviewing for a junior engineer position at Microsoft sitting in a boardroom or on a video call in 2020. Why should we hire you?”
To which, Gates came up with a rather simple and straightforward answer.
“You should look at the code that I’ve written. You know I’m kind of crazy. I write software programs way beyond any classes that I have taken and think I have gotten better over time, so take a look at how ambitious I have been there,” he replied.
“I do think I can work well with people, I might criticize their code a little harshly, but overall I like to be on a team, I like ambitious goals. I like thinking through how we can anticipate the future.”
“Software is cool, and I want to be involved.”
When asked about salary expectations, Gates said he’d prefer stock options over cash compensation.
Curry recently started a new interview series on his YouTube channel. He discussed with the Microsoft co-founder about the coronavirus pandemic and what role the current technology is playing.
One big point highlighted by Gates is the difference in the kind of job roles we have. For instance, some of us keep getting paychecks while working on our comfortable couches. On the other hand, people who work in restaurants aren’t getting enough work hours and opportunities to earn money.
Gates was one of the voices who warned that such a situation could come knocking on our doors, but even the billionaire said he “didn’t appreciate how inequitable it would be.”
“Hopefully, although the whole thing’s a tragedy and a huge setback, some of these areas of innovation like online learning, telemedicine get accelerated so that three years from now we can say, ‘Wow, we’ve made over 10 years of progress, this stuff really works’,” he said.
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