Most people are not unique in any single skill, and interviewers know it. Plenty of candidates are organised, hard-working and good with people. What can be distinctive is the combination: the particular mix of skills, experience and perspective you bring, and the evidence that it has made a difference. That is what a good answer to “What makes you unique?” describes.
The method below works in five moves. Each one has a short exercise; together they take about half an hour, and the result is an answer you can deliver in under two minutes.
Why the question exists
The job advert lists what every shortlisted candidate is supposed to have. By the interview stage, the employer is trying to choose between people who mostly meet those criteria. SEEK’s career advice describes the question as a way for employers to learn what strengths, experiences or perspective you could bring to the role. Société Générale’s careers site, discussing the closely related “Why should we hire you?”, says that kind of question tests three things: your self-confidence, whether you understand the role’s real needs, and how motivated you are for the position.
So the interviewer is listening for three things at once: something that separates you from other candidates, proof that it is real, and a link to what this job requires. Miss any one and the answer falls flat.
It overlaps with “What are your strengths?” but is not the same. A strengths answer can name a skill many people share, provided you prove it well. A uniqueness answer has to explain why your version is less common.
Move 1: Collect your raw material
Write down, without filtering, everything that might be unusual about you as a candidate. Use four prompts:
- Cross-over experience. Have you worked in two fields, two countries, or two types of organisation? An accountant who spent three years in a hotel understands operations in a way many accountants do not.
- Uncommon skill pairings. Technical and creative, numerical and client-facing, clinical and teaching. SEEK’s advice points out that pairing common skills in an unexpected way can itself be the differentiator.
- Context you know well. Languages, markets, customer groups, regulations or software that many applicants will not have.
- A pattern others have noticed. What do managers, colleagues or clients repeatedly ask you to help with? Asking people who know your work is often the quickest way to find a quality you take for granted.
Aim for eight to ten items. Most will be dropped, which is the point.
Move 2: Filter against the job
Put the job advert next to your list and cross out anything that does not connect to a stated need or an obvious problem the role exists to solve. A rare skill that the employer does not need is trivia. Société Générale’s example is a candidate for an international role who mentions languages and time spent abroad. The same experience would count for much less in a role that never leaves one market.
From what survives, pick one combination of two, or at most three, items. More than that turns into a list, and lists sound generic.
Move 3: Find the proof
For the combination you chose, find one specific occasion where it produced a result that someone without it would probably not have achieved. You do not need a full STAR story; a compact version is enough here:
- the situation in one sentence;
- what you did that drew on the combination;
- what happened as a result, with a number if you have a real one.
If you cannot find an example, the combination is probably a hope rather than a fact. Go back to Move 2 and choose another.
Move 4: Say why it matters here
End with one sentence that points the combination at the job: a problem in the advert, a priority you found in your research, or a gap in the team the interviewer mentioned earlier. This is the sentence most candidates leave out, and it is the one that answers the interviewer’s real question: why should this difference matter to us?
Move 5: Rehearse the shape, not the script
Learn the structure (claim, proof, relevance) rather than memorising sentences. SEEK suggests an answer of roughly 30 seconds to two minutes and recommends adapting it for each job rather than reusing it word for word. If you rehearse the structure, you can lengthen or shorten it depending on how much time the interviewer seems to have.
Three worked answers, annotated
The answers below are illustrative. Read the notes as well as the answer: they show which move each sentence is doing.
Payroll specialist applying to a construction company
“I’d say it’s the combination of payroll and site experience. Before payroll I spent two years as a site administrator, so I know how timesheets are actually filled in on a project and where they go wrong. At my last employer that meant I could fix the overtime coding problem at the source, with the foremen, instead of correcting it every month in the office. Your advert mentions several active sites, so I think that background would let me cut down on corrections quickly.”
Why it works: the claim is a combination, not a trait. The proof is a specific problem solved in a way that depended on the combination. The final sentence ties it to a fact in the advert.
Graduate applying for a junior data analyst role
“I studied biology, not computer science, and I taught myself SQL and Python during my final-year project, analysing field survey data. What that gives me is the habit of asking where data comes from and what could be wrong with it before I analyse it. In my project I found that two survey sites had used different measurement methods, which would have skewed the results. For a team that works with data from many sources, I think that habit is useful.”
Why it works: a graduate with limited work experience uses an unusual educational route as the combination. The proof is small but concrete, and the candidate does not overclaim.
Experienced nurse moving into a clinical educator role
“I’ve worked in both the emergency department and outpatient clinics, and I’ve been the person new staff on my unit come to for help with the documentation system. So I know what new nurses find hard in a fast setting and what they find hard in a slower one. I wrote the quick-reference guide our unit still uses for new starters. In an educator role, I’d use that to design training that fits each setting rather than one programme for everyone.”
Why it works: it combines two clinical settings with a pattern others noticed (colleagues asking for help), and the evidence is something the interviewer could check.
What not to say
| Answer | The problem | Better direction |
|---|---|---|
| “I’m a hard worker and a team player.” | Every candidate says it; it separates you from no one. | Name what is less common about how you work, and prove it. |
| “Honestly, I’m the best person for this job.” | Unprovable, and it sounds arrogant. Société Générale advises framing yourself as one of the stronger candidates rather than the best. | Let the evidence make the claim for you. |
| “I don’t really know.” | Suggests you have not prepared or do not understand the role. | Prepare one combination in advance, even if it is modest. |
| A personal fact unrelated to work | Interesting, but it does not answer the employer’s question. | Use personal interests only if you can show a direct link to the job. |
| Comparing yourself with other candidates | You do not know who they are, and criticising others reflects badly on you. | Talk about what you bring, not what others lack. |
If you think nothing about you is unique
This is common, particularly among people early in their careers or those who have stayed in one role for a long time. Three things help:
- Shrink the claim. You do not need to be unique in the world, only less common among the candidates for this job. Something that is ordinary in your current team may be unusual in the team you are joining.
- Look at the route, not the destination. How you got here (a career change, a different degree, an unusual first job) is often more distinctive than where you are now.
- Use the evidence you already wrote down. The achievements on your CV often contain the answer. If the CV does not show them yet, it is worth fixing before the interview; the resume examples show how achievement lines are typically written, and the resume builder can help you restructure the sections so your combination is visible on the page.
Keep your interview answer and your CV consistent. If the interviewer has your CV in front of them, the strongest uniqueness answer is one they can see reflected in it.
Frequently asked questions
How is “What makes you unique?” different from “Why should we hire you?”
They overlap. “Why should we hire you?” asks you to summarise your fit across the whole role. “What makes you unique?” asks for the part of that fit other candidates are less likely to have. You can use the same evidence, but the uniqueness answer is narrower.
Can I mention a hobby or personal background?
Yes, if you can link it clearly to the job and give evidence that it affects how you work. SEEK advises leaving out personal information that is not relevant to the role.
How long should my answer be?
Roughly 30 seconds to two minutes. One combination, one example and one sentence linking it to the job usually fits comfortably within that.
Should I give the same answer to every employer?
Keep the same raw material, but change which combination you lead with and the final sentence for each job. The relevance sentence in particular has to be specific to the role.
Sources
- What makes you unique?, SEEK
- How to answer “Why should we hire you?” during a job interview?, Société Générale Careers