Employment Research Institute's Chief Executive Officer, A. Harrison Barnes, in a webinar discussed the importance of offering any bonus that you believe can tie you into an employer’s hiring you. The more bonuses you bring to a potential employer, the more likely you are to get hired.

Everyone has a lot more to offer to their jobs than they really do or actually know about. No skill is small and whether they are relevant or not, should be offered to potential employers while being interviewed. Someone knew how to play a certain instrument and offered to play it at company parties; another person made it known that she was an expert in QuickBooks; and yet another person had worked as an assistant in a gourmet restaurant. All three of them were hired! What they did here was to offer their additional skills to potential employers as incentives.

Incentives are a great business tactic and it almost always works to sell your product more than it would have without it. Incentives lure people to purchase products or services. The basic feeling of getting something extra for nothing is a wonderful feeling and it can make people go to any heights of getting what is ‘free’. The Happy Meal that was introduced in McDonald did exactly that. The few fries and the burger that was thrown into the colorful but cheap box had nothing to with the boost in sales. It is the little knickknack that came with the meal that brought everyone to McDonald’s. The bonus was what brought everybody running to buy the meal.

Harrison believes that you need to use the same tactic. You have abilities in you that you could offer as bonuses to employers. It is not always the core skill that gets you hired. The ‘extra bit’ that is seen as being offered to them, over and above your core skills, is what will make employers more interested in you. Remember, everyone wants something for nothing, and that includes potential employers!