What to say when the hiring manager asks ‘Why are you here?’

You’ve made it all the way to the final interview round. Congratulations!

Now it’s time to close the deal.

It’s not uncommon toward the end of the process for interviewers to ask you why you think you’re still in the running.

In fact, that’s precisely what Bank of America wanted to know when they asked, “Why did we choose you to come to our final round interview?” of a sales and trading analyst candidate.

“The job is yours to lose,” says Timothy Falcon Crack, a professor of Finance at Otago University in New Zealand and author of “Heard on The Street: Quantitative Questions from Wall Street Job Interviews.”

After a lot of time and effort, interviewers have whittled many candidates down to a short list, he says, and the easiest way to cross names off is to bring everyone on the list back in and have them each explain why they’re there. Anyone who says something stupid gets struck off the list, he says, and the last person standing gets the job.

Crack says the interviewers want you to walk them through four important points — your skills, fit, willingness to put in effort, and likelihood that you’ll accept the job — and tailor your answers to what you’ve learned about them through the interview process and what they’ve learned about you.

“They want you, but either they have some minor doubts remaining about you or they just can’t choose between candidates,” Crack says. “They are now giving you one final chance. Don’t put a foot wrong!”

This article is published in collaboration with Business Insider. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

To keep up with Agenda subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

Author: Rachel Gillett is a careers reporter at Business Insider.