Interview Questions: Why Do You Want to Work Here?

It’s the most common question asked in any interview, and the number of ways to answer it are as infinite as the stars themselves. Why do you want to work here? It’s a question that, as often as it’s asked, can still make interview subjects fumble or sweat or be nervous and lose their train of thought.

It is one way for employers to gauge if a candidate has rehearsed answers, or is giving an authentic response with compassion and enthusiasm. It’s really a way to judge whether or not you are committed to getting a given position or not.

Before you even begin to answer the question, remember that you do not regurgitate your memorized answer verbatim. Remember the main points that you wish to convey and make sure that you practice saying it so it doesn’t come out as a bunch of sputtered sentence fragments. Employers have asked this question thousands, if not millions of times, and can tell an authentic answer from some memorized nonsense.

One way of impressing the company is to look beyond its website and research news articles about it. This will show a more in-depth understanding of what the organization is about and potential new challenges or projects they may be undertaking. Other factors to take into consideration include the company’s culture, products, philosophy and any potential skills development offered.

Look for things that the company does that resonate with your way of life. Perhaps they have put a lot of effort into climate change incentives. If this is something that matters to you, a response like, "I have been impressed by your climate change incentives. I liked what you did last year with your XYZ project. In college I was part of the ABC climate change project, so this is a subject that is close to my heart."

Once you’ve completed that part of how to answer this question, you might want to consider expanding on that reason why. This could be a great chance to show how your skills match those challenges and can help succeed when presented by them. This will offer employers insight into how you apply yourself at your job and how you feel will best succeed when meeting challenges the company faces. Perhaps thinking of at least two matches would be sufficient as to demonstrate your knowledge of both the company and how you’d best fit into the offered position.

Other things to mention include your career goals and how this position will fit in achieving that goal, your sincere interest in working and prioritize those aspects of the job into what’s most important to you and mention why.

If you know that mentorship is a big part of their company culture, you could say, "I would love to get this job because I believe that your mentorship program would be my best route to improving my skills and learning more to help your business reach it's goals." Try to be specific. Instead of saying "my skills," mention those skills specifically. Instead of saying "help your business reach it's goals," state the goals that you are aware of based on the research you've done.

Overall, the best way to answer this question is to be yourself, don’t be nervous, and tell them the truth. Some employers may want a simple answer, and others may want a more substantiated response. It’s impossible to know which is which, and pretending to be someone who isn’t you will not do you any favors in the long term. Start with a simple answer and if they are interested, they will ask you to expand on that.

Good luck with your interview!

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