Why Do You Want to Work Here? (Answer this Tricky Question)

Key Takeaways

Unlike the why should we hire you interview question where you can and should include selfish elements in your answer to stay authentic, your response to why do you want to work here should mainly focus on selfless reasons and highlight what you bring to the table. In this video, I'm going to share practical strategies that address the three implicit things interviewers are looking for when they ask this question. So, let's get started. When faced with why do you want to work here and other variations of this question such as why are you interested in this position and why do you want this job? [music] It's important to know that the interviewer is essentially trying to figure out the following three things. Number one, do you have a growth mindset? Number two, just how much research have you done on the position and company? And number three, how enthusiastic are you about the role? Now, let's dive into the strategies that address each one of these questions. Starting with number one, do you have a growth mindset? Growth mindset is a phrase that has been thrown around a lot in the past few years, but in a nutshell, it's the idea that if you do have a growth mindset, you always look for ways to [music] improve yourself. So, we put in the extra time and effort, and that leads to higher achievement. Scientifically, it has been proven that those with a growth mindset tend to outperform those with a fixed mindset, and [music] companies obviously know this. So, the interview question, why do you want to work here? helps the interviewers tease [music] out whether you have a growth or fixed mindset. On a more practical level, this means if you're a working professional interviewing for a role in the same industry as you are in right now, you want to convey the fact that you're moving not because of higher pay, but because of how the new role will present new challenges that will push you to grow personally and professionally. Let's say you're in sales currently taking care of smaller clients and you're interviewing for a role where you would cover large key accounts. You can say how this move is a natural extension of your professional growth. You've already learned how to take care of smaller accounts through scale strategies and now you want the challenge of taking on bigger clients. Another example is if you're interviewing with a smaller firm for a role with more responsibility, you can say how you want to take the best practices of an established corporation [music] and apply those learnings to a more startup environment that currently lacks a more formal structure. Or let's say you're pivoting to a completely new industry [music] where you have little to no experience in a situation many fresh graduates and young professionals find themselves [music] in. In that case, you want to highlight how you're able to ramp up in the new role with minimal guidance from your manager. Aka, are you going to make their life easy or hard? To do [music] this, give examples where you're able to successfully find a solution to a difficult problem you are facing and how you might replicate those steps [music] you took to find the solution. For example, when I was interviewing for my first full-time position in management consulting, I knew that making slides and presentations was very [music] important for first and second year consultants. And so I mentioned how in my senior year, I taught myself Apple Keynote to stand out from other class projects [music] since the visuals are very different from that of Microsoft PowerPoint. The hiring manager in that interview might then draw the conclusion that I'm very familiar with cranking out PowerPoint and Keynote presentations and so that my work will not need to be reviewed nearly as much, making his or her life just a tiny bit easier. So, as you can see, all these examples showcase how to communicate you have a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed one. By the way, if you like this first tip, I have a Facebook group where I share exclusive weekly tips. So, consider joining if you haven't already. I'll link it down below. Moving on to the second implicit question. Just how much research have you done? Yes, you should know the company's mission statement. You should be reading up on their latest news. You should be following them on their social media accounts to learn about their latest product updates. But that type of research isn't particularly helpful for this specific question. The reason is simple. All that information is too high level. To [music] illustrate this, Google's company mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. [music] Amazing mission, by the way, Larry and Sergey love it. But if you're interviewing for Google's account manager sales position and you start off by saying you want to organize the world's information, you might come off as a little bit too idealistic [music] and not down to earth. So, your answer to this question should focus more on the role and less on the company. And the best way to learn more about the role is straight from the horse's mouth by talking to someone already working there. I've already made several videos on how to [clears throat] effectively connect with others either through your college alumni database [music] or through some littleknown features on LinkedIn. Uh so I just save you time and link those videos down below. Something I will highlight right now is the one meaningful question you should always ask a person after you do connect with them. And that question is what are you measured on when it comes performance review time? In other words, what's your key performance indicator KPI? This is a very meaningful question to ask for several reasons. Number one, it helps you learn the exact metric you'll be measured on if you were to get the role. And knowing this level of detail will definitely impress the hiring manager. Two, it prompts the other person to share a specific examples of their day-to-day that you can again [music] bring up as part of your answer. And finally, it allows you to naturally follow up and ask how the person achieves his or her KPI. [music] And believe me when I tell you, having this natural flow is much better than you rapidfiring questions that you've memorized from a list beforehand. [music] Pro tip, if for whatever reason you can't connect with someone working in the role that you're applying for, find someone on LinkedIn with the exact same title working at a comparable company. Quick question to all my viewers out there. How do you usually do research ahead of an interview? I'm actually pretty curious. Let me know down in the comments below. Last but not least, third implicit question. [music] How enthusiastic are you about the role? Research has shown that all else equal, companies will put enthusiasm for a role over a particular skill set because skills can always be trained, but instilling energy and passion in someone is usually a bit more difficult. Additionally, and I'm pretty surprised this hasn't been shared more widely, the more enthusiastic you are about the position, the more the interviewer takes comfort [music] that they made the right choice in joining and staying at the company as well. This consciously or unconsciously leads to goodwill between you and the interviewer, increasing your chances of being viewed favorably. Think about it from the standpoint of a seasoned employee. And this happens to literally everyone. The employee might take for granted [music] a lot of the positives, the perks, the benefits. Since he or she has been working there for such a long time, but believe me when I say that, if done the right way, your energy level will rub off on the interviewer. Be it through the form of appropriate jokes, body language, or good old high energy dialogue. Recently, a colleague of mine in the marketing team who has been with Google for over 9 years told me she just interviewed an intern for the BTOC hardware team who left a very strong impression on her. Other than the fact that the candidate clearly has a growth mindset [music] and had done her research for the internship position, the thing that struck my colleague the most [music] was how the candidate's eyes lit up whenever our hardware products were discussed. She clearly had passion for technology, referencing videos from MKBHD, Mr. Mobile, Dave2D, and they ended [music] up having an hour-ong conversation even after the interview officially ended. The tried and true method I can share here to increase your energy levels is to simply practice in front of a mirror or to record yourself. Smile eyebrows up and nod when the interview is talking or asking a question. I know this doesn't sound like one of my normal hacks, but I sincerely believe that given enough practice, anyone can come off as more enthusiastic. Side note, and you might not believe me, I'm actually a very introverted person. If you're just watching my videos though, I might come off as someone who's very comfortable talking to a large group of people. Lastly, you want to stay away from mentioning salary, location, commute in your answer to why do you want to work here? Because this will suck the energy out of the conversation. All these factors are important definitely, [music] but they all revolve around what the company can provide for you. And again, your answer should focus on the value you bring to the table. All right, those are the three strategies that address [music] the implicit questions from why do you want to work here. Please give this video a like if you found it helpful [music] and let me know down in the comments below if you have any questions. Subscribe if you haven't already. See you on the next video and in the meantime, have a great one.