Kiara Melendez used to hate when interviewers asked her, “Why do you want to work here?”
After all, she couldn’t tell them the truth — that she had graduated college and needed a job to pay back her student loans. So, she told them what she thought they wanted to hear, a superficial response to a superficial question.
But that all changed during her most recent job hunt.
Melendez recently graduated from the sales bootcamp SV Academy with hopes of working as an SDR in tech. As she applied for jobs, she started asking herself: Why did she really want to work for that company? And more importantly, what did she want out of her work experience?
“I didn’t want to go through this entire interview process and land a job that I’m not happy with,” Melendez said. “I really had to answer that question for myself rather than for them.”
How to Answer ‘Why Do You Want to Work Here?’
- Personal connection: Find one thing about the company, role or hiring manager that you can relate to and explain why that interests you.
- Experience: Describe what skills and experiences you’ll be able to bring to the role and the company.
- Opportunity: Explain what you hope to gain from the job and how the company fits with your values.
- Enthusiasm: Don’t be afraid to let your natural enthusiasm for the role come out. Companies want to hire someone who is excited to work for them.
While “Why do you want to work here?” belongs in the hall of fame of generic interview questions right next to “Tell me about yourself” and “Where do you see yourself in five years?” it still plays a critical role in the hiring process.
I really had to answer that question for myself rather than for them.”
Hiring managers and recruiters ask it because they want to know that the candidate has done their research on the role and is excited to work for the company, said Kehau Likio, a program delivery manager at SV Academy who specializes in interviews and job placement. It may seem superficial, but she’s seen otherwise strong candidates lose out on jobs because they had a lackluster response.
The secret isn’t to answer the question for the manager, it’s to answer it for yourself, Likio said. Taking that approach helped Melendez change the tenor of her interviews from rigid Q&As to free-flowing conversations. But more importantly, it played a pivotal role in her job search.
What Are They Really Asking?
Melendez isn’t the only one to have complicated feelings toward “Why do you want to work here?”
As a talent acquisition consultant and career coach, Keirsten Greggs understands why companies ask it. She also gets why candidates hate it.
“I don’t like the question,” said Greggs, who’s the founder of TRAP Recruiter, a career coaching and talent acquisition firm. “It’s a lazy question. I’m not trying to be mean, I know that it’s still being asked, but I just think there are different ways to ask it.”
Still, candidates need to have an answer prepared, as the question is bound to appear at all stages of the interview process, Greggs said. To do that, it can be helpful to understand what the employer is really asking.
We want to hear that you know about our company, we want to hear that you see yourself here.”
During the phone interview stage, the recruiter uses the question to vet candidates. They want to see that you have enough knowledge and enthusiasm to merit a recommendation to the hiring manager.
The manager requires a more in-depth answer. They want to hear how you fit within the team and the company, Greggs said. They want to see how your skills and experience apply to the position, and they want to know what specifically makes you excited to work for them. Enthusiasm may seem like an inconsequential qualifier, but managers often take that as a sign that the employee will be hard-working and dedicated to their role, she added.
That said, Greggs thinks the question “Why do you want to work here?” is too open-ended. She suggests reframing it as, “How does your experience relate to the position and company?” Or, “What makes you excited to work here?”
The best responses incorporate a personal reason for applying to the job, an understanding of the company’s mission and product and an explanation of how your skills can boost that mission and product.
“We want to hear that you know about our company, we want to hear that you see yourself here,” Greggs said. “The intention of the question is to bring out enthusiasm.... Folks who are adept at interviewing have done research on how to answer that question. They’re coming with that enthusiasm and they’re connecting the dots.”
Understand Your Why
If there’s a constant between one SV Academy cohort and the next, it’s that most graduates don’t know where they want to work. The bootcamp teaches them the skills, but for most students, the tech industry remains a nebulous concept outside of the big names.
That’s where Likio comes in. She works with graduates to help them navigate the job search and interview process. Her first question for candidates as they start to apply for jobs is why they chose each company.
Most will shrug their shoulders and tell her they need a paycheck and had to start somewhere. But she prods them to dig deeper.
“If you had to ask anyone, [making money is] kind of the onIy reason why they’re working,” Likio said. “But it’s good to have them think for themselves, ‘What is it about this company that makes me go through the interview process?’ That’s when the real genuine and authentic answers come out.”
She’s found that it’s more effective for candidates to answer this question outside the context of an interview. That way, it’s more about what they want, rather than what they think the interviewer wants to hear. When a candidate figures out their “why,” their response will be more genuine during the interview.
With every different company that you answer that question for, you learn a little bit more.”
Still, it’s not always clear to applicants why they should want to work for one tech firm over another.
Likio suggests thinking about what industry you want to work in first. If you have a strong preference for working in HR tech or cybersecurity, it’s a lot easier to answer the question. If you don’t, don’t worry, she said. It can be just as helpful to think about what kind of manager you want to work for.
While candidates might think they want to work for a larger company for job stability, managers are a better indicator of the work experience than company size. When you apply for a job, Likio recommends researching the hiring manager’s LinkedIn. Look at what topics they post about, how many people they manage and check out any content they’ve produced to decide if their coaching style is right for you.
Melendez used that approach for her job hunt. While she thought she wanted to work for a large tech company, she discovered that what she really wanted was a manager who would mentor her and help advance her new career. She ended up finding that in a manager at a smaller company.
Sometimes it just takes time to find your “why,” Likio said. It’s helpful to think of every interview as a learning opportunity. The more exposure you have to companies and the more you ask yourself “why?” the clearer the answer will become.
“With every different company that you answer that question for, you learn a little bit more,” she said. “I always say that interviews are all practice. That sucks for [candidates] because it means they have to do a bunch of interviews, but it also helps a lot because you expose yourself to what different companies can offer.”
Do Your Research
Once you identify what you’re looking for in a job, it’s time to research the company.
It’s not enough to say, “I love your product,” or, “I love your coaching style,” Likio said. You need to be able to explain what it is about their product or coaching style that you love.
“It’s just trying to gather as much context as possible so you can ask yourself, ‘Do I see myself working here?’” she explained. “And taking it a step further, ‘Can I see myself being successful here?’ and ‘Can I speak to the things they want me to speak to?’”
The good news is, it doesn’t take too much research to come up with an answer. Start with the company website to familiarize yourself with the product and mission. From there, Greggs suggests reading a few recent news articles about the company and looking up the hiring manager.
Look for specifics that resonate with you. It could be that the company donates to a nonprofit that you value or the fact that the manager loves reading to cats and you also read to your cat, Greggs said. The key is to make a genuine personal connection to the role or manager.
“It only takes one tidbit,” she added.
It can also help to read anything about the company that’s relevant to your role. For SaaS sales, Likio suggests looking up the product on G2 Crowd and reading case studies. Those insights will help you understand the competitive landscape and speak more confidently about the product.
Finally, don’t shy away from reaching out to anyone in your network who works for the hiring company, Likio added. They can tell you what it’s like at the company and give you insight into how you’d fit in.
She knows it can be an intimidating process, but as long as you let your contact know that you’ve researched the company on your own, they’ll be more than likely to help you.
What Does a Good Answer Sound Like?
When Melendez started her job hunt, she thought she knew what she wanted in a job.
Then she received a job offer from a large corporation, and something didn’t feel right. The more she had asked herself, “Why do you want to work here?” the more she realized the job wasn’t a fit.
She had assumed she wanted a large company to match the stability she had in her healthcare career, but what she really wanted was a company she could grow with personally and professionally. This realization came to a head during her interview with Cresta AI’s VP of sales.
There’s just a shift to authenticity, and then they open up and feel comfortable talking to you like a friend.”
Melendez had researched the hiring manager and saw that he had led other startups to exits, which meant he had experience building successful startups. Her direct manager also had experience structuring teams, which meant she would have clear-cut responsibilities working for him. Both made her confident Cresta AI was right for her, but the direct manager’s posts about taking courses and learning new methodologies clinched it. Constant learning was also something she cared about.
“His outlook on the world around constant learning was something that stood out to me,” Melendez said. “So I felt connected with him on a personal level.”
When it came time for Melendez to answer “Why do you want to work here” during her interview (always the second question companies ask, she added), she was ready for it. She shared her desire to change careers and her personal connection to the role and managers. Her answer shifted the tone of the conversation.
“After answering that question, I noticed a shift in the tone,” Melendez said. “There’s just a shift to authenticity, and then they open up and feel comfortable talking to you like a friend.”
By the end, she not only had a job offer but a commitment from the VP of sales to help her find a job if she didn’t accept this one. Needless to say, Melendez had found the right job for her.
“That meant the world to me,” she said. “Yeah, it’s an interview, and you’re trying to get this job, but I had this person say back to me, ‘I would like to support your future endeavors.’ That was incredible.”
