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Here's another question that bugs me: "Why do you want to work for Acme Corp?" Employers need to remind themselves that the interview is a date - the company

Here's another question that bugs me: "Why do you want to work for Acme Corp?" Employers need to remind themselves that the interview is a date - the company needs to let the candidate know why they might want to work for ("marry") Acme Corp, not the other way around. What would you think if you were on a real date and the other person said: "Why do you want to marry me?"

mason55 9y ago
I think it's valid question, the issue is just in the presentation. If you ask it with the attitude of trying to find people who are 1000% in love with the concept of working at your very specific company then I think you're deluding yourself. Unless you're a world-famous company or your company has a very niche mission, it's unlikely that the applicant cares about working for you specifically. If, however, you ask it in the context of "why are you looking to leave your current job and why does this one interest you" then there's a lot of room to figure out where the applicant's expectations don't align with reality. I work for a small enterprise SaaS company in NYC. We get a lot of people interviewing who are coming from a long career working in banks. I always ask why they want to go from working in a bank to working at a company like ours. Sometimes it turns out that they won't get what they're looking for if they come work with us and that's a discussion worth having. It's all about managing expectations
- rafiki6 9y ago
  So why isn't the question phrased "What are your expectations of how we work here?" or something along those lines? If the goal of the question is to address the motivations of the person applying for the job to determine if there's any mismatch with the companies mission than "why do you want to work here" is absolutely the wrong test.
  - dozzie 9y ago
    >> "why are you looking to leave your current job and why does this one interest you" > So why isn't the question phrased "What are your expectations of how we work here?" Because it's not the same question at all. I don't know what to expect from your work practices yet, but (a) you work at a big scale and I'm interested in that, or (b) you use Erlang/Ada and I'd like to use that professionally, or (c) you make CNC machines and I'd like to move to writing industrial hard-realtime code, or a number of similar reasons before you even know what the company looks like from the inside.
- wink 9y ago
  In the limited amount of recruiting I did it was a very very low bar to filter out people who didn't even spend 5 minutes reading the company website about what we do. (Didn't always ask this question literally, I'm lumping it together with "Do you already know what we do? Where did you hear about us, etc.pp") No, I'm not talking about enumerating all the products and the website wasn't good either, but I was shocked how someone would turn up to an interview without having done the minimum amount of research.
solipsism 9y ago
Joining a company isn't a marriage. If you were on a date and you were asked, "so what made you decide to go out with me?" that would be a totally reasonable question. As long as you realize turnabout is fair play.
- aaronchall 9y ago
  Analogies always fail me. I always feel like we should jump straight to the most precise and concise description instead. I would say that a hiring process is about starting what both parties should hope to be a "long-term working relationship." Although the analogy isn't great - a marriage could also be described as a long-term working relationship. But the expectations are vastly different.
- chrisbennet 9y ago
  And if the company said: "so what made you decide to interview with us?" that would be a totally reasonable question as well. The thing is, perhaps from years of being conditioned to expect desperate applicants, some companies haven't internalized that candidates aren't desperate enough that they want to work for your company even before they've talked to you. It's when the question is phased with an implied assumption that "You would totally work for us if we let you, wouldn't you?" that it bugs me.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
ksk 9y ago
Depends on the power dynamic. "I'm so hot, why would I ever date someone like you" can go both ways.
robodale 9y ago
I've been asked that, and responded "...well, I don't have an answer to that yet and is why I'm in this interview." I was not offered the job.
- zimpenfish 9y ago
  I've answered that with "Because I like getting paid" and got the job. Like most interview things, it's essentially random as to what happens however you respond.
CodeMage 9y ago
It all depends on their general attitude and the way they ask the question. Most of the time, the question is delivered properly and it comes across as "what interests you about our company", which is a perfectly reasonable question. But then there are those companies that make it sound like you're being tested on creative sucking-up and if you're not creative enough, you don't get the job.

mason55 9y ago

I think it's valid question, the issue is just in the presentation. If you ask it with the attitude of trying to find people who are 1000% in love with the concept of working at your very specific company then I think you're deluding yourself. Unless you're a world-famous company or your company has a very niche mission, it's unlikely that the applicant cares about working for you specifically. If, however, you ask it in the context of "why are you looking to leave your current job and why does this one interest you" then there's a lot of room to figure out where the applicant's expectations don't align with reality. I work for a small enterprise SaaS company in NYC. We get a lot of people interviewing who are coming from a long career working in banks. I always ask why they want to go from working in a bank to working at a company like ours. Sometimes it turns out that they won't get what they're looking for if they come work with us and that's a discussion worth having. It's all about managing expectations

rafiki6 9y ago
So why isn't the question phrased "What are your expectations of how we work here?" or something along those lines? If the goal of the question is to address the motivations of the person applying for the job to determine if there's any mismatch with the companies mission than "why do you want to work here" is absolutely the wrong test.
- dozzie 9y ago
  >> "why are you looking to leave your current job and why does this one interest you" > So why isn't the question phrased "What are your expectations of how we work here?" Because it's not the same question at all. I don't know what to expect from your work practices yet, but (a) you work at a big scale and I'm interested in that, or (b) you use Erlang/Ada and I'd like to use that professionally, or (c) you make CNC machines and I'd like to move to writing industrial hard-realtime code, or a number of similar reasons before you even know what the company looks like from the inside.
wink 9y ago
In the limited amount of recruiting I did it was a very very low bar to filter out people who didn't even spend 5 minutes reading the company website about what we do. (Didn't always ask this question literally, I'm lumping it together with "Do you already know what we do? Where did you hear about us, etc.pp") No, I'm not talking about enumerating all the products and the website wasn't good either, but I was shocked how someone would turn up to an interview without having done the minimum amount of research.

solipsism 9y ago

Joining a company isn't a marriage. If you were on a date and you were asked, "so what made you decide to go out with me?" that would be a totally reasonable question. As long as you realize turnabout is fair play.

aaronchall 9y ago
Analogies always fail me. I always feel like we should jump straight to the most precise and concise description instead. I would say that a hiring process is about starting what both parties should hope to be a "long-term working relationship." Although the analogy isn't great - a marriage could also be described as a long-term working relationship. But the expectations are vastly different.
chrisbennet 9y ago
And if the company said: "so what made you decide to interview with us?" that would be a totally reasonable question as well. The thing is, perhaps from years of being conditioned to expect desperate applicants, some companies haven't internalized that candidates aren't desperate enough that they want to work for your company even before they've talked to you. It's when the question is phased with an implied assumption that "You would totally work for us if we let you, wouldn't you?" that it bugs me.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

ksk 9y ago

Depends on the power dynamic. "I'm so hot, why would I ever date someone like you" can go both ways.

robodale 9y ago

I've been asked that, and responded "...well, I don't have an answer to that yet and is why I'm in this interview." I was not offered the job.

zimpenfish 9y ago
I've answered that with "Because I like getting paid" and got the job. Like most interview things, it's essentially random as to what happens however you respond.

CodeMage 9y ago

It all depends on their general attitude and the way they ask the question. Most of the time, the question is delivered properly and it comes across as "what interests you about our company", which is a perfectly reasonable question. But then there are those companies that make it sound like you're being tested on creative sucking-up and if you're not creative enough, you don't get the job.