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Let's Stop Asking "Why Do You Want to Work for Us?" In Interviews

• underwater 2y ago
  This is such a weird take. The question is not meant to be literal. It’s a starting point to a discussion about career passions and aspirations.
  • Eji1700 2y ago
    I’ve always felt there’s still better ways to do that. For every place where it can be an interesting question you get some entry level posting at, at best, bland corp and the real answer is “I’d like to not starve” but they expect and song and dance. If you want to know my aspirations, ask. If I’m supposed to be doing baseline data entry, maybe skip on the high concept stuff and assume I’d just really like to afford my crippling keyboard habit
• underdeserver 2y ago
  I think you're missing the point of the question. Qualified candidates have options. The question is why do they want to choose you over the other places.
  • mjevans 2y ago
    It would really REALLY help if that's the question they asked!
    • basil-rash 2y ago
      ? You can answer however you like. Don’t feel limited by following the prompt to the T, they’re more interested in big picture impressions than strict prompt following ability.
    • almostnormal 2y ago
      Seems to be part of the question. It isn't "Why Do You Want To Work?" but "Why Do You Want To Work for Us?"
  • kirillzubovsky 2y ago
    Even then, it’s a weak question that simply asked the candidate to imagine some reasons why this company is the one, while in reality it’s just whoever willing to hire you, stack ranked by some criteria like money and suffering. So from an engineering stand point, if everyone knows it’s a pointless game, why do it. This would’ve been a beautiful question if everyone only applied to one job, and this was a chance to tell the future you’d like to see and how you, the candidate, would build this future. But is that ever the case in practice? It’s all a game.
    • underdeserver 2y ago
      I generally answered honestly. If a place seemed less interesting but paid more I would say it was a good offer. (They usually knew.) If a place had good people I would say that. If there wasn't a reason, I wouldn't want to work there anyway. I'm aware that I've been privileged to have options, but given that I do, I see no reason not to be honest.
• chii 2y ago
  answer: because you guys pay more than the next company.
  • spencerflem 2y ago
    thats so lame surely money isn't the only thing you care about
    • chii 2y ago
      For the purposes of employment, yes, money is the only thing i would care about. You call it lame, but i would call your POV naive.
      • KeplerBoy 2y ago
        It can't possibly be just money. There is always more to a job offer than money. The tech stack, the general vibes, the commute, the subjective degree of belief if the company will do well in the next few years. Heck I even consider lunch options to be important. If the only walkable lunch option are greasy burgers I'm not joining because i value my health. You wouldn't join a company that paid a few bucks than the next offer if their offices were run down, right?
      • spencerflem 2y ago
        it's not naive to have values, or even interests lol
  • rsanek 2y ago
    how do you decide between two offers that pay the same? coin flip?
• mjevans 2y ago
  I socialize with computers more readily than humans. At least they're only wrong when confused or ordered to lie (intentionally written software).
  • KeplerBoy 2y ago
    Nobody told ChatGPT to lie all the time, but it keeps doing it.
    • XorNot 2y ago
      I would argue ChatGPT confabulates, it doesn't lie. A lie IMO has to include an deception of some kind. EDIT: I'd also argue that GPT4 itself can be told to actually lie, because you can tell it to substitute a true statement for a false one, then later get it to reveal the true the statement.
• karaokeyoga 2y ago
  If you frame it as an abbreviated form of "Aside from the money, why do you want to work for us?", it makes more sense. Sure, the answer might be a lie but it can also be an opportunity for the interviewee to demonstrate interview preparedness.
• anmol 2y ago
  this article is missing the picture. Yes the candidate engineer / salesperson / marketer is motivated by money. But of all the things they could work on, why this team, problem or company? Many jobs will pay similar money. Some version of this question is extremely helpful in (a) understanding if the candidate is going to be disappointed/not get what they want a few months into the job (b) identifying what motivates them, to help them find fulfllment and growth in their career (part of your job as a manager).
  • EGreg 2y ago
    Maybe they applied to 80 jobs and this was the only one that invited them to interview? I think a lot of times the resumes go into a black hole, especially with AI screening no one even looks at them!
    • cylemons 2y ago
      Maybe you could interpret this question as "what makes you interested in this field/domain" rather than "why do you want to work for us in particular"?
    • kelnos 2y ago
      Sure, but why those 80? Hopefully there was at least one thing about each of those 80 jobs that made it worth applying to, vs. skipping it. And if someone just mass-applied to literally every single job that was available, only got accepted to interview at one of them, and ended up across the interview table from me? Yeah, I'd think it would be a pretty basic expectation for them to do 20 minutes of research into the company or job description before the interview to find at least one or two things they like about it. Hell, those one or two things could even be learned during the interview process. Doesn't have to be something earth-shattering. "I like working with $TECH_STACK that you use." "I like that I can take transit to your office and it's a short commute." "I enjoyed interacting with my interviewers and felt like we connected well and would work together well." It's not that hard! Feels like a red flag if they can't even manage that.
      • 2y ago
• kareemm 2y ago
  Enh. When I interviewed at ESPN the first few questions were about sports knowledge: were you a fan who understood the storylines and stats? Or did you just want a job? If you had somehow managed to slip through the HR screening without being a sports fan then the day of interviews would root that out and you would not get an offer. It ensured that everybody who was there lived and breathed sports and would run through walls to create a great product. Compare to later when I worked at FOXSports.com where sports knowledge was a bonus. The product was worse and the team had to spend too much time (more than 0 minutes) explaining to a front end dev why a baseball box score had an order that stats were always displayed in because that’s the way fans expected it (true story). I think the value of the question is that, all things being equal, do you want the person who wants to be there because they have a connection to what you do, or do you want someone who just wants a job? I’d pick the former.
  • Tronno 2y ago
    Your point doesn't quite follow from the example. If the dev is interested in sports unrelated to baseball (tennis, soccer, etc) they'd need the scoring explained regardless.
    • kareemm 2y ago
      The broader point is if you care about sports you understand the passion and that there’s often “a way” of doing things in a sport, you learn it, and you move on. You don’t argue for 10 minutes that your way of displaying a box score is better than how literally millions of fans expect it to be.
      • XorNot 2y ago
        I don't get it. If the box needs the stats in a particular order, don't you just put that in the task ticket for it? Like how is this requirement being communicated where someone wants to argue about it? If the ticket says "do this" and it's not done then you just fail QA and send it back.
        • 2y ago
• deleted 2y ago
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• monero-xmr 2y ago
  It's just one of those questions that will filter out people. I am trying to discern a lot more than technical aptitude, given how many technically adept people I have worked with who have been nightmare employees.
• mr_briggs 2y ago
  I feel like this article undermines itself a bit with: > Sure, the tech stack might be exciting. Or the product may be compelling. The work-life balance may be good. But I promise you that the biggest reason is still money. I was always under the impression that for a paid job, the reason of money is assumed. Companies want to hear your other reasons - to show you are at least trying to appreciate what they're about aside from making money. Was the question ever being asked to find the main reason?
  • johnfn 2y ago
    If you have plenty of potential job leads and you find yourself in the position of sifting through them for the best one, that may be true. That's not the case for most people.
    • dzikimarian 2y ago
      We're on HN, discussing article on tech blog. Why pretend any of comments were directed at people looking for a janitor position?
      • aftoprokrustes 2y ago
        I would go one step further: why would the question be irrelevant for a janitor? Let's say you search for a janitor for a high school. You have three good candidates. One just applied randomly. One lives just around the corner, and wanted to find a workplace where he would not have to drive for hours. The third one lives far away but loves interacting with teenagers: for instance, he is a karate instructor in his spare time. Feels relevant to me. You can apply for a janitor job in a lot of places, so it cannot hurt to ask whether there is a reason to choose this particular one. As other said, just saying "I need a job and this fits my profile" should be an acceptable option. Let's not pretend that question is what will make or break the interview. I always see it more as an ice breaker to get the discussion started.
  • zwnow 2y ago
    Yup, this. Not being able to answer this question is the result of people just shotgunning job applications without checking up on the company first. I wouldn't want employees that could not answer why they would work for me. I also wouldn't want to work for a company that I would not have reasons as to why I would wanna work there.
• walth 2y ago
  We all know its all about the money. I want to know that you care enough to have done a modicum of research on your new potential employer. And in turn, that you can give a short answer on why you might want to spend 40 some hours a week with us. If you can't do that, (and it really just is all about the money) then that's just a precursor to a disaster or new future burn out.
  • suslik 2y ago
    As a person who just voluntarily switched to a job with less money and couldn’t be happier about it, I’d beg to differ.
    • Jcowell 2y ago
      I world argue it’s still cause of money, whether it’s more money or less money doesn’t matter, just the money (and benefits if America) to be able to live. It’s only when your answer is still the same given you don’t have financial responsibilities and health needs that one can truly say it’s not about the money.
  • __loam 2y ago
    I'll do research if you guys actually decide to interview me. Huge waste of my time for me to give a shit about your company if our relationship ends with you throwing my resume in the trash and sending me a polite email telling me to pound sand.
    • willywanker 2y ago
      >and sending me a polite email telling me to pound sand. Mostly not even bothering to inform you that you didn't make it to the interview round.
  • golemiprague 2y ago
    [dead]
• can16358p 2y ago
  I believe the context matters: In a poorer economy where it's hard to find jobs it would be a dumb question as the candidate is probably applying everywhere to make money and pay their rent. In a place where things are easier financially, the question would make some sense: there might be multiple options, many companies to work for and the candidate is not in immediate desperate need for money, so "why us?" makes sense.
• s1artibartfast 2y ago
  The point of soft questions like this in interviews is to test social skills and agreeability. While I get the motivation to cut the BS, I wouldn't want to work with people lacking social skills either.
  • ninetyninenine 2y ago
    Funny how social skills and agreeability is measured by observing how well a candidate answers a loaded question with a BS answer. That's just the way the world works, we can't get a long with someone who's straight forward and frighteningly honest.
    • s1artibartfast 2y ago
      The answer doesn't have to be BS. It can be true, relevant to the question, and even interesting. Pulling that off is the social skills test. Being straight forward and honest is relatively easy. Doing so in a agreeable way to your audience is a lot harder, and usually a highly sought after skill.
      • ninetyninenine 2y ago
        I disagree with this. I feel you can be honest but not straightforward. You manipulate the audience by not telling the whole truth or twisting the emotions around the truth in a manipulative way. To me this is equivalent to if not more dishonest then lying to someone's face as doing this kind of manipulation allows you to get away with a technicality that you "didn't lie" when in fact the intent was exactly the same: To deceive. The god awful truth is that most people just want money.
        • shiroiushi 2y ago
          Not just money. Many of us just want a job that pays pretty well, doesn't require too much overtime, doesn't stress us out too much, isn't too far from home, and has some decent coworkers to work with. Why so many companies can't just offer this and get some dependable, competent employees and be happy with that, I'm not sure, but I know it has something to do with the mentalities of people who become founders or high-up managers.
• ThrowawayTestr 2y ago
  I've only applied to places with technology that interests me. To those that dislike the question, why would you want to work at a place that doesn't at least mildly interest you?
  • shiroiushi 2y ago
    Perhaps because it pays better and has better work-life-balance than the AAA game companies that some other people think are sooo interesting.
    • ThrowawayTestr 2y ago
      I said at least mildly interesting.
• Copenjin 2y ago
  The question is not completely useless if the interviewer does not expect to receive in any case an answer that shows how much cool aid has been absorbed. Most companies are just that, a place to work and earn some money, regardless of how enthusiastic the company some internal fanboys are. But I don't agree that the biggest reason is mostly money, there could be some good answers to that question.
• daghamm 2y ago
  No, I will not stop asking this in interviews. The point of this question is to understand your carrier goals but also to show that you came well prepared and have done your homework about the position and the company. Experience has shown that those who can't give a satisfactory answer to this question are going to a burden to their future team.
  • toenail 2y ago
    I'm not going to prepare and "do homework" for each and every interview. If you have so little regard for my time we're not a good fit.
    • rsanek 2y ago
      isn't this question in the context of a face to face interview already? so you're setting aside time to talk to these people for 30+ minutes anyway. is it really that difficult to spend a few minutes scanning the company website / eng blog and finding at least something that you could say looks interesting? i feel like if you're talking to so many companies that this would be too much work, it's probably useful to focus on tightening that funnel so more early interviews turn into offers.
      • toenail 2y ago
        It's a bad question. A competent interviewer can figure out what I'm interested in by asking work related questions.
  • lodovic 2y ago
    This is just nurturing an environment where people need to act obedient and according to the hierarchy. When you hire a car mechanic or painter, you typically don't ask them why they would want to work on your car or house specifically. But I guess there's a cultural difference between contracting and staff positions.
• GCA10 2y ago
  It never hurts to take a moment to figure out the real game that's being played when someone asks an especially trite interview question. (Like this one.) Here's what I've been told by HR executives in candid moments about "Why do you want to work for us?" -- It's an easy way of finding out whether the candidate has done some homework about the company and the role. For insecure interviewers, it's a request to be flattered. For confident ones, it's a way of finding out whether the candidate has identified a specific opportunity that she or he is genuinely excited about. Having employees who are intrinsically motivated works out better than just a group of paycheck collectors. -- It's a way of finding out whether you might be promotable. That's especially important in a growing company. As opportunities increase, there's an "up or out" dynamic that moves the most valuable employees into bigger roles, while shedding the ones that have little chance of rising higher. (Netflix is famously candid about this; many other companies think the same way but don't surface it.)
  • deelly 2y ago
    > It's a way of finding out whether you might be promotable. Heh, so, if I googled your company before interview, and able to quote marketing sentences about how this is the "Great people. Great challenges. Great opportunities. Groundbreaking technology." etc., only then I can expect a promotion in a future years?
    • datadrivenangel 2y ago
      Not necessarily, but if the interviewer can tell that you didn't google the company, it's unlikely that you'll be the type of person who gets promoted?
• treeFall 2y ago
  >Do you really want to to be lied to by every candidate? You misjudge managers. In my experience, managers want conformity in service of the company. The lie signals the willingness to conform in service of the company.
  • whilenot-dev 2y ago
    This is some really old-school statement... If you, as a manager, would hire for a software engineering professional, the last thing you'd want is a servant for your coding problems. If loyalty is not a big concern (and it isn't really, currently), then I'm there to bring your business up to speed, and you're there to help me advance in this job market. Engineering is a constant balancing act. If working with this kind of manager favors conformity over business requirements, technical requirements, legal requirements etc. we'd be having a very hard time disagreeing on topics (balancing them out) and working together.
    • treeFall 2y ago
      >the last thing you'd want is a servant for your coding problems. That doesn't match my experience. Software engineering culture is full of processes to facilitate conformity, from velocity and burn down charts, to bureaucratic decision making processes and unnecessary group meetings. Every manager I've ever had has given me the impression that they want someone to mindlessly crunch through tickets without resistance.
    • bawolff 2y ago
      Sure, but fact is lots of companies have bad managers, toxic work environments, etc. There are some great places to work out there, but there are plenty that are basically the movie mean girls.
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• owenpalmer 2y ago
  Of course they want money, which is why the question is asked in the first place. The key issue is money can't be their only motivation. How can you expect someone to be creative or innovative when they're not passionate about their work? I'll admit, there might be a more interesting way of asking the question, but I think the motivation behind the it is reasonable.
  • toenail 2y ago
    Of course money isn't the only motivation, it's the stuff I buy with that money.
• toenail 2y ago
  If a company isn't excited about hiring me, whatever, I can move on.
• frithsun 2y ago
  Maybe the question is there to filter out crusty cynics who aren't up for the very basic bullshitting it takes to get along in a team setting.
  • __loam 2y ago
    Maybe there would be fewer crusty cynics if the kind of loyalty and interest companies seem to expect from their employees was at all reciprocated.
• Scarblac 2y ago
  Many people applying for a job already have one, and will expect to make a similar amount of money at a new job. It's a perfectly normal question. If the candidate is currently jobless, then I agree the question is bad, verging on the insulting. You're probably one of many they are applying to.
  • chongli 2y ago
    Yeah, like imagine a restaurant manager asking why you want to wash dishes for their restaurant rather than the one across the street. Are you passionate about our choice of dish detergent? We use square plates instead of round ones!
• rishabhd 2y ago
  Unpopular take : Money being the right answer for arguably 99% of the time, probably the real back of the mind test is how convincingly can you manage a question whose answer is obvious, and navigate to give a different answer which may sound even more obvious, atleast on the table at that point in time. Disclaimer : I never ask these questions, I am a generalist and appreciate knowledge around wide variety of fields instead of hyper focus into one.
• khazhoux 2y ago
  If the question is meant as “Tell me what you think is great about us” then that’s lame. If it’s meant as “What about us motivates you to apply?” then that’s a good question.
• mlsu 2y ago
  The labor market is a market like any other. Some markets are competitive and require sales (and sales looks very different in different markets). Some markets have differentiated products or services and some markets have fungible commodities. Some markets are under-served and any old product will do, without the need to sell. Learn your market.
• RealCodingOtaku 2y ago
  I have worked for three companies over the past decade, well the second one was an acquisition, anyway, only the last one asked me why I want to work there, I gave an honest answer, it was easy to answer because I grew up reading about things they do. Last month I was laid off among many other during this AI race. And I was given something called a score sheet to tell me why I was selected, while the performance score was maximum, I was not not "flexible" enough. The only thing I could think off is the conversation I had with my manager about the direction the company is going towards, but alas they went on a holiday after scoring me. The companies might want smart and passionate people, but they never want smart, passionate, and honest people. If you don't have a brown tongue, you'll not survive.
  • mnsc 2y ago
    I'm a very honest person and I would say that it is _with_ a brown tounge that you will not survive. Dying a bit every day you keep playing along with the new direction that you genuinely don't believe in. Rather you should just switch job to one where you can be honest and contribute happily for some years.
• Closi 2y ago
  It’s not asking “why do you want to work”, it’s asking “why us, and not someone else”. The question assumes that you have a choice of multiple people you could work for. Why do you want to work for an indie game studio and not EA? Why backend engineer rather than front end? Is there something you see in our company other than money that means you want to stick around for a few years rather than move after a few months? Ironically the author of the article seems to change jobs every year, so isn’t particularly loyal which is one of the things this question is trying to fish out - will you stay for long enough that you become useful. It might be that OPs sole motivation is money, but that’s not universally true and is a pretty unattractive trait if it is.
  • fbdab103 2y ago
    In a weaker job market, it can be as simple as, "You were the first to acknowledge my application"
    • Closi 2y ago
      Like I say, the question assumes that you have options. At worst, you can answer about why you applied for that job and not others that are equally paid, even if they are in other industries (eg you got into programming because you like problem solving, and because of your experience you looked at the requirements and thought you would do well because of xyz).
  • metabagel 2y ago
    > Why do you want to work for an indie game studio and not EA? That’s actually a different question than “Why do you want to work for us?” I think if your purpose is to investigate suitability (is this a good fit for the candidate and for us), then there are better questions to ask which are directly about suitability. For example, “This our work environment. How do you feel about that?” So, more of a give and take approach. You still have the opportunity to judge the candidate’s responses, but you’ve given them something to work off of.
    • Closi 2y ago
• forketyfork 2y ago
  Why do you even think that you are expected to lie? Out of tens of thousands of companies on the market, you chose maybe ten to apply, including mine. Why? “Because I need money” is not an answer, or at least not the complete one. Somehow, ten companies out of thousands fit your filter. Why? That's all I want to know as an interviewer when I ask that question. Saying “you have the best compensation” is completely okay. Saying “you fit my developer profile” is also completely okay. It’s ridiculous that anyone could think that some company praise is in order. Just tell the truth, stop making up cases to be offended by an interview question.
  • kioleanu 2y ago
    hmm, yeah, well I sorted by salary, proximity and my skills and uhm, yeah, your company came up. Oh, sorry, I mean I really believe in your product and my grandma and I have been using it for 15 years and I want to make a change in the world and Forketyfork Inc. works on exactly that.
    • dzikimarian 2y ago
      Matching skills/techstack is actually good answer.
      • Ekaros 2y ago
        On other hand I would not have applied if I did not match at least some lines in your add... But maybe this is projecting my approach to others...
        • dzikimarian 2y ago
          Our company recently received 4k of resumes for single position. 90% wasn't even worth reading (literally zero experience, sometimes plainly saying they're eg salesman right now) - at this point you start to wonder if people did even read the job listing or some just told them IT is easy money.
    • forketyfork 2y ago
• zkirill 2y ago
  There is no need to make this more complicated than it really is. In this individual's case the conversation could go as follows: > Q: Why do you want to work for us? > A: Because I need the money. Generalization is dangerous and people want to join groups of other people for many different reasons. Some of them are bored and have nothing better to do with their time. Others are charmed by that particular group of people because of who those people are or the kind of work that they do. A few are interested in moving to a different city or country and expanding their horizons. Making it sound like this is all about money everywhere all the time seems nihilistic and pretty depressing to me. I would not want to work with a person who is doing it just for the money or refuses to give a reason why they wish to join my group. I suppose therein lies the merit of asking "why".
  • metabagel 2y ago
    You would turn away an expert professional contributor, because they are only in it for the money? I would quit my job if it wasn’t for the money. Same applies to everyone I work with.
    • spencerflem 2y ago
      If money is your ONLY reason to work at a specific company as opposed to other companies, then your philosophy is wack. There's plenty of companies where I like what they do, or the work is interesting and would thus be willing to accept less pay. There's companies I feel are making the world worse much more directly than most and I refuse to work for them at for any price.
      • metabagel 2y ago
        Sure, and I’m the same way as you, but I’m talking about the vast middle which are neither exciting nor offensive.
    • kelnos 2y ago
      The general reason for wanting a job is to get paid so you can have and do nice things. That's a given. Set that aside. Now that we've established that you need money, and have five companies in front of you that will give you money, surely there are some other reasons why you'd pick any one of those particular companies to work at, no? Reasons why you'd choose one over the others, or those five over the other 30 you looked at but decided not to apply to. You seem incredulous that someone would turn away an expert because they're only in it for the money. Sure, fair. But it's not really about that. If they're so... one-dimensional?... that they can't think of anything they like about the company aside from "paycheck gets sent every two weeks", that feels like a red flag to me.
• CSMastermind 2y ago
  I only interview for a fraction of the positions I get contacted about. When it has been time to make a career change, I've always had multiple options for which position/company to choose. I don't think I ever took the offer with the highest total comp.
• auselen 2y ago
  Everyone needs to be motivated by the job. Think a teacher/nurse, would you find it ok for them to answer “for the money”. Another angle to it; you can be professional and explain your goals but also you can’t be desperate, no one likes that, even if you are desperate you need to act professional about that.
  • metabagel 2y ago
    You’re confusing a general question about a chosen occupation with a specific question about a prospective employer.
  • ruszki 2y ago
    I like this sentiment. Unfortunately we are in the minority, in software development at least for sure. The whole field shifted in the past 20 years, and now definitely more people are here only for the money. And it seems to me that this definitely affected negatively code quality and developer freedom.
• whazor 2y ago
  If a company provides equity, then it might be a good question to ask. After all, the employee would be investing into the future the company.
• dhotson 2y ago
  I'm not sure if it's helpful, but if you want some perspective from someone that's interviewed a few hundred software engineering candidates.. I ask this question to every candidate I interview. My expectations for this question are very low. I find it's a very effective screener for low effort applications. A lot of candidates I interview haven't even looked at our company website. If you're the kind of person that's doing zero preparation for a job interview, I've already learned something about you. Many people I interview just answer the question very directly: - "I got laid off" - "My current company is returning to office and I want to work from home". - "I've been working at X for 5 years now and I'm bored" - "I want to make more money" - "I want to work with an international team" .. honestly, that's all totally fine. I agree that there's no need to pretend about your motivations—I'm not expecting a lot of enthusiasm about writing boring business software at my company. On the other hand, if you've done some basic research about the company or the role and can ask some good questions—I'm learning something about your intelligence, conscientiousness and self-awareness, which are actually the things I'm testing for. Job interviews are full of latent variables like this. As an interviewer I want to find out if you're good at X, but I can't just ask "are you good at X?". I need to test you out by asking other questions that demonstrate X.
  • metabagel 2y ago
    It sounds like you want the candidates to answer a different question than the one you asked. You want them to demonstrate knowledge of the company, but instead you ask them to muster up something enthusiastic to say about working for a company which they can only have superficial knowledge of - not having ever worked there before.
    • dhotson 2y ago
      Yep, exactly! I don't ask this question because I want to know the answer. The questions I'm trying to answer are: - Are you intelligent? - Are you diligent and well prepared? - Are you self-aware? - Have you put any thought into what you want and why you're here? To find out the answers, I can't just ask those directly unfortunately!
• mewpmewp2 2y ago
  Yes, people work for money, but you still have interests after that. Do you want a person who wants money and has an interest in your company or do you want a person who wants money and has no interest in your company?
• deleted 2y ago
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• yungporko 2y ago
  i think it can be a fair and productive question in a sense. like yeah realistically the person being interviewed doesn't have an undying passion for whatever the business does, but at least for me, when i'm looking for work there's always some jobs that are just an instant "nope not interested" and some that i know i want to go for straight away. asking what it was about a specific role that made that difference to a candidate could absolutely spark a useful and productive conversation.
• obrhoff 2y ago
  Would you expect the food to be good if the cook in the restaurant doesn't want to eat it himself? If you don’t have faith in or care for what you’re producing, it’s unlikely to be successful.
• koonsolo 2y ago
  Every job pays money, mostly around the same range (at least in your search range) Sure, if a company offers 2x pay, I'm there for the money. But otherwise, asking why they want to work specifically for you is a proper question. And I never came across of the 2x company. "Why do you want to work?" is a very different question than "Why do you want to work for us?"
• beej71 2y ago
  It is a pretty dumb question, in that you can fabricate an answer ahead of time without much hassle. I do think a lot of older devs don't really just do it for the money anymore. They tend to get more particular and only apply for jobs that they will find personally fulfilling. And that makes answering the question easy. Not that being older makes getting a job at easier, though.
• deleted 2y ago
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• moribvndvs 2y ago
  Last time I was asked that, I got very annoyed but caught myself before getting pithy and turned it around. I said I don’t know that I do yet, we’re both still trying to figure out if this is a good fit. But here are the things that attracted my attention, and here’s how they overlap with my experience and skills. It seemed to go over well.
• JohnFen 2y ago
  That, and "where do you see yourself in five years" are, in my opinion, two of the most pointless things an interviewer can ask. The answers give no real insight as to their suitability for the role, and both questions basically require the candidate to qive a BS answer.