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I guess if you've put your whole life into a company, a question like Why do you want to work at Treehouse? makes perfect sense to you. An applicant, however,

I guess if you've put your whole life into a company, a question like Why do you want to work at Treehouse? makes perfect sense to you. An applicant, however, didn't know your company 15 minutes ago, and his main motivation is either money or finding a job that fulfills his desires.

weisser 13y ago
As an employer, shouldn't you seek to hire team members that have a strong passion for your company's mission? I understand many people want jobs for the pay but I think this is a very important question. "Why do you want to dedicate the next few years of your life working on this instead of something else?" If the answer is just because it pays more or the company is in a better location I think most employers would want to keep looking for someone that has different motivations.
- hexasquid 13y ago
  "Why do you want ME to work at your company?"
  - johnjlocke 13y ago
    No.
- digisign 13y ago
  The mission of most companies is to make money.
- 6d0debc071 13y ago
  > As an employer, shouldn't you seek to hire team members that have a strong passion for your company's mission? I've never found that to be a great idea. In all honesty working on a stack in one company is much the same as another asides from whether management is an ass or whether they're paying you decently - that kind of thing. A passion for the company's mission is just nonsense IME - sure, the person might in theory like the idea of better traffic management (or whatever) but at the end of the day that's not going to keep them warm inside in the same way being treated with respect and an extra £20k/pa is going to, or in the same way that having their kid go to a local school and their wife or husband working in the same area is going to. You've got things that keep people bought into a company and passion... I'm not seeing it as a big part of it, especially considering so many people are going to lie about. People are too alienated from the product of their work for it to be meaningful. What I have found reduces attrition is if you train people in house, if you treat them properly, if you pay them decently - that sort of thing. Which is basically what people are telling you when they say they're interested because of the money, they don't know enough about the company to say much else. Passion for a role, now that's meaningful - but it's not really a company-specific thing, it's more a work-ethic thing.
- hackinthebochs 13y ago
  A general rule for hiring is that one should never ask a question where its impossible to tell a good bullshit answer from a good answer. The bullshitters will always do better, and thus your biasing your hiring process to bullshitters. Answers to questions should be signal with extremely high information content. A question where a good bullshitter will get a disproportionate amount of points is in fact a net negative to your hiring process. If you're the type that needs personal validation such that you would knock a candidate for saying something like "I need money, you guys are paying in money", then you simply shouldn't ask the question. Of course, people love to think that they have a highly tuned bullshit detector, are immune to blatant flattery, etc. The problem is everyone thinks that. We are all susceptible to these things and we need to make sure our process is such that its not biased towards people who are particularly good at telling you what you want to hear.
bhughes 13y ago
My standard answer to this, assuming I am starting out with a normal job-posting's worth of information, is "I don't know that I do want to work at X yet. That's one of the things I hope to figure out in this process." Said nicely, of course. People forget that an interview is a dialog between two parties. As a candidate I am not trying to "win" by getting an offer; I am trying to find out if this is a place I actually want to work.
- johnjlocke 13y ago
  If you don't know if you do want to work at a company, then you either haven't done any research on that company whatsoever, or you need to ask yourself if there's even a reason you are applying, outside of the money.
vinceguidry 13y ago
I prepare for this question directly by perusing the company's website and Wikipedia page, if they have one, along with doing a little basic research on the industry before I go into an interview. The real way to answer this is to start asking them questions about their business needs and have a short conversation about it. Interviewers seem to be pretty impressed when I start leading the conversation in this manner. It also helps a lot when there's lulls in the conversation, I can always think of something to fill it with. I took Ramit Sethi's freelancing course awhile back and it really opened my eyes as to how to sell your services to people. Worth every penny.
- pyre 13y ago
  | I prepare for this question directly by perusing | the company's website and Wikipedia page, if they | have one, along with doing a little basic research | on the industry before I go into an interview. The problem is that this seems more like telling them what they want to hear (or at least what you want them to hear) rather than the truth. The problem is that the truth ("I'm looking for a job, this is a job, and the company seems interesting and like it treats its employees well") isn't necessarily what they want to hear, because it's boring and doesn't stand out. | The real way to answer this is to start asking them | questions about their business needs and have a short | conversation about it. To me, turning around and answering with a question comes across like I'm trying to dodge or deflect the question.
  - vinceguidry 13y ago
    > The problem is that this seems more like telling them what they want to hear (or at least what you want them to hear) rather than the truth. Not as big a problem as you seem to think it is. You have to realize, 99% of people interviewing won't know practically anything about the company they're about to go to work for. Doing some basic legwork is a very cheap way to stand out. > To me, turning around and answering with a question comes across like I'm trying to dodge or deflect the question. Or that the question needs additional context to be adequately replied to.

weisser 13y ago

As an employer, shouldn't you seek to hire team members that have a strong passion for your company's mission? I understand many people want jobs for the pay but I think this is a very important question. "Why do you want to dedicate the next few years of your life working on this instead of something else?" If the answer is just because it pays more or the company is in a better location I think most employers would want to keep looking for someone that has different motivations.

hexasquid 13y ago
"Why do you want ME to work at your company?"
- johnjlocke 13y ago
  No.
digisign 13y ago
The mission of most companies is to make money.
6d0debc071 13y ago
> As an employer, shouldn't you seek to hire team members that have a strong passion for your company's mission? I've never found that to be a great idea. In all honesty working on a stack in one company is much the same as another asides from whether management is an ass or whether they're paying you decently - that kind of thing. A passion for the company's mission is just nonsense IME - sure, the person might in theory like the idea of better traffic management (or whatever) but at the end of the day that's not going to keep them warm inside in the same way being treated with respect and an extra £20k/pa is going to, or in the same way that having their kid go to a local school and their wife or husband working in the same area is going to. You've got things that keep people bought into a company and passion... I'm not seeing it as a big part of it, especially considering so many people are going to lie about. People are too alienated from the product of their work for it to be meaningful. What I have found reduces attrition is if you train people in house, if you treat them properly, if you pay them decently - that sort of thing. Which is basically what people are telling you when they say they're interested because of the money, they don't know enough about the company to say much else. Passion for a role, now that's meaningful - but it's not really a company-specific thing, it's more a work-ethic thing.
hackinthebochs 13y ago
A general rule for hiring is that one should never ask a question where its impossible to tell a good bullshit answer from a good answer. The bullshitters will always do better, and thus your biasing your hiring process to bullshitters. Answers to questions should be signal with extremely high information content. A question where a good bullshitter will get a disproportionate amount of points is in fact a net negative to your hiring process. If you're the type that needs personal validation such that you would knock a candidate for saying something like "I need money, you guys are paying in money", then you simply shouldn't ask the question. Of course, people love to think that they have a highly tuned bullshit detector, are immune to blatant flattery, etc. The problem is everyone thinks that. We are all susceptible to these things and we need to make sure our process is such that its not biased towards people who are particularly good at telling you what you want to hear.

bhughes 13y ago

My standard answer to this, assuming I am starting out with a normal job-posting's worth of information, is "I don't know that I do want to work at X yet. That's one of the things I hope to figure out in this process." Said nicely, of course. People forget that an interview is a dialog between two parties. As a candidate I am not trying to "win" by getting an offer; I am trying to find out if this is a place I actually want to work.

johnjlocke 13y ago
If you don't know if you do want to work at a company, then you either haven't done any research on that company whatsoever, or you need to ask yourself if there's even a reason you are applying, outside of the money.

vinceguidry 13y ago

I prepare for this question directly by perusing the company's website and Wikipedia page, if they have one, along with doing a little basic research on the industry before I go into an interview. The real way to answer this is to start asking them questions about their business needs and have a short conversation about it. Interviewers seem to be pretty impressed when I start leading the conversation in this manner. It also helps a lot when there's lulls in the conversation, I can always think of something to fill it with. I took Ramit Sethi's freelancing course awhile back and it really opened my eyes as to how to sell your services to people. Worth every penny.

pyre 13y ago
| I prepare for this question directly by perusing | the company's website and Wikipedia page, if they | have one, along with doing a little basic research | on the industry before I go into an interview. The problem is that this seems more like telling them what they want to hear (or at least what you want them to hear) rather than the truth. The problem is that the truth ("I'm looking for a job, this is a job, and the company seems interesting and like it treats its employees well") isn't necessarily what they want to hear, because it's boring and doesn't stand out. | The real way to answer this is to start asking them | questions about their business needs and have a short | conversation about it. To me, turning around and answering with a question comes across like I'm trying to dodge or deflect the question.
- vinceguidry 13y ago
  > The problem is that this seems more like telling them what they want to hear (or at least what you want them to hear) rather than the truth. Not as big a problem as you seem to think it is. You have to realize, 99% of people interviewing won't know practically anything about the company they're about to go to work for. Doing some basic legwork is a very cheap way to stand out. > To me, turning around and answering with a question comes across like I'm trying to dodge or deflect the question. Or that the question needs additional context to be adequately replied to.