How To Answer The Interview Question: Why Do You Want To Work Here?
Quite often, recruitment managers and job interviewers ask the question, ‘why do you want to work here?’ The response to this question can guarantee or break your chances of securing the job. The reason for this question is not far fetch from knowing the candidate’s suitability for the role applied and how interested he or she is in the firm and its vision, as opposed to just securing a job.
Steps to consider in preparing your answer
Research extensively on the firm
One major reason recruiters ask this question is to establish how much an applicant knows about the firm. A keen candidate will not only be conversant with the firm’s name but will have explored its background, history, and mission statement.
Information about the firm can be obtained from its website; specifically the “About Us” and “Careers” section. You should acquaint yourself with the firm’s products or services, culture, customers, and prolific accomplishments or awards the firm has received. If the firm has a blog, take time to go through articles on it and note the brand voice, subject matter covered, and common themes.
Explore the firm’s social media accounts
Focus on the content of the firm’s posts on their social media handles, especially contemporary industry news and customers comments. Equally remember to go through pictures, learn about gains and study what current and past employees admire about their jobs.
Whenever you come across any piece of information that is interesting and consistent with your career goals, jot it down and reflect back on it for your answers.
Study the job description
Aside from testing your knowledge and interest in the firm, Recruiting Managers to ask the “why do you want to work here?” question, to determine your eligibility for the role applied. They are equally interested in your understanding of the duties it entails.
Therefore, reviewing the job posting before applying for the job, taking time to go over the job description, especially information about how consistent the role is to your previous job, training, and qualification as well as your career progression plan is summarily vital.
Identify your core values.
Relaying your core values and career goals, to find their relationship to those of the firm will aid employers to appreciate why you are a good fit for the role. You can try to follow questions to identify your core values.
- What kind of environment do you want to work in?
- What are the most admired qualities of your role models?
- What motivates you?
- What professional or personal qualities do you want to develop?
- What input is required to achieve your future goals
Examples of Ways to Respond
Your response should articulate the motive of your wanting to be part of the firm; as being impressed, inspired, or compelled in some way by their successes and vision. This can be accompanied by how you feel your presence and eventual input can enhance the firm’s growth and development. You could answer the question in the following ways.
- You have always wanted to work there.
This could be expressed in so many ways. For instance, you may desire to work in a particular firm because its goals and values match yours. Or perhaps it could also be that the firm’s office or factory is close to your home, hence a short commute to work.
Therefore, your response may capture first the fact that you are looking forward to having more time to spend working, and also, that the job excites you because you find it interesting working there. Having and festering motivated employees is cardinal in a firm’s vision; hence the firm’s value for high morale is something you appreciate.
- Your respect for the firm’s top-notches.
Respected industry leaders or individuals who have attained career excellence, that were or are still associated with the firm can be an inspiring factor for your reason to work there. For instance, you may admire and respect the firm’s CEO, who you recently read about (while researching). You find his or her work ethic, style, and charisma inspiring, and totally subscribe to his vision referred to in an article or the CEO’s published profile.
More so, you have read broadly about the firm’s employees and their career progression continues to impress you. For example, if the is a hospital your response could be ‘There are numerous articles out there on several of your doctors who are ranked among the most outstanding in the country for helping women and children. This really resonates with me because, until late, I have been volunteering with an NGO to help vulnerable mothers and children access healthcare. I will really love to be part of an organization already rendering that’.
- Your admiration for the firm’s culture.
You can respond to this by citing the firm’s customer feedback or even submission about the firm by employees. Similarly, reviews by publishers could also be relevant in this regard.
For instance, if it is a civil engineering firm, your response can be ‘I have met a few of your employees, Engr. Raphael Amwe the Director of Technical Services and Mr. Blessed Ajegena your Health and Safety Officer. In my conversations with each of them about what it’s like working here, I have only heard great things, from the office culture to the working environment. The feedback from your customers and reviews on Bloomberg.com are equally inspiring. I will love to be part of this team that supports and motivates’.
What not to say while answering
When responding to the interview question “why do you want to work here”, there are a couple of things that should never come to bear, examples include:
- The need for higher pay.
- The desire for a new job.
- Lack of knowledge of the company but the offer seems good.
- Do not make any blanket statement about the firm without any fore evidence.
- Do not disregard your previous work.
- Make sure your answer is not lengthy.