Are you also the one whose brain freezes during an interview? You confidently go for an interview with sufficient preparation regarding your technical knowledge and experience. But you fumble in the most ordinary questions that are non-technical, which are mostly asked to examine your personality and thought process. You might get stuck or remain confused while answering the questions like “why do you want to join us?”, “what do you expect from this job?” or “where do you see yourself in the next five years?”, etc. Does this situation sound similar? No need to get embarrassed, it usually happens to most of the job seekers. Because these questions may seem ordinary but tend to be the trickiest. There is no set pattern to answer these questions that one can mug up and present to the interviewer.

This article will try to explain and give suggestions for how to answer “Why do you want to work for us?” It won’t give you any structured answer but will help you to understand what all points need to be kept in mind while framing your answer.

Recruiter’s psychology behind asking this question:

It is important to understand why a recruiter or Human Resource manager asks this question from an interviewee.

• The recruiter wants to examine how sincere and dedicated you are towards the respective job opportunity.
• They want to get an idea whether the candidate has researched about the organization before even applying for the job.
• They want to understand your career goals and expectations from the given job opportunity that may or may not align with company’s expectations. Or whether the core values of the candidate match up with the company’s culture.
• Another perspective can be that they want to understand how clear you are about your career choices.
• To ensure, you apply with some reasonable interest and not for the sake of getting paid.
• It also gives a clarity about the candidates, what value the candidate can add to the company and its team.

Tips you can remember:

1. Research about the company:

It is the most basic way to sweep some extra brownie points while giving an interview. It gives you an upper hand over the rest of the candidates. It helps you to impress the recruiter who can have further questions about your learning about the company.

Also, it helps you to gain the knowledge which you can use to mould your answer according to the company’s requirements. All in all, you will have a bigger perspective to think about your answer.

2. Go through the job description carefully:

JD is one of the first and most informative documents a job seeker goes through before applying for a job. Many apply for the job just by looking at the job title and skipping the rest of the minute details given on the job role or work experience and expectations.

It is important that you re-read the JDs first, as it will help them to self-access whether you are best suitable for this post or not. If yes, back your answer with suitable points that can highlight your strength which can be a positive point from the company’s perspective.

3. Look at the company’s presence on different platforms:

To have a better understanding of the organization, one can also look at the company’s social media presence. It can help the candidate to get an idea about the company’s culture. Get an idea of how the company is presenting and branding itself in the public sphere. This can help the candidate to inculcate some points into their answers that relate to the company’s culture and values.

Also, look into the news articles if ever company gets featured in the newspaper. This will let the candidate know about the latest accomplishments or any recent struggles of the company.

4. Get some reviews from current employees of the company

This is not a situation that can happen every time with everyone. It is entirely based on luck, whether you will be able to get connected with any of the current employees of the same company. But if you get a chance, extract some tips and knowledge that can help you in formulating your answer. Because no one can be a better guide than the people who the company inside-out.

5. List down the factors that attract you:

After following most of the above suggestions, list out the points you find attractive and can genuinely help you out in formulating the answer. This might at least help you in framing the structure of your answer.

Additional Suggestions:

Along with do’s there are some don’ts that need to be avoided while answering the interviewer’s question.

• Try not to be generic when answering the question. Because it shows your lack of concern and dedication towards the job opportunity. Do your research about the company and its job opportunities to present a better answer to the interviewer.
• Do not sound unsure and confused. Be correct with your facts and information. And express yourself with utmost honesty.
• Try to avoid lies as much as possible. It is a big no! The interviewers have enough experience to figure things out.
• Do not jump on the pay scale at the very beginning. It might portray a negative image of yours and can put off the employer soon.
• And also try to be minimalist about how beneficial the job is for you. Although it does help in enhancing the respective question. However, it is always better to sum it up in one to two points. Don’t stretch it unnecessarily.

These are some basic suggestions that one can follow to frame an answer to “why you want to work for us”. It can guide you through to bypass your fear to face such questions.

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