If you have ever attended an interview, there is one question you can almost bet on being asked - Why do you want to join this company? Despite the ubiquity of this question, it always surprises me how many candidates don't have a prepared answer.
If we were to answer this question honestly, I doubt if anybody would land a job. Except for a few companies, most of the time the answer would be, "Because I need a salary". With the top companies, it might also include "I really don't care what my role entails. I want to be associated with the brand."
On the face of it, the question seems silly. But is it?
Few interviewers expect an answer about how you are aligned with the company vision. The question mostly translates as, "What do you bring to the table? How will you be useful to the company?"
This is your opportunity to bring your experience into focus and frame it in terms of what the company requires. To be able to do this, you must have visited the company website and also the company's Help site. One gives you a sense of the kind of company it is and in what direction it is moving. If possible, you should be able to highlight what you liked about the documentation and how you might approach it if you are given the chance.
It is also a chance to tell the interviewer what you expect to learn by being part of the company, in general, and the team, in particular. If you are not going to learn anything new, you aren't going to grow. A perfect fit is usually a bad fit.
The worst thing you can do is to not answer the question. It demonstrates that you are just shopping around and don't care about building a career for yourself. Consider this, would you just marry the first person who responded to flyers you put up around town? A job is like a marriage, just easier to get out of. You have to see a long-term future for yourself there - both in terms of what you can contribute and what you can learn. The company is looking to see what you bring to the table and how much headroom you have to grow.
Remember, just like you want a job, companies are looking for candidates that fit their requirements. The company takes time and effort to write up a JD, has a website, and makes social media posts, all in an attempt to attract you to apply. Now that you are talking to them, you should show some amount of interest in things other than salary and work-life balance.
Comentários