How To Answer “Why Do You Want This Job?”

“Why do you want this job?”

On paper, it’s a simple question, but for many interviewees, it can be a doozy. Your interview may have gone well, but if you fumble on this seemingly easy inquiry, you may fail to stick the landing and miss out on the job.

This common question allows hiring managers to see if you’re the right person for not just the position but for the organization itself. Many job seekers are caught off guard by this question, but they shouldn’t be. Separate yourself from the pack and wow your interviewer by making these preparations:

“What interviewers are looking for when they ask that question is the depth of thinking and seriousness a candidate has about working at this company,” –Jeff Hyman, CEO of Recruit Rockstars

 

Ask yourself the same question

Before you even agree to the interview, ask yourself the same question. Why do you want this position? Are you just looking for the first company in your field that will hire you? Are you looking for a bigger payday? Are you searching for a better cultural fit? Does this role excite you? You’re interviewing the company as much as they are interviewing you. Knowing your own motivations is the best first step.

“You spend the bulk of your time at work. It pays to work somewhere you like.” –Abi Tyas Tunggal, Himalayas

 

Do your research

As always, doing your homework before the interview is the best practice. While you’ll be able to have some of your questions answered during your interview, you’ll want to know as much about the organization as possible before the interview.

This starts with the basics: go to the organization’s website and look around, especially at anything involving company culture, find reviews from past employees and customers, and check out their social media. But job search strategist Hannah Morgan advises going even further. Look into press releases, talk to current and past employees yourself, and conduct an informational interview if possible. The more information you have, the better idea you’ll have of what life for this company will look like and whether or not this is a job you want.

Identify common ground

Through your research, you should gain an acute understanding of the company’s culture as well as the nitty-gritty details of the position. Look for overlaps between your valued traits and theirs. Indeed recommends making lists of your career objectives and your core values and looking for matches.

If the company’s culture aligns with your own and the position itself looks to be a match for your career goals, it’s much easier to express that to your interviewer. You’ll be more enthusiastic about accepting a position there, and you’ll be able to demonstrate your value.

Emphasize what you can offer

“Why do you want to work here?” isn’t just a face-value question. This is an excellent chance to demonstrate your value and why you’re the best candidate for the position. Connect your skills and experiences, along with what makes you unique, to the job. This is a final chance to sell yourself as the best candidate. The Muse’s Lily Zhang suggests keeping your answer brief but to focus on a few key skills and relating them to the job posting. Meanwhile, Forbes contributor Ashira Prossack suggests that this is an ideal time to highlight your soft skills.

“Your unique skills and talents are a selling point here, particularly soft skills. The more you’re able to demonstrate how you’ll use your skills to add value, the better you’ll stand out in the interview.” – Ashira Prossack

Be detailed

Make sure your answers are detailed, both in regard to your own skills and experiences and when you reference the company. Use tangible examples of how you’ll use your skills to bring value to the role. Don’t tell the interviewer you have good leadership skills—relate those skills to the position and how you’ll use them if hired.

Reference direct details about the company. Point to a mission statement or a specific innovation and build your answer from there, proposes career coach Emily Liou.

“If you’re interviewing for a position at Apple, for example, and tell the hiring manager you want to work there because they make cool computers, that’s not going to land you an offer, because so many other candidates are saying the exact same thing.” –Emily Liou

Avoid pitfall answers

In accordance with the above point, details are good and vague, meandering answers are bad. One of the most common pitfalls is only focusing on what the company can offer you, usually in terms of salary, advancement opportunities, or other perks. Answering in this manner can not only make you look selfish but appear as though you’ll accept the first offer given to you. Make sure to reference the company itself and focus on the mutual value you can offer each other.

Wrap up

Some of the most basic interview questions can throw off even the best candidates, and it pays (literally!) to be prepared. If you’re interviewing for a job, there’s a strong chance you want that job. Figuring out why and being able to effectively express that desire is the key to a successful answer. Demonstrate your value and be detailed, and you’ve got a good chance of being hired.

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Six Ways Your Job Search Is Like Dating

Getting apprehensive as you get dressed up, rehearsing the stories you want to tell, following up afterward hoping for a second chance, and getting hopeful for what the future might bring…searching for a job is a lot like dating, isn’t it?

It might seem like a strange comparison, but when you stop to think about it, dating and job hunting have a lot in common. From the initial search to putting your best self forward, both activities involve a lot of effort and a lot of searching for the right fit. But if all goes right, you might just find a bright future.

Numerous experts have made the same observations, and thinking of the similarities between the dating world and job-seeking can provide an interesting change in perspective. Embrace these dating-esque strategies and you just might find a new career to fall in love with.

Know what you want

Many people don’t like to admit it, but most people have a type when it comes to dating. Whether consciously or subconsciously, people are looking for a partner or partners that check certain boxes. Just as understanding your tastes matters in dating, knowing what you want in an employer partner is vital before you even start your search.

FlexJobs’ Kat Boogaard compares looking for a flexible work environment, room for growth, and a good salary to looking for a sense of humor or a shared passion with a prospective romantic partner. Identifying what traits are important to you before starting the search will make the journey much more fulfilling.

It’s also important to decide what level of commitment you want before searching. Maybe you want a casual fling with a new industry. Maybe you’re looking to settle down for the long term. You’ll want to decide before you swipe.

Know what you’re getting into

Speaking of swiping, the internet is a double-edged sword for both dating and job hunting. The ease of dating apps and online job boards means more potential for connection, but it also means you have a lot of competition. You’ll face much more rejection, and ghosting is common. You may have thought things went well with that cute marketing company, but you never hear from them again. It’s part of the search.

Just as you may have better luck if a friend fixes you up with a date, having a business connection will make the search important. Networking is the best wingman out there.

“Your coffee date doesn’t show up, an exciting person ghosts you, everyone is flaky, and you feel like a piece of meat. You must be job hunting.” –Arianne Cohen, Bloomberg

Make your best first impression

Once you’ve landed the date/interview, you want to put your best foot forward and make the best first impression possible. Dress your best, show up on time, don’t look at your phone, and be a good listener.

Beyond the basics, prior research is key. Via a 2021 Statista survey, 40% of people look up their date online, and 44% will search for their social media. This gives you a better idea of who you’re meeting and provides talking points. The same philosophy applies to job searching. Always research the organization beforehand. Not only with the information answer some of your early questions, but you’ll get a feel for the overall culture and see if you’re a good fit. You’ll have much more to talk about and be able to impress your date.

Forbes’ Caroline Castrillon stresses the importance of body language. Nonverbal queues play a major role in your interpersonal interactions. You can practice power poses to build confidence and really wow your interviewer.

“Whether it’s facial expressions, gestures or eye contact, non-verbal cues can make the difference between getting a job offer or being shown out the door.” – Caroline Castrillon

Be authentic, and don’t be desperate

Caroline also stresses the importance of being your authentic self. “If you can’t be yourself, then what’s the point?” Knowing what you want and doing prior research make it easy to recognize whether this is a good fit or not. You want a partner that shares your values, and you don’t want to settle for less than you deserve.

Don’t just take the first thing that comes along. Looking desperate is a turn-off in both the dating and professional worlds. Just as looks aren’t everything in dating, money isn’t the only trait that matters in job seeking. A bad fit may mean starting your search anew, but it’s better to come to that conclusion early on instead of having a messy breakup.

“Don’t talk about a job too early in the process of networking, that is like talking about what you want to name your children on the first date.” –Hannah Morgan

Don’t talk about your ex

Just as talking about your ex on the first date is a major red flag, bashing your previous employer is a major faux pas in an interview. Don’t do it.

Trust your gut

At the end of the search, you’ll have a lot of information at your disposal, but only you can decide whether you’ve found the right partner for you. It’s okay to be picky; if something doesn’t feel right despite looking good on paper, don’t be afraid to move on. You’re making a life-altering decision, and it’s okay to wait for the best fit.

Wrap up

Dating and finding a career have a surprising amount in common. The search can be harrowing, but if you know what you want, do your homework, make a good first impression, and be yourself, you can find a situation you’re comfortable with.

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Addressing Employment Gaps In 2022

In past years, having resume gaps was taboo in the eyes of hiring managers. But the professional world is rapidly changing, and those changes were further accelerated by the pandemic. Whether it’s due to health reasons, caring for children or loved ones, pursuing a passion, embracing freelance work, or simply changing careers, gaps and breaks in work history are increasingly common.

Forbes’ Caroline Castrillon believes the traditional career ladder is being replaced with “career waves” and that resume breaks could actually become a strength in becoming a more versatile and well-rounded individual.

If you’ve been worried about your own resume gaps, know that the stigma is over. We’ll analyze the data surrounding resume gaps before covering how to use those gaps to accentuate your value as a job seeker.

Career gaps are increasingly common

What was once a red flag has become a sign of a well-rounded worker. What changed? Millennials becoming a major demographic in the workplace and the cultural changes resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic have caused a major shift in how companies hire.

A 2019 Manpower study found that 84% of millennials expected career breaks throughout their journey, and this was before the pandemic forced many workers into an involuntary gap. The pandemic also led to the Great Resignation, which led to pickier job seekers and employees having more power. Employers must work with the candidates they have and embrace new ways of thought to maintain and bring in top-tier talent.

“Because it was such a high volume of people who chose to stay home for a variety of reasons and the labor market is so tight, those things factored in together made it that employers are much more flexible now about their ‘red flags’ toward longer career gaps.” –Jeramy Kaiman, head of LHH Recruitment Solutions

LinkedIn has embraced this new meta and introduced titles such as “stay-at-home parent” and the option to add career breaks (with reasons including bereavement, career transitioning, layoffs, volunteering, and more) to normalize gaps. Their 2021 research found that employers were much more open to workers with unemployment gaps.

“79% of hiring managers today say they would hire a candidate with a career gap on their resume, according to LinkedIn.

59% of hiring managers are interested in learning about any transferable skills you have learned, and 58% are interested in lessons that can be applied to a particular job.” –LinkedIn

Addressing the gap

No matter why you needed a career break, it will come up in your interviews. Thankfully, with a little preparation, you can expertly counter these questions and turn them into selling points.

Have a plan

If you’re re-entering the workforce, especially after a long gap or while entering an entirely new industry, you want to have a clear vision for your job search.

Corporate Escape Artist suggests taking time to find positions that align with your vision and to take control of your personal brand. Re-entering the workforce is much easier with a strategy in mind, and it will make you more excited about getting back out there. You get to control the story of your employment gaps and taking time to reflect on your previous career journey and your time away can provide clarity into your future goals.

Focus on skills

One reason employment gaps used to be a red flag is that employers worried important job-related skills would atrophy from time away. But in today’s world, the Great Resignation led to many employees switching industries to find positions that better aligned with their passions and values. Many skills, especially soft skills, are highly-transferable and desirable. Make sure to highlight them.

If you gained any new skills or certifications during your gap, make sure to detail them on your resume and cover letter.

Mariana Toledo says to think of these skills as your personal toolbox. The job may be different, but these tools are always useful. In fact, you may have developed new skills or insights in your time away that other candidates lack.

Focus on accomplishments, not absences

It’s always to focus on the positives over the negatives as a job seeker. Just because an important contribution happened months ago doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. While your cover letter may be a way to explain your gaps, don’t make them the focus. Instead, let your experiences sell you as a candidate.

Find value in your absence

If you had valuable experiences that didn’t align with a traditional 9-5, don’t hesitate to add them to your documents. Just because they didn’t occur in a traditional workplace doesn’t mean your experiences weren’t valuable.

It doesn’t matter if you volunteered, freelanced, took up independent projects, acted as a consultant…don’t hesitate to include that in your resume. Something is better than nothing. –Hiration

Wrap up

A person’s career journey looks much different than it did in the past. Employment gaps used to be an issue, but they’ve become normalized as the culture changes. Employers are much more open-minded and view your unique career journey as a plus. Your time away may make you a more well-rounded candidate than someone with a more straightforward career path, and you may have skills your competition lack, but it’s up to you to make that clear.

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Stand Out Digitally With These LinkedIn Summary Tips

In any sort of persuasive speech, your attention-getter sets the tone of the entire performance. An engaging introduction reels your audience in, while a boring one sends them looking elsewhere. Imagine walking into a hotel lobby and finding it unpleasant. No matter how good your room may be, that initial entrance soured the experience.

Your LinkedIn profile is the same way. Using LinkedIn is vital for the modern job search, and your summary is your introduction to recruiters. The website itself declares the summary as one of the most important pieces of information you can describe.

“Your summary or About section is the one place you define yourself in your own words, free of start dates and titles. Whether you use it to put career choices in context, highlight your biggest achievements, or show off your personality, the summary is your chance to put your best self out there. It strengthens your first impression in a way no other Profile section can.” –LinkedIn

If you’re doing some spring cleaning with your profile, we’ll go teach you how to craft an exceptional summary that shows the real you.

Prioritize the first few sentences

If your summary is the introduction to your profile, the first few words are the introduction to your introduction. Laura Smith-Proulx reveals that your full summary isn’t immediately displayed until someone clicks on “see more” (on both mobile and desktop versions).

That means your summary needs to “pop” immediately to catch the eyes of the looker. You want to hook your audience immediately by getting directly into your brand and making your objective clear right away.

Use keywords

The modern job search is all about appeasing the search engine. Realizing this is the key to making sure you’ll show up in a recruiter’s search at all. To do that, LinkedIn experts recommend using keywords throughout your profile.

Executive resume writer Jessica Hernandez simply defines these keywords as “Keywords are a list of words and phrases that are related to your work—they are the words that a prospective employer would search for when trying to find someone like you.”

Find words relevant to your industry and use them often. This will make sure you show up in searches AND make it easier for a prospective employer to get an idea of what you’re all about. While you should use keywords, make sure to avoid making your profile a jumbled mess of jargon.

Showcase your personality

A recruiter isn’t just getting an automaton worker when they look at your profile; they are looking at a complex human being. At the end of the day, not only does a recruiter want a qualified worker, but they want someone that is a good cultural fit for the organization.

Because of the nature of LinkedIn, you still want to be professional, but don’t be afraid to let a little flair or humor out. If you followed the above advice, your audience will get a view of you as a worker and you as a person. Having this insight allows the reader to have a more detailed picture of how you will fit in with the company.

Find a format that works for you

In keeping with the above advice, you can craft the style of your summary in a manner that best describes you. There isn’t a single cookie-cutter approach to take. SocialTalent reminds us that the summary is your chance to tell your story as you see it. Just like in an elevator pitch, you’re using that short space to say who you are and what you bring to the table.

The Muse’s Aja Frost analyzes different strategies for telling that story, including the mission-based strategy, the personal strategy, the short-and-sweet summary, the blended summary, and the accomplishment summary. These five example methods allow you to decide what’s important for you and the best way to summarize yourself. All five are great starting points, and you can click the above link for more details.

Meanwhile, LinkedIn itself goes over 14 well-designed and radically different summary styles and provides reasons why they work. All 14 off an excellent place to start and can serve as a template for your own story. It’s all about finding the best way to represent you!

Avoid third-person

Your LinkedIn summary is a summary of you as a worker, told by you. This is a chance for you to be yourself, and ideally, you don’t talk in third person in real life. Avoid this common pitfall!

Example

Aja Frost provides us with a great example of a short, detailed summary that follows all of the above advice.

“I’m a sales rep dedicated to helping local Oklahoma City services businesses grow their customer base and decrease customer churn. I have 6 years of experience in local sales and I’ve consistently met and exceeded my quota throughout my career. Within the last year, I’ve topped our leaderboard six out of 10 months. On average, I close business 10% faster than my peers.”

Wrap up

If you aren’t using LinkedIn as part of your job search strategy, you need to do so immediately! And a successful LinkedIn summary is the welcome mat to the rest of your profile. Make sure it’s clear, direct, and a good summary of you, the writer. There isn’t one successful must-use template, so do some research and some tweaking and find what works for you!

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Three Keys To A Rewarding Informational Interview

The key to a successful interview is preparation. Your skills and experience level don’t mean much if you go into an interview without doing your homework. Researching the company, the industry, and conducting a mock interview are all beneficial, but if you really want to do a deep dive, consider conducting an informational interview.

An informational interview isn’t the same as a job interview. Rather, it is an informal meeting or conversation with someone in your target industry/company to get a deep dive into that line of work. Indeed found a host of potential benefits of this type of interview, including:

  • Learning how to research or screen careers, positions or employers
  • Preparing for future job interviews
  • Learning how to ask direct and follow-up questions
  • Increasing network contacts
  • Learning steps to pursue a potential career
  • Recognizing your strengths and weaknesses for a potential role

An informational interview gets you something you can’t find from an online resource: a real person’s experiences and advice. If you think your job search could benefit from an informational interview or you’re looking to move into a new industry, we’ve done a little information gathering ourselves to help. Learn how to prepare for and conduct the most efficient fact-finding mission with these tenets.

Find the right contact

You’ve recognized that an informational interview will be advantageous, but where to start? Whether you’re a network novice or seasoned web-builder, chances are you can start with your own inner circle. If you already know someone in the industry or at your target company, excellent! Send them a message. If no one you know fits the bill, look to your friends, family, and professional contacts to see if they know a good fit. They may know the right person to assist and can introduce you.

If your network comes up empty, a good old-fashioned cold call (but actually email or direct message) can help! Look for someone in that company on LinkedIn or try searching in an alumni or professional group. LiveCarrer suggests being sincere and considerate when asking for a conversation. Remember, you’re asking this person for a favor. Be upfront and direct with your request. Make it clear you’re asking for help, but don’t ask for a job. You’re looking for information, and you’re hoping to learn from this person’s experience.

Pre-research research

While the purpose of your interview is to gain knowledge, you can’t go into an informational interview completely clueless. Compile enough background information to sound credible. You want this informational interview to support the information you’re able to find on your own, and merely asking someone the basics you could easily find online is a waste of both parties’ time. Mac Prichard suggests coming up with one clear objective you’d like to gain from the conversation and tailoring your preparation to it.

“What’s the #1 thing I can learn from this connection to help me on my career path?” -Mac Prichard

As Jennifer Winter of The Muse reminds, your contact is taking time out of their day to talk with you free of charge. Respect their time by doing your homework beforehand. Research their history and find common ground with them. Not only will you look prepared and professional, but they’ll feel honored you’re familiar with their work. A bit of flattery is always nice.

Ask useful questions

An informational interview shouldn’t be long—maybe about 15-30 minutes at most. You want to get as much useful info as possible, so it’s important to maximize your time by asking great questions. Have a specific list of questions prepared beforehand and keep them organized.

Harvard Business Review cited author Dorie Clark, who suggested approaching the interview like a journalist. “Gently probe through curiosity, then listen.” You don’t want to feel like a cross-examiner or be pushy. You’re asking the questions, but let your contact determine how they answer. You’re there for their expertise, so whatever they choose to answer with is probably what they view as important information.

The Balance Careers’ Alison Doyle has a magnificent list of questions you can ask your contact, divided into occupational and functional questions. A blend of both will give you a superb look at both the big picture aspects of the role and what the day-to-day looks like.

Wrap up

An informational interview can be an invaluable tool to assist in your job search, especially if you’re breaking into a new industry. These conversations are a great way to use the network you’ve created to get insider information you wouldn’t find in traditional research. Remember to find the right contact, do your homework beforehand, and make the most of your limited time by asking useful questions. There are so many resources out there for networking and learning about your chosen industry. Don’t be afraid to use them!

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