"Why Do You Want to Work Here?": How to Answer Without Flattery

Most answers to “why do you want to work here?” could be given, word for word, at the company down the road. The recruitment firm Hays calls replies such as “your organisation seems like a good one to work for” generic and insincere, because hiring managers have heard them many times and they fit any employer and any job.¹

A good answer names something specific about this organization, connects it to skills you have already used, and says what you want to contribute or learn there. Build it in this order:

1. Find one specific reason in the employer’s own work
2. Connect it to something you have done
3. Say what you want to add or learn
4. Test the answer against a competitor

The question belongs to the interview stage of planning and running a job search. Keep this answer and your reply to the “tell me about yourself” question pointing at the same job.

Four things “why do you want to work here?” tests

Interviewers use “why do you want to work here?” to check four things: whether you are motivated by this job, whether you researched the employer, whether you would fit, and whether you are likely to stay. England’s National Careers Service says employers ask it to see genuine interest in working for them.²

SEEK New Zealand lists the same mix: motivation, research, understanding of the company and genuine interest in the role.³ Hays Australia puts it as why you want this job, at this organization, at this point in your career.¹

The reason is cost. Robert Half Canada points out that finding a candidate who fits both the position and the company can be costly and slow, so hiring managers look for evidence that you would repay the effort.⁴ A candidate who says they just need a job, the firm adds, leaves the interviewer wondering whether they would leave quickly for something better.

Research backs the fit part. A 1997 Journal of Applied Psychology study of real hiring decisions found that interviewers’ sense of a candidate’s fit with the organization strongly predicted their hiring recommendations.⁵

In an invented example, a hospital recruiter interviewing two nurses with the same qualifications has little else to separate them. If one explains that she applied because the ward runs a nurse-led discharge clinic she wants to work in, the recruiter now has a reason to believe she chose this hospital and will still be there next year. Prepare one piece of evidence like that for each of the four checks before the interview.

A three-part answer: the organization, your skills, your contribution

Careers services and recruiters across several countries describe the same core: a specific reason drawn from the employer, a link to your own experience, and what you would bring. Societe Generale’s careers site in France sums it up as what you know about the company, what personally motivates you to join it and what you can concretely bring.⁶

1. The organization: one specific thing it does, has done recently or is known for, found in its own work rather than its slogan
2. Your skills: a real example of when you did something close to it, at work, in study or outside both
3. What you would add or learn: what you want to contribute in this role, and what you hope to learn there

1. Find one specific reason in the employer’s own work

Look for something the organization does, has done recently or is known for in its field, and pick the one that matters to you. The same French careers site notes that mentioning a little-known detail makes all the difference, and Robert Half Canada suggests going beyond the website to news, press releases and employee reviews.⁶⁴ Where to look, and how long to spend, is covered in the research step of interview preparation.

2. Connect it to something you have done

Tie the reason to a real example. Prospects, the UK graduate careers site, suggests drawing on academic, professional or extra-curricular life and naming the parts of the job advertisement that drew you.⁷ An interviewer can ask follow-up questions about an example, which makes it more convincing than a statement of enthusiasm.

3. Say what you want to add or learn

End on what you would bring and what you hope to learn there. Robert Half suggests flipping the question to “why would this company want to hire me?”⁴ Hays adds a balance: show ambition, without implying the role is a springboard to another employer.¹

4. Test the answer against a competitor

Read your answer back and swap in the name of a rival employer. If it still works, replace the most general sentence with a detail only this organization has.

Five checks for your draft

• It names one specific thing this organization does or has done
• It links that reason to a real example from my work, study or life
• It says what I want to contribute and what I hope to learn
• It would not make sense if I said it to a competitor
• It does not lead with pay, perks or convenience

Example answers for three career stages

Each example below is invented, organization and details included, to show how the three parts stretch from a first job to a senior one.

A graduate with no work experience yet

A graduate’s evidence comes from study, projects and part-time work. My World of Work, Scotland’s careers service, suggests thinking about why you applied in the first place and how the job helps you reach where you want to go.⁸ Saying what you hope to learn is honest here, as long as it sits next to something you already did.

Moving in from another field

Someone switching fields needs a bridge between the old work and the new. Here the bridge is a habit the employer is known for that the candidate already practices, which answers the unspoken question of why someone would change careers to join them.

An experienced hire

An experienced hire can be blunter about what they would deliver, but the specific reason still comes first. Take the example nearest your own stage, keep its three moves, and replace every detail with one from your own record.

Why this company or why this role: two questions in one

“Why this company?” asks about the organization: its work, reputation and values. “Why this role?” asks about the job: its duties, the skills it uses and where it leads. Interviewers sometimes ask them separately, and a full answer covers both.

My World of Work treats them as two questions, advising career goals for the role and research into the organization’s values, events and news for the company.⁸ The difference matters because you would spend most days doing the job, inside one team. Praise for a famous brand says little about whether you would enjoy the work it is hiring for.

If you hear only one version, answer it and touch the other in a sentence. A candidate asked “why this role?” can name the duties that drew them, then add the one thing about the organization that makes this version of the job better than the same title elsewhere.

How interviewers judge fit, according to the research

Interviewers compare what they learn about your values with what their organization values, and that judgment is closely tied to who gets hired. A widely cited study on this is Daniel Cable and Timothy Judge’s 1997 study of interviewers making decisions about actual applicants.

The study

Limited evidence

Interviewers, values and job offers: Cable and Judge, 1997

Using data from 38 interviewers making hiring decisions about 93 applicants, the authors found that interviewers could judge how well an applicant’s values matched the organization’s with significant accuracy. Those fit judgments predicted hiring recommendations more strongly than other applicant characteristics did, and the recommendations in turn predicted who received job offers.⁵

It is one study, observational, and nearly 30 years old, so treat it as a sign of how interviewers think rather than a rule. Later research agrees: Amy Kristof-Brown and colleagues’ 2005 meta-analysismeta-analysis: A study that combines the results of earlier studies on the same question into one overall estimate. Pooling makes the estimate more precise, but it cannot repair the studies it pools: a meta-analysis of surveys is still survey evidence.Full entry in the glossary found fit linked to outcomes before hiring, such as job offers, and after it, such as attitudes, withdrawal and tenure.⁹ Withdrawal and tenure are the research side of the “likely to stay” check, though the abstract does not say how strong each link is.

Fit is judged from what you say and do, so you can help the interviewer judge it accurately. “I share your values” gives them nothing to compare. A sentence about a time you acted on the same value, such as rebuilding a process because customers kept hitting the same problem, gives them something to weigh.

What not to say when asked why you want to work here

Leave out four things: pay and perks as your first reason, copied mission statements, praise that would suit any employer, and hints that you plan to move on soon. Each one turns up in the warnings of recruiters and careers services from Australia to Malaysia.

Two of the recruiters name pay directly. Jobstreet Malaysia counts a focus on what the company can give you, such as competitive pay, as a misstep, and Robert Half warns against answers built only on a higher salary or a shorter commute.¹⁰⁴ Pay still matters; save it for the salary conversation.

A copied mission statement fails for a related reason: the interviewer already knows it, so reading it back tells them nothing about you. Robert Half suggests pointing to the specific part of the mission that resonates and a personal story that shows it.⁴

Flattery is a softer case. Jobstreet notes that candidates often misread the question and use it for flattery.¹⁰ Warmth itself may help. A 2004 field study by Chad Higgins and Timothy Judge found that applicants who used ingratiation (influence tactics meant to make the recruiter like them) were seen as better fits and more often recommended.¹¹

The catch comes from a 2009 review of interview studies by Barrick, Shaffer and DeGrassi: self-presentation tactics are related to interviewer ratings, most of all in unstructured interviews, and the authors conclude that what candidates show in the interview may not match what they do on the job.¹² A structured interviewstructured interview: A job interview in which every candidate is asked the same questions, drawn from an analysis of the job, and each answer is rated against a scale written in advance. It predicts job performance better than an unstructured conversation.Full entry in the glossary rates each answer against what the job needs, so give your enthusiasm a reason the interviewer can write down.

Finally, avoid hinting that the job is a stepping stone. Robert Half says “I see this as a step to bigger and better things” suggests one foot already out the door, and My World of Work’s example of what not to say is that this company happened to offer you an interview.⁴⁸

How much of this is backed by research?

Research covers how interviewers judge fit and self-presentation; nobody has tested an answer structure for this question. The table shows where each piece of the advice stands.

Use the three parts as a sensible default. Where your sector or country has different norms for this question, those come first.

The bottom line

The strongest answer to “why do you want to work here?” gives the interviewer one reason that belongs to this employer alone, and the evidence that you would act on it. Before your next interview, write down one specific thing the organization does, one time you did something close to it, and what you want to add; then say it aloud and check it would not work at a competitor.