- Unlike the "Why should I hire you" interview question,
where you can and should include
selfish elements in your answer to stay authentic,
your response to "Why do you wanna work here?"
should mainly focus on selfless reasons
and highlight what you bring to the table.
In this video,
I'm going to share practical strategies
that address three implicit things
interviewers are looking for when they ask this question.
When faced with, "Why do you wanna work here?"
And other variations of this question, such as,
"why are you interested in this position?
"And why do you want this job?"
It's important to know,
that the interviewer is essentially trying to figure out
the following three things, number one,
do you have a growth mindset?
Number two,
just how much research have you done
on the position and company.
And number three,
how enthusiastic are you about the role?
Now, let's dive into the strategies
that address each one of these questions.
Starting with number one.
Do you have a growth mindset?
Growth mindset is a phrase
that has been thrown around a lot
in the past few years.
But in a nutshell,
it's the idea that if you do have a group with mindset,
you always look for ways to improve yourself.
So, we put in the extra time and effort,
and that leads to higher achievement.
Scientifically it has been proven
that those with a growth mindset
tend to outperform those with a fixed mindset
and companies obviously know this.
So, the interview question, why do you wanna work here?
Helps the interviewers tease out
whether you have a growth or fixed mindset.
On a more practical level,
this means if you're a working professional
interviewing for a role
in the same industry as you are in right now,
you wanna convey the fact that you're moving,
not because of higher pay,
but because of how the new role will present new challenges,
that'll push you to grow personally and professionally.
Let's say you're in sales
currently taking care of smaller clients
and you're interviewing for a role
where you recover large key accounts.
You can say how this move is a natural extension
of your professional growth.
You've already learned how to take care of smaller accounts
through scales strategies,
and now you want the challenge
I've taking on bigger clients.
Another example is if you're interviewing
with a smaller firm,
for a role with more responsibility,
you can say how you wanna take the best practices
of an established corporation,
and apply those learnings to a more startup environment
that currently lacks a more formal structure.
Or let's say you're pivoting to a completely new industry,
where you have little to no experience in,
a situation many fresh graduates and young professionals
find themselves in,
in that case, you wanna highlight how you're able
to ramp up in the new role
with minimal guidance from your manager.
AKA, are you gonna make that easy or hard?
To do this, give examples where you were able
to successfully find a solution to a difficult problem
you were facing and how you might replicate those steps
you took to find the solution.
For example, when I was interviewing
for my first full time position
in management consulting,
I knew that making slides and presentations
was very important for first and second year consultants.
And so, I mentioned how in my senior year I taught myself
Apple Keynote to stand out from other class projects
since the visuals are very different
from that of Microsoft PowerPoint.
The high manager in that interview
might then draw the conclusion that I'm very familiar
with cranking out PowerPoint and Keynote presentations.
And so that my work will not need to be reviewed
nearly as much,
making his or her life just a tiny bit easier.
So, as you can see all these examples showcase
how to communicate you have a growth mindset
as opposed to a fixed one.
By the way, if you like this first tip,
I have a Facebook group where I share exclusive weekly tips.
So, consider joining if you haven't already.
I'll link it down below.
Moving on to the second implicit question.
Just how much research have you done?
Yes, you should know the company's mission statement.
You should be reading up on their latest news.
You should be following them on their social media accounts
to learn about their latest product updates,
but that type of research isn't particularly helpful
for this specific question.
The reason is simple.
All that information is too high level.
To illustrate this, Google's company mission,
is "To organize the world's information,
"and make it universally accessible and useful."
Amazing mission by the way, Larry and Sergey,
love it.
But if you're interviewing
for Google's account manager sales position,
and you start off by saying,
you wanna organize the world's information,
you might come off as a little bit too idealistic
and not down to earth.
So, you answered this question should focus more on the role
and less on the company.
And the best way to learn more about the role
is straight from the horse's mouth.
By talking to someone already working there.
I've already made several videos
on how to effectively connect with others,
either through your college alumni database,
or through some little known features on LinkedIn.
So, I just save you time and link those videos down below.
Something I will highlight right now,
is the one meaningful question
you should always ask the person
after you do connect with them.
And that question is what are you measured on
when it comes performance review time?
In other words,
what's your key performance indicator, KPI.
This is a very meaningful question to ask
for several reasons.
Number one,
it helps you learn the exact metric you'll be measured on
if you were to get the role,
and knowing this level of detail
will definitely impress the hiring manager.
Two, it prompts the other person
to share specific examples samples of their day-to-day
that you can again, bring up as part of your answer.
And finally it allows you to naturally follow up
and that's how the person achieves his or her KPIs.
And believe me when I tell you
having this natural flow is much better
than you rapid firing questions that you've memorized
from a list beforehand.
Pro tip, if for whatever reason,
you can't connect with someone working in the role
that you're applying for,
find someone on LinkedIn with the exact same title,
working at a comparable company.
Quick question to all my viewers out there.
How do you usually do research ahead of an interview?
I'm actually pretty curious.
Let me know down the comments below.
Last but not least third implicit question.
How enthusiastic you about the role?
Research has shown that all else equal,
companies will put enthusiasm for a role
over a particular skillset,
because skills can always be trained,
but instilling energy and passion in someone
is usually a bit more difficult.
Additionally, and I'm pretty surprised
this hasn't been shared more widely,
the more enthusiastic you are about the position,
the more the interviewer takes comfort
that they made the right choice
in joining and staying at the company as well.
This consciously or unconsciously lease the goodwill
between you and the interviewer.
Increasing your chances of being viewed favorably.
Think about it from the standpoint of a seasoned employee,
and this happens to literally everyone.
The employee might take for granted a lot of the positives,
the perks, the benefits,
since he or she has been working there for such a long time.
But believe me, when I say that, if done the right way,
your energy level will rub off on the interviewer.
Be it through the form of appropriate jokes,
body language,
or good old high energy dialogue.
Recently, a colleague of mine in the marketing team
who has been with Google for over nine years,
told me she just interviewed an intern
for the BDC hardware team
who left a very strong impression on her.
Other than the fact
that the candidate clearly has a growth mindset,
and had done her research for the internship position,
the thing that struck my colleague the most,
was how the candidate's eyes lit up,
whenever our hardware products were discussed.
She clearly had a passion for technology
referencing videos from MKBHD,
Mr. Mobile, Dave2D,
and they ended up having an hour long conversation,
even after the interview officially ended.
The tried and true method I can share here
to increase your energy levels
is a simply practice in front of a mirror
or to record yourself.
Smile, eyebrows up and not when the interview was talking
or asking a question.
I know this doesn't sound like one of my normal hacks,
but I sincerely believe that given enough practice,
anyone can come off as more enthusiastic.
Side note and you might not believe me,
I'm actually a very introverted person.
If you're just watching my videos, though,
I might come off as someone who's very comfortable
talking to a large group of people.
Lastly, you wanna stay away from mentioning salary,
location, commute in your answer
to "Why do you wanna work here?"
Because this will suck the energy out of the conversation.
All of these factors are important, definitely,
but they all revolve around
what the company can provide for you.
And again, your answer should focus
on the value you bring to the table.
All right, those are the three strategies
that address the implicit questions
from "Why do you wanna work here?"
Please give this video a like if you found it helpful
and lemme know down in the comments below,
if you have any questions.
Subscribe, if you haven't already
see you on the next video in the meantime, have a great one.
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