Said it in every interview I’ve ever been in. It’s the truth, usually not my only answer though.
I almost always say this. I usually turn down the job and state that the pay being offered is a little too low … they sometimes raise it.
Yes
Not that I recall. The trick to answering the question, I think, is to say a few nice things about about the organization, or the position, or yourself.
“I’m interested in working for a dynamic institution like Yoyodyne Industries…” or “As you can see from my resume I have a wealth of experience in spline reticulation…”
I found it was useful to write out my own cheat sheets of answers for common/likely interview questions, including some “personal experience”/“tell me about a time you…” type questions just to drill with.
It’s honestly trickier with overtly shittier jobs/orgs, like sales, food service, or cleaning. Kinda hard to say why you love Target or Walmart or McDonald’s. You can touch on how you like the product, but best to circle back to talking about your work ethic.
For those shitty customer facing service industry jobs my go to is talking about enjoying a social environment and highlighting pleasant and productive experiences (easily fabricated if needed) with customers in other jobs.
An interview is an opportunity for both of you to decide if it’s a good fit. Unfortunately the seeker is usually happy to accept anything. Lying is counter productive. They only want to hear any reason that you picked their workplace. Consider it structured small talk and focus on your energy.
I generally say: "let’s be realistic, I’m not passionate about what your company does. I am here to trade my time for wages and I have heard good ones about [company name].
Elaborate by mentioning something from their website to appear engaged and interested. Say you were a perfect fit because you meet all the requirements, talk about a friend who works there, mention using their products or services, or just mention that it’s close to your house and will be a short commute. Ultimately this is a soft question that is just to get a quick idea of each person applying.
Honestly I’ve never been asked this question
I absolutely joke with the interviewer by saying I like being able to pay my bills. It always gets a laugh, and then I go into fake reason I want to work there.
I’ll use something real that I like about them, but to be clear, it’s still 99.9% money and 0.1% that other thing lol
I’m stealing that.
No, because I need that job to get money but saying so would most likely prevent me from getting that job and, by extension, money.
I see you’ve played knifey-spooney before
Aww, 20 dollars. I wanted a peanut!
Wait! 20 dollars can buy you lots of peanuts
Explain how?
No
E: bot?
They’re not asking “why do you want a job” they’re asking “why do you want this job”.
As in, out of all the jobs that will pay you money, why do you want this one in particular?
There are other points during an interview process to lay out your pay expectations.
“Well I want this particular job because you called me back for an interview and the others didn’t”
“Why did you apply here and not every other company in the world?”
“Sorry, you must not have heard me; you called me back for an interview and the others didn’t.”
“Because I am capable of doing the work and can commute to the work location in a manageable amount of time.”
I mean, sure, if you don’t want to try any other answer to help convince them to hire you out of all the other applicants.
“I can eat a standard pack of instant noodles in less than 30 seconds”
Hired!
Cooked or uncooked? Either way, you seem like a good fit for the team.
Baked dry and then snorted through my tear ducts.
Thanks boss, I look forward to designing 2 stage rockets with the rest of my equally qualified coworkers!
I’ve been very pleased with your performance since joining the family 30 seconds ago. How would you feel about joining our management training program? Double the work for 10% more pay. I’m so proud. Can I call you son?
I failed out of school in kindergarten but I know double and 10% mean numbers going up so I’ll say yes. And since you’re so nice about it I’ll even do half the work for 10% more because I’ve seen those numbers on cartons of cream and I know the cream rises to the crop or something, which is good.
“I want this job because employmesayswhat”
It’s about how you say it though.
If you can manage to not be weird about it, you can turn the concept into corpospeak ans do just fine.
Paraphrasing, because it’s partially going to depend on the interviewer. “Your company has the market position to offer a pay scale that matches my quality as an employee” can end up nailing an interview.
Saying “I don’t care where I work as long as I get paid”, less so.
I would never want to work at a place where I have to talk like this unironically. It’s ridiculous.
If you are competent, you show it directly. No need to hide behind bullshit buzzwords.
Well, at least that’s my reverse filter for companies.
My current team leader interviewed me in a band shirt and we deep dived into realistic brainstorming for how I would approach real problems and we instantly vibed.
I immediately knew that’s a good place.
As in, out of all the jobs that will pay you money, why do you want this one in particular?
“Because you’re the only company out of 300 that emailed me back”
“I’m looking for a role where I can make good use of the skills I bring to the table” (because implicitly, the 299 places that didn’t email back don’t have a role where you can fit in and be useful (even if that’s only true in the sense that they didn’t hire you so therefore you can’t contribute there))
There are other points during an interview process to lay out your pay expectations.
Yeah. I ask them to justify the planning for this position and confirm the budget. They will have a budget.
The comic: https://smbc-comics.com/comic/2014-08-17
That’s pretty funny.
Yup.
But in the field of work I did, I had multiple advantages.
First was the high turnover rate. Most nursing facilities and home health companies have trouble keeping staff. So, chances are high that if you apply, you’re getting hired unless you’re absolutely horrible.
Second, I had experience out the wazoo by the point where I realized the above. Which meant not only did I have a good work history, it was also a history of sticking at a given employer, so I knew I could almost guarantee being hired even if there were applications stacked deep.
Third, I was visibly strong. Men were much rarer in my area as nurse’s assistants back then, so we tended to get snapped up fast for what is a physically demanding job. Since I’m a big ol’ fella that looks like he can throw people around easily, I could have gotten hired most places even if I had a shitty work record and been an asshole to whoever was doing the hiring.
Luckily, I’m not that kind of asshole (and was less of one in the ways I am an asshole back then), and I am instead charming as fuck in person. Which was my other advantage. It doesn’t show online, but if someone isn’t biased against sasquatches, they tend to respond well to me.
So, after the main company I worked for folded due to the administrator embezzling it into the ground, the first interview I had when they asked that I was able to be honest and say “look, this is what I do. I take care of people. I want to get paid for doing it, and word is that you pay the best in the area. Hire me at whatever your pay cap is, and I’ll be your best NA. Might take a few weeks before you believe that, but you will.”
On screen, that looks cocky and snide. But in person, it got a smile and an immediate hire. At the pay cap, and a promise of full time hours as long as I wanted them. Worked there until my body finally gave out.
Funny, my last job as the Buyer for a chain of bike shops was much the same straight talk. I told the owner, “Look, I’ve already worked in a high end shop, and I have owned my own business twice. I spend all money like it is my own regardless of the amount. If I make a purchase, regardless of the amount of money involved, I’m mentally spending my own money and thinking in terms of paying back your loan. I have real independent ethics and self awareness. I hold myself to the standard of employees I wish I had been able to find for my own business. I expect freedom, flexibility, respect, and autonomy, but I offer a conservatively consistent and reliable person that will always defer to you when I am unsure about an investment or a sum of money I cannot backup with my own finances.”
I find that people who fail to understand that kind of directness, and honesty without all of the insane courtship rituals that now underpin the hiring process are terrible to work for in the first place. I’d rather die than do the debasing mockery of a HR department or some circlejerk clown show of an interview like whores in a brothel. These things are valueless. Look at any large company and you’ll find a range of skills and aptitudes that do not reflect some great filter of value begotten by HR inventing a reason for its own existence as a malignant tumor growth out of the role of an accountant managing payroll in a back office.
When I was asked why in hell I worked for such garbage pay, I told people straight, I can’t run a business with fluctuating income and keep up with paying child services payments. I need rock solid consistency to rebuild my life from the ashes they create for the profit of their agents that are paid on commission. They couldn’t take a bike from me like how they wrecked my commercial driver’s license and business.
I always kinda implied the obvious that I work to survive. Anyone that feels the need to say otherwise would be a prime reason I would walk away. Only a useless clown like a malignant HR tumor would ever question a thing like this. As a business owner twice – of course my employees work for their own survival. And of fucking course I have an ethical and moral responsibility implied by that relationship. If I feel the need to say otherwise, I’m a worthless piece of shit you should never work for and anyone that says such a thing while working for another person is the responsibility of that higher up and absolutely reflective of their moral and ethical depravity. No one should ever put up with such a malignant cancer of a person at any level. They are blatantly telling you “This is a terrible place to work because it produced or failed to filter out me.”
Damn, now I wish I had a bike business so I could hire you.
I am instead charming as fuck in person. Which was my other advantage. It doesn’t show online
Honestly? I totally saw it
Well, thanks :)
Yeah when I was 15. 😂 The manager suddenly got huffy. The interview was at Target, so no big loss.
The last time I was asked that question was in 2012. Every interview since has been all about how I go about doing the job and case scenarios.
Yes, when discussing pay. I said flat out “I need to be making X/week, is that realistic here?” Got that job, working it now. I don’t have time to mess around.
This is a sales job, though.
Yeah. I’m brutal in the interview. I’ll let them know they are a finalist, but that I can ultimately only choose one employer for the daytime role.
But I want to weed out the egotists and ‘family’ shops so everyone understands. I’ll connect stand-by, OT and hybrid work rules to a higher wage given more demand and bad architecture, and ask them to justify de-prioritizing reliability and proper architecture with band-aids. And we’ll talk about the cost of living around the mandated office location and how 4x a 2/2 rent compares to their entry wage.
Sometimes, though, I’ll wordsmith it a bit to get the answers and then only review their answers later in the competition before confirming that their position as a candidate for my next employer has ended.
