- 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. (soft music)
