Killer Interview Question: If You Could Work For Any Company, Where Would You Work?

The answer to this week’s KIQ might be obvious, but the details matter.

Why can’t all hiring managers just be straightforward? It’s because they know most interviewees have rehearsed their responses to stock standard questions. They just want to make sure what they see is what they get. Asking tricky questions is their attempt at getting interviewees to reveal their true selves.

One of these questions is “If you could work for any company, where would you work?”

The reason why interviewers would ask this question is to suss out just how serious you are at working at their company compared to their competition. It’s a question to ascertain a candidate’s level of loyalty.

“It also helps them weed out candidates who may veer from the core career,” Lynn Taylor, a workplace expert and author, told Business Insider “You may have heard that Google is a great place to work, but that off-road strategy would spell doom, as you’re being given the opportunity to theoretically work at your ‘dream job.’ The interviewer isn’t making conversation here, so stay focused on the job at hand.”

So what’s the best way to answer the question? According to Taylor, the interviewer wants to know that you’re interviewing at your first company choice. One thing to keep in mind is that when you respond, you do need to sound sincere about it. Here’s one of her recommended answers:

“Actually, I’ve been heavily researching target firms and (your company) seems like the ideal fit for my credentials. It’s exciting to me that (your company) is doing XYX in the industry, for example, and I’d like to contribute my part.”

How would you tackle this question? Let us know in the comments.

[Via Business Insider Australia]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

Here are the cheapest plans available for Australia’s most popular NBN speed tier.

At Lifehacker, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


4 responses to “Killer Interview Question: If You Could Work For Any Company, Where Would You Work?”