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First of all, the question isn't about you. It's about the company. The interviewer wants to know what it is about the company that you find attractive. It's also a sure-fire question to know whether or not you've done your homework. If you begin your answer with the personal pronoun "I," then you've already started on the wrong foot.
How to be prepared for the question? Really go through their web site. Bone up on the industry in which they exist. And then speak of your role in the company in terms of contributing to their success. In other words, talk about them, not you.
I interview a lot of people on behalf of my clients. I'm always flabbergasted at the number of people who never bother to look at the company's website. So they don't know how big the company is or even what they sell. I mean basic stuff that you can find out in about fifteen minutes. Surely you can invest fifteen minutes online, can't you?
If I were interested in a company, there's no way I would walk into an interview without knowing the following:
1) What they sell and to what markets.
2) What their company's growth has been like.
3) The size of their operations.
4) The LinkedIn profile of the person interviewing me.
5) The general trends in the industry.
6) How I could possibly fit in to advance the company's interests.
I mean, that's 15-30 minutes of Googling, tops. Yet people don't do it.
Here's the thing. If you are an interviewer, you aren't just looking for someone with requisite skills. If you're looking for anyone to do anything besides the most mind-numbing things, you want to see someone with initiative, someone who is a proven self-starter.
Yet if you don't know squat about the company before you sit across the desk from the guy who is going to hire you, then you've just told them that you aren't a self-starter and will have to be force-fed everything.
First of all, the question isn't about you. It's about the company. The interviewer wants to know what it is about the company that you find attractive. It's also a sure-fire question to know whether or not you've done your homework. If you begin your answer with the personal pronoun "I," then you've already started on the wrong foot.
How to be prepared for the question? Really go through their web site. Bone up on the industry in which they exist. And then speak of your role in the company in terms of contributing to their success. In other words, talk about them, not you.
I interview a lot of people on behalf of my clients. I'm always flabbergasted at the number of people who never bother to look at the company's website. So they don't know how big the company is or even what they sell. I mean basic stuff that you can find out in about fifteen minutes. Surely you can invest fifteen minutes online, can't you?
If I were interested in a company, there's no way I would walk into an interview without knowing the following:
1) What they sell and to what markets.
2) What their company's growth has been like.
3) The size of their operations.
4) The LinkedIn profile of the person interviewing me.
5) The general trends in the industry.
6) How I could possibly fit in to advance the company's interests.
I mean, that's 15-30 minutes of Googling, tops. Yet people don't do it.
Here's the thing. If you are an interviewer, you aren't just looking for someone with requisite skills. If you're looking for anyone to do anything besides the most mind-numbing things, you want to see someone with initiative, someone who is a proven self-starter.
Yet if you don't know squat about the company before you sit across the desk from the guy who is going to hire you, then you've just told them that you aren't a self-starter and will have to be force-fed everything.
I think you can use "I..." to start so long as you say what you can do to actually improve them and have weight. If you have the hard numbers of sales or percentage of sales you did in another company and say I did this for them, I can do the same for you (provided you are going for a lateral transition (same/similar job, different company) and not say diagonal (different job, different company.)) I don't disagree that you should research but using I isn't a deal breaker. While it isn't about you, it is. You to show why you are the best and will be the right team player. Sometimes it is about me, sometimes it isn't. Look at the way the company is and you MAY know if you can start with the I.
That's nice, but it's also not the problem at hand. We're talking about you doing everything possible to land a job, not trying to gin up a bunch of excuses on what the potential employer did or didn't do.
It's really weird. We're all simply trying to provide you guys with common-sense advice and all you want to do is argue and weasel out of taking any responsibility. It's always someone else's fault. It's always the fault of a capricious universe or the exploitive nature of corporate America that people don't offer you a job.
Well, they didn't give me a business card so I can't write a thank-you note. Well, they didn't read my resume before the interview. Well, I've waited weeks and no word. They threw hard questions at me in the interview. It's so not fair.
Guess what? For every job for which you interview, there are any number of qualified candidates with abilities that compare to your own. That means the intangibles come into play in a dozen different ways: Your attentiveness in the interview, your initiative in actually researching the company, your ability to handle yourself under the stress of a difficult question, your ability to act and dress professionally, and your mastery of basic business courtesies so that they can bring you into a future client meeting without hesitation. Ultimately, people do business with people, so these things matter a great deal.
In short, unless you are the sine qua non of your profession, they are the buyers and you are the sellers. I mean, if you were selling your house, wouldn't you clean it up? Wouldn't you mow the lawn? Or would you just leave dirty dishes in the sink and not bother running a vacuum before the real estate agent shows up? Because if you yawn during an interview, don't bother writing a thank you note, dress like a slob, and show up late, that's essentially what you're doing.
Look, I agree with what you're saying. I'm just pointing out that there are many shills that omply "companies can do no wrong."
Look, I agree with what you're saying. I'm just pointing out that there are many shills that omply "companies can do no wrong."
Yes it's the people that are saying the band should continue to play on the Titanic while the boat is taking on water. There are issues with the hiring process whether it is cutoffs in software, false filtering, people throwing out paper applications. It doesn't help when people use old and outdated advice like job application cold calls.
I can't even get an interview so where does that leave me? I must be the worst at presenting myself but guess what? I've said thousands of times no one will f'in tell me what I'm doing wrong. I want to know. I NEED to know. You expect me to improve without telling me why. Well I'm sh** up the creek without a paddle.
Sometimes people tell you but you get such varied answers. You don't know who to believe (i.e you're supposed to lie on those applications while others will tell you be honest).
I can be a perfectionist so I'm certainly willing to improve but the best advice I ever get is volunteer. Great so basically I'm just not worth hiring for actual money.
Last edited by Nickchick; 08-07-2014 at 12:14 PM..
I can't even get an interview so where does that leave me? I must be the worst at presenting myself but guess what? I've said thousands of times no one will f'in tell me what I'm doing wrong. I want to know. I NEED to know. You expect me to improve without telling me why. Well I'm sh** up the creek without a paddle.
Sometimes people tell you but you get such varied answers. You don't know who to believe (i.e you're supposed to lie on those applications while others will tell you be honest).
I can be a perfectionist so I'm certainly willing to improve but the best advice I ever get is volunteer. Great so basically I'm just not worth hiring for actual money.
Just join a local group for career development or the unemployed. That's what I did. You can google them or check meetup.com
If they were the best available candidate, potentially yes. And I never ever said they were terrible employees. You made that up. That is your thing. You're playing your game. One statement you make is about them yawning, the other is that they yawned. One is singular, the other is plural. Big difference.
You also refuse to accept that yawning (plural) is entirely in control of the candidate because how we live our lives are in our control. Even if I was up all night I could prevent myself from yawning half a day pretty easily, if it was important to me.
But you do this time and time again, twist words, statements and definitions to make excuses for employees and criticize firms and hiring managers.
If they were the best available candidate, potentially yes. And I never ever said they were terrible employees. You made that up. That is your thing. You're playing your game. One statement you make is about them yawning, the other is that they yawned. One is singular, the other is plural. Big difference.
You also refuse to accept that yawning (plural) is entirely in control of the candidate because how we live our lives are in our control. Even if I was up all night I could prevent myself from yawning half a day pretty easily, if it was important to me.
But you do this time and time again, twist words, statements and definitions to make excuses for employees and criticize firms and hiring managers.
Let me start with this, yawning is NOT generally have a reason for the action (Source.) Many do consider it involuntary (as you start it in the womb and could be controlled but it is a vague control by sleeping (though it doesn't always work.) Healthline lists 10 reasons, the first four of which are sleep related (edit: one of which sleeping itself doesn't help because sleep apnea cannot be fixed by sleeping more because it blocks breathing while sleeping.) The others include (possible) preventable health issues like obesity and five that can't exactly be prevented such as stroke and heart attack. So while it is possible we can control it, it's not a black and white. Now granted, I'd likely take a candidate who didn't provided every other score was equal. If the yawning candidate scored better or the candidate that didn't yawn scored better, it's a clear decision.
Last edited by mkpunk; 08-08-2014 at 10:57 AM..
Reason: further explained one of the sleeping related reasons.
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