Interview questions 101: how to answer “why do you want to work for us?”

Interviews give business leaders the opportunity to evaluate whether a potential candidate could be a good fit for the role in question and the company culture.

While interviewers are likely to include questions that are tailored to their operation or are perhaps unique altogether, there are a common set of questions that typically arise in every interview and one of these is “why do you want to work for us?”

This article will explore why interviewers like to use this question and how best to prepare to respond.

Why do interviewers ask this question?

Many job sites make applying for roles as simple as a couple of clicks to upload a CV. Businesses are aware of this, and while it might be true that a candidate is happy to take any job at that moment, interviewers want to know why you are interested in working at their operation in particular.

It’s an opportunity for a candidate to show how well they have prepared for the interview and highlight what interests or excites them about the company, how their experience aligns with the role specifically, and what attracted them most about the job advertisement. 

How to answer ‘why do you want to work for us’

When preparing for an interview, it’s important to thoroughly research the business including specifically what it does, recent achievements and any other points of interest to you. It’s a candidate’s chance to be honest about why they like the business and applied for the role, and the response to this can set the tone for the rest of the interview.

It’s also the time to list how your experience can be an asset to the business – for example, when interviewing at a new, growing business, you could highlight how your expertise in a previous role helped increase web traffic and you’d love to repeat that at this company. Be confident of your attributes and practice demonstrating this clearly.

This isn’t the moment to say you just want any new job, you liked the salary offered or want to work there for bragging rights – even if this is true (which hopefully it’s not), a thoughtful, complementary and enthusiastic approach is more likely to help you get a job offer.

Here’s an example of how you could approach this response:

“I’ve been a customer at your business for many years and I love the way you interact with customers, making them feel valued and answering any questions they may have with ease. I’ve had this experience on my visits to your store and I would love to do the same for other customers in this role.

“In my last job, my favourite part of the role was supporting customers and helping them come to a decision about their purchases. I was even given a customer service award by my manager, which is something I’m really proud of, and I’d love to take and grow this experience by working with you.”

Variations on ‘why do you want to work for us?’

‘Why do you want to work for us?’ is a very direct question, so some interviewers may phrase this slightly differently but expect a similar answer. Other ways of asking this question may be:

• Why are you interested in this role?
• What made you apply for this job?
• What are some of the things you like most about our business?
• Why would you like to join our team?

Deciding on a company fit

Asking potential candidates why they want to join a business is a great way to understand what they like about a company, how they could fit into the wider team and what they bring to the table. After their response, the interviewer can use this question as a catalyst to tell candidates more about the business and the team they could be working in.

For more tips on the hiring process, check out our recruitment guide.

Kirstie Pickering - business journalist

Kirstie is a freelance journalist writing in the tech, startup and business spaces for publications including Sifted, UKTN and Maddyness UK. She also works closely with agencies to develop content for their startup and scaleup clients.