How to Answer ''Why This Company?''

Most often, a dozen standard questions can be asked during a job interview. Some of them may not be asked by recruiting managers at all. However, the issue of how to answer "Why this company?" will appear with a high degree of probability when you apply for a particular job. If you verbalize what they wish to hear from you, your chances of getting the desired post will be significantly increased. Therefore, you need to figure out what the HR managers really want to hear by asking applicants such a question.

What Is the Purpose of Asking This Question?

First of all, this is a way to determine your motivation, awareness, and competence. Also, they aim to understand your preferences and priorities. The recruitment managers are looking for qualified and highly motivated employees who will dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to the offered job. Also, the company representatives want to recognize how you differ from other candidates for this position and why you are a more suitable applicant.

Recruiters want to initially find out whether you are considering other job offers, as well as what are your job selection criteria. After all, everyone has the right to choose. Employers select applicants, and candidates are looking for the best vacancies available. The task of HR officers is finding out what motivates you when you are choosing a place of work, why you chose this particular company, and not another. In this way, the interviewer wants to:

• Assess what you know about the firm.
• Make sure that you are really interested in getting the job.
• Learn whether your internal beliefs correspond to the corporate values of the company, and how loyal you are to them.
• Determine what exactly attracts you to this vacancy.
• Check whether you understand the responsibilities of this position and how exactly you are going to fulfill them.

Best Way How to Answer "Why This Company?"

The answer to this query should consist of two parts. The first part of the response usually includes a few phrases about why this company is the best option for you. However, it is not enough to state only that. In the second part of the response, you have to explain why you are interested in the vacancy and how your education, work experience, and personal qualities correspond to the requirements of the position.

A one-size-fits-all solution of what exactly should be said does not exist. To give an answer with which HR managers would be satisfied, you need to be prepared for the interview in advance. Also, it is recommended to study the available information about the company and decide what contribution you, as a specialist, can make to the collective endeavor.

Collect Information about the Company and Offered Position

When you are invited to the job interview, you should learn more about the company that can make you an offer. The success of the meeting largely depends on how much information about the company you have. So, prepare in advance so that not a single question confuses you.

1. Gather the necessary information about the company
   Find out its full name, ownership form, size, and history. Define the main directions of its activities, what kind of goods it produces, or what services it provides. It is also crucial to know the company values, core mission, and corporate culture.
2. Use the Internet to learn more
   Today, every reputable enterprise cannot do without a website. Start with studying it. Learn about achievements during the time of business activity. Get to know the management and company team. This section is being added to official websites more and more often. Monitor social media - perhaps some useful data can be found on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or other networks.
3. Use other sources of mass media for more information
   Of course, Google knows everything, but nobody canceled traditional media yet. Read articles about the company, watch interviews of its managers on TV. Browse through print publications to keep abreast of the latest trends in the given industry and learn about essential competitors of the company.
4. Use personal contacts
   Ask your former mates and current friends about the company. Maybe somebody of your circle now works for this firm or knows people who used to work there. Using social networks, you can identify past and current employees of the company. Ask their opinion about your potential job. However, be careful in mentioning the names of those people during the interview with a recruiter.

Compliance of Your Data with Company Requirements

The second part of how to answer "Why this company?" relates more to your personal strengths. As a rule, many candidates take into account only general criteria for evaluating the company. At the same time, they often lose sight of the personal compliance with the qualification requirements of the position for which they are applying. Think over the reasons that make you perfectly suited for the given post.

Reread your resume and consider how your education and work experience match the vacancy. Based on information about the enterprise, you can find out more about its needs and additional requirements for applicants. Try to interconnect the information gathered about the employer with your personal data and life goals.

Consider what you can do for that company. Formulate tasks that you will be interested in solving while working in a specific position. Also, consider how you can demonstrate your abilities at the interview. Draw a parallel between your personal goals and the purposes of the company. Think over arguments to prove how they are matching.

How to Behave During the Interview?

Sometimes, it happens that applicants still cannot decide whether they want to work for a particular enterprise in the first interview. Instead, the decision and the wish to work for a specific enterprise may come during a talk with the immediate supervisor. By this time, you will have a better understanding of the responsibilities, functions, and salary levels.

In any case, your task at any job interview is not to talk about your desires, but to show yourself as an ideal candidate who can compare personal skills and best qualities with the values and needs of the company. Indicate that you appreciate this job offer and distinguish this enterprise from other companies. Other points being equal, your sincere interest in the enterprise can work in your favor and single you out from the other applicants.

It is useful to know that modern recruiters, along with the professional qualities of applicants, focus on such a personal quality as loyalty. Of course, your answers should be frank, meaningful, and concise. If a significant wage attracts you the most, then say so. It is not wrong, but you should remember that your economic motivation should be accompanied by other impulses, for instance, your ambition for self-development and the desire to benefit the company.

Several wordings should be avoided. So, do not be too straightforward and do not give general responses that do not show your knowledge of the company and the desired position. Also, do not talk apathetically or irritably. Do not use cliches and platitudes. Do not openly flatter, and do not repeat word for word what is written on a corporate website of the enterprise.

It is also taken into account how quickly you answer and what expressions you use. It matters how you speak - with some uncertainty and difficulty, or promptly, clearly, and enthusiastically. However, you do not need to adapt to the representative of the HR department. Honesty will show if you are interested in working for a particular firm. Otherwise, if you get an uninspiring job that does not meet your inner values, you will not be happy with that. It is beneficial when partnerships develop between the employer and the employee and when their interests align.

Pitfalls of the Interview

The HR manager may ask about why you are willing to become a part of their team in different ways. Consider this probability, and be prepared that this question can be asked several times differently. It happens when the firm representative did not believe you or was in doubt about your skills and intentions. So, it is a double check of your previous answer to the question, "Why this company?" It can also be a test of how you can solve problems and make rational decisions, as well as what your analytical and research skills are.

When answering, your task is to repeat the same criteria according to the degree of importance that you voiced earlier. Repeating your previous answer verbatim will be a losing move for you in terms of your skill assessment. After several clarifying questions, the HR manager most often takes a long pause or repeats the same criteria, but in other words. In such a situation, you can tell, for instance, what methods of searching and finding alternatives you typically use to choose a particular solution.

The interviewer may also voice the following problem. For example, you got two job offers with the same initial terms from different companies. It is necessary to present how you will solve this issue and how you are going to make a decision. The best way is to clarify that a rational decision goes through several steps. It is formulating specific criteria for making decisions, a detailed study of the information necessary for objective analysis, comparison, and the final choice.