The Question You Come Across on Most Job Applications
As college students finish exams, the internship hunting season enters it’s busiest phase. Over the course of the winter break, college students have upwards of a month’s worth of free time to catch up on some well needed sleep and get a good mental reset after a first-of-it’s-kind semester of online education. However, it is also a great time research companies, network with industry professionals, learn about career prospects, work on some personal projects and most importantly; apply to internships. And during some part of the application process (or the interview process), the most common question that’s asked by most companies is…
So why do you want to work here?
Rewind to 2013. I was finishing my second year in engineering and started applying to internships and I’ll be honest; each time I saw this question my first thought was always, “It’s not me that wants to work here, my student debt and my bills want me to”. I was still 19. At that age, all that was important to me was getting a girlfriend and what the best jungle pathing was in League of Legends (don’t worry if you don’t understand this one). I had no clue what I wanted to do in my life and career. I was still a kid and a lot has changed since then. Currently, I am studying computer science and I am now halfway through my second year. When I apply to jobs now, I have genuine reasons as to why I am applying there.
Before doing my computer science degree. I worked as a technical recruiter at a company that worked with tech startups; my job revolved around talking to people about their jobs and this was the best job I could have had before going into the tech industry myself. It gave me a bird’s point of view of the tech ecosystem and its potential jobs. I started to develop genuine answers to “why do you want to work here?”.
My advice to students applying to their first jobs…
Take your time doing research on a company before you apply. Reach out to current or past employees of that company. If you don’t find anything about the job that interests you, then maybe this job isn’t a great fit for you. However, if you do find something that piques your interest, then that’s your answer!
Happy hunting!
