Tips For Answering Interview Question "Why Are You Here Or What Brings You Here?"

An Overview:

One of the most basic yet most difficult questions asked in job interviews are- Why are you here? Why do you want to work for us? Or – What brought you here?
The reason why the questions appears to be difficult is because all the while you have been preparing hard enough to answer queries related to your expertise and your past experience but you have not taken out time to introspect.
You have never sit back and analyzed why you would like to associate with the organization. Thus, when such a question is darted out at you, you get on guard and tend to talk about the status/brand value of the organization. However, you fail to realize that there are important things to touch base while answering the questions as well.

What Does The Employer Want To Know When Asking: “Why you are Here?”

By asking such a question, an interviewer tries to learn:
1) About your interest in the job role at this particular organization
2) Are you well aware about the job requirements?
3) Have you analyzed the products, competitors and market dynamics of the organization?
4) How serious are you for joining in and most importantly, for adding value to the organization?
5) Have you made self assessment and you are 100% aware of your qualities and therefore planned ahead your career road map?

Answering This Question

Let’s look at an example to understand it better:

Interviewer:

So what makes you come here? What brings you in here?

Interviewee 1:

“XYZ organization is a start up and I firmly believe that associating with a growing organization will be a boost to my career.”

Interviewee 2:

“I will be fortunate to associate with XYZ organization and the reasons for that are: A. XYZ specializes in securities management in IT space. Since, I have more than 7 years of experience in various internal and external security processes; I am sure I will bring value to the organization and working with a young and enthusiastic team will provide me an arena to hone my skills as well. B. Since, XYZ is a start up organization; it will be beneficial for me to obtain hands-on experience in various aspects of running an organization. All in all, it will be a win-win situation for both of us.”

Conclusion:

Clearly, interviewee 2 has been more VOCAL about his intent to associate with the organization, his knowledge about the organization and how it would be a value proposition.

Note:

There is no RIGHT or WRONG answer to it. All you have to do is to convince the interviewer that there is sound reason for applying to the job, and you are interested in the job as well as in the company.

Further reading –

◆ 15 best answers – Why Do You Want This Job?
◆ What Interests You About This Job?
◆ Why Do You Want To Work Here?

Last edited by alisiddiqui (2015-04-30 05:08:17)