🔎 Nailing the question "So......why do you want to work at Company X?"

TalentGeist Newsletter

Immediately-actionable career insights for ambitious individuals.

After a year of running our flagship Work Simulation Program (backed by Singapore government) and supporting the careers of 1,300+ young professionals, we pinpointed a number of ‘common career mistakes’ that we’ll dissect in the coming weeks. Hopefully these insights are helpful for you too!

Today, we’ll focus on how you respond to one of the most common interview/networking questions – “so….why do you want to work at Company X?”

Most of you have probably encountered this question somewhere along your career journey. For the person on the other side (whether the interviewer or the person you’re networking with / trying to impress), this question sheds immediately light on your motivations, degree of knowledge on the company/industry, and whether you will be an intellectual fit.

The biggest mistake applicants make when responding to this question? Jumping to ‘what’s-in-it-for-me’ mode – e.g., “I want to work at Company X so I can develop so-and-so skill” or “I’ll get to learn X and Y on the job”. Some even bring up pay and benefits (a big no-no).

Think about it from the company’s standpoint – they get hundreds of strong applicants in this hyper-competitive job environment. Why would they pay someone thousands of dollars a month for that person to just ‘learn’ and ‘develop’? 

What all businesses care about – profitability and ROI. Thus, it’s important to position yourself as the best candidate for ADDING value to the company as quickly as possible.

While you can bring ‘learning’ and ‘development’ up as reasons, they need to be a CLEAR second priority to adding value.

Visual example – let’s say you’re vying for a role at an investment firm:

❌ ”I want to work at company X so that I can develop my financial modeling skills further!”

✅ ”I want to work at company X because I am genuinely excited for the opportunity to thoroughly dissect companies, model their financial performance, and help the fund deliver exceptional return for investors. As president of my school’s Investment Banking Club, for example, I led multiple committees researching Tech & Media companies, performing DCF analysis on each company’s 3-5 year cashflows, and ultimately calling the shots on whether to put $5-10K checks into each specific equity. The technical skills and investment acumen I’ve picked up through this experience will undoubtedly transfer to my on-the-job performance and help me ramp up as quickly as possible.”

Think hard about any part of your background that may help you succeed on the job more than other applicants. For example, one of our previous fellows wanted a go for a Product Manager position, but was worried that he only had Sales roles in the past. When we dug in, we found that ~10% of what he did in Sales was actually leading customer research conversations to better understand what products resonate the most, and subsequently giving leadership recommendations on product improvement. This 10% of his Sales role is actually very similar to what many Product Managers do. We advised him to lean heavily into this 10% throughout the application process when applying for Product Manager roles (deprioritise the other, less-relevant aspects of his Sales experience), and he ultimately landed THREE Product Management offers.

That’s it for this week! Let me know if you have any thoughts or questions on the above (I read ALL emails) 🙂.

📣 P.S. – if you’re looking to prep for interviews ahead of January (peak interview season), we have a LinkedIn Learning course teaching you how to nail interviews at elite companies. 21,000+ professionals have taken the course, and it’s one of the highest-rated on LinkedIn Learning.

• Free for Singaporeans / PRs – simple access instructions here.

• Free for select universities (e.g., JCU, CityU) – check with your school!

• Everyone else – we have a deck version that we’re happy to share for free (not as engaging as the video, but should still be helpful). Respond to this email and let me know if you’re keen! 

Best,

Vincent (feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn 🙂)