How to answer "Why do you want to work for us " interview question

      "Because you are on a hiring drive"  #REJECTED

      Some final year students are unaware of what to do in life, and one day, PLACEMENT SESSION hits them. Suddenly every company that hires on campus is an opportunity to start a career, and maybe later discover on the job whether it fits them well.
      The mistake made by such candidates is to answer this question by talking about great travel opportunities, free food and other perks.




      In such a scenario, when the HR throws this question at you,  he does not want to hear about perks that the company provides.
       Other common answers are "Learning opportunity", "Best minds to work along with"
      These are average answers, 9 out of 10 people will play the same boring tape
      The motive of the question is to check whether you are genuinely interested in the company. Passion sells. Every HR wants to hire someone who has been dreaming about the company, who relates with the mission statement. They expect the interviewee to know what distinguishing feature their own company provides. Bonus points if you can critically evaluate a move made by the company or ask questions related to it.

      Sample answer to WHY GOOGLE


      Googles projects : self-driven cars and android. 

      Google's  philosophy of taking up low risk, high certainty ventures amazes me.
      Google has done that with its servers- they can use unreliable hardware with high failure rate and yet are able to accommodate uncertainty. You don’t know how many will fail, but statistically you have an idea of the number and you can design around that.
      This shows your interest in design problems as well
      To listen to the source, check out:

      Google's A hiring A policy : not hiring averages

      Google lives by the idea that hiring a B candidate will be catastrophic, since a B will hire a C because they feel threatened by A . Hence, the culture gets diluted at epidemic rate. (Notice how this answer is way better than saying smart peers is what motivates you)

      Answer with personal touch

      Google author talks - 

      Google is known to invite speakers for sessions. I myself followed the value investing series. This is how I will sell it.
      "Other than software development, I have been watching the google author talks in my free time, and I see myself attending these regularly once I join"
      Notice how it reflects your confidence on you already having the position


       Business Side

      Reading "How I did it", I picked out Google's portion and added this point
      I was impressed how google used Dutch auction system when IPO was launched  so that retail investors can benefit rather than big institutional investors

      Other things to read and talk about:

       Google File System, MapReduce, and BigTable 

      Free tip

      "Did you ever make a computer from a kit?" was one question that the company found could isolate candidates with a lifelong passion for computers.