Graduate jobs · 5 min read
How do I answer 'Why do you want to work here?'
How to answer 'Why do you want to work here?' in a graduate interview: what's being checked, a three-part structure, 30 minutes of research and what to avoid.
The short answer
The question is checking two things: whether you've found out anything specific about this employer, and whether you've thought about why this role rather than the twenty others like it. A good answer has three parts in about a minute: something concrete about the organisation that you can only know by looking, the part of the role you'd be doing and why that work suits what you've already done, and what you'd want to be able to do in two years that this place would let you do. The weak answers are the ones any candidate could give to any firm.
Key takeaways
- Lead with one specific thing about them: a product, a project, a way they work, a recent decision. Not their size or reputation.
- Connect it to the actual job and to one piece of your own evidence.
- Finish with what you want to get from the first two years, which shows you've imagined doing it.
- Keep it under ninety seconds. It's an opener, not a speech.
On this pageWhat the interviewer is actually asking
What the interviewer is actually asking
Recruiters at large firms sit through hundreds of answers to this question a year, and they can tell within ten seconds whether a candidate has looked past the careers page. The question filters for effort and for fit, in that order. Someone who has read about a project the team shipped last year has shown they'll prepare for a client meeting too. Someone who says "you're a market leader with great values" has shown they didn't.
A three-part answer
- Them, specifically: "I read about your work on the Leeds hospital contract and that you moved the whole site to modular build."
- The work and your evidence: "The role is in the planning team, and the part of my placement I liked most was sequencing trades on a tight site, so that's the work I want more of."
- Two years out: "In two years I'd want to be running a section of a programme myself, and your graduates seem to get that responsibility early."
Thirty minutes of research that produces an answer
| Source | Time | What you're looking for |
|---|---|---|
| The job advert and person spec | 5 min | The three things they most need; echo their words |
| Their news or blog page | 10 min | One project, product or decision from the past year |
| LinkedIn profiles of two recent graduates there | 10 min | What people actually do in year one and where they go |
| Glassdoor or a graduate review site | 5 min | The one thing people like, to confirm, and one concern, to ask about |
Answers to avoid
"You're a leading company in your field." "I've always wanted to work for a company like yours." "The culture seems great." "It's a stepping stone to where I want to be." Anything about the office or the city. Anything you've copied from their own About page. And the honest but useless "I applied to everything and you replied".
Illustrative example: the detail that landed
A graduate interviewing for a trainee buyer role at a supermarket chain mentions that the firm cut own-brand ranges by a fifth the previous year and asks what that meant for the buying team. The interviewer spends five minutes answering. The candidate then links it to a university project on range rationalisation, and to wanting to understand supplier negotiation. Of twelve candidates that day, she is one of two who named something the company had done.
What happens to the gaps
Applying shows you what employers want that you can't show yet: a must-have your CV doesn't mention, or a question you couldn't answer well. Hand the job from OffLadder CV to Laddie, our AI coach, and it turns each one into three steps:
- Learn the skill: a short lesson on what the post asks for, starting from the basics.
- Try the work: a 15-minute task taken from the job itself, so you have a real example to talk about.
- Practise the interview: a five-question mock interview for that role, weighted to the parts you're least sure of.
The conversation stays in your OffLadder account. Once you've done the work, add it to your CV in your own words, and the next post you tailor for can point to it.
Questions people ask
- What if the honest answer is that I need a job?
- That's true of everyone in the room, so it's not an answer. Of the jobs that would pay you, why did you apply to this one? There's always a reason, even if it's the sector, the location or the training. Find it, make it specific and build the answer around it.
- Should I mention salary or benefits?
- Not in this answer. The interviewer knows the pay matters; what they're testing is whether anything else does. Training, qualifications and the type of work are fine to mention because they're about what you'd do, not what you'd receive.
- How do I answer if I've applied to lots of similar employers?
- Be honest about the sector and specific about this firm. "I want to work in audit, and I applied here because your training is in-house rather than at a college, which matters to me because I learn by doing" is a better answer than pretending they're the only firm you've considered.
- What's the difference between this and 'Why do you want this job?'
- The first is about the organisation, the second about the role. Many interviewers ask one and mean both, so a good answer covers both: why this work, and why here. If they ask them separately, split the answer along that line.
Exercises are practice, not evidence of career fit or a qualification. How to read our guides and report a correction.
Sources
- Interview advice · National Careers Service
- Graduate schemes · Prospects
- Student Recruitment Survey 2025 · Institute of Student Employers
How this page is written
Sources support the factual background, not a guarantee that an exercise predicts career fit. Fictional practice material is labelled. Dates record content updates; no independent expert review is implied. More about OffLadder.