by Tom Wright
Interviews are a funny thing. Every interview is such a different animal – every school is so different, every interviewer has such a different style, everyone responds so differently to the same sorts of statements….and yet, the same question keeps popping up in interview after interview:
Why do you want to work here?
No matter what type of school you are discussing, who is doing the interview, or how the interview is being conducted, this question is bound to come up in some form.
Of course, the question can be put in different ways. An interviewer can say, “What attracted you to our school?” He or she could ask, “Why are you a good fit for our school?” The interviewer could even roll it into another question with a more direct, “Why should we hire you?”, forcing you to explain both why you want to work for them and why you’re a good candidate. Whatever the phrasing, you have to be ready for this question – it’s the single most obvious question (one interviewer called it a “rite of passage” in one of my interviews), and it’s the one that differentiates someone who wants this specific job from someone who just wants a job.