How do you describe your ideal company location and job? Should you hold back your desires and settle for something lesser than you want?
This is often asked by an experienced interviewer who thinks you may be overqualified but does not want to show his objection directly. So he’ll use this question instead, which often gets a candidate to reveal that he or she is looking for something other than the position at hand.
ACCEPTABLE ANSWER: The only right answer is to describe what this company is offering, being sure to make your answer believable with specific reasons. State with sincerity why each quality represented by this opportunity is attractive to you.
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Remember that if you’re coming from a company that’s the leader in its field or from a glamorous or much-admired company, industry, city, or position, your interviewer and his company may have some kind of complexity. That is, they may feel a bit defensive about being “second best” to the place you’re coming from, worried that you may consider them inferior.
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This anxiety could well be there even though you’ve done nothing to invoke it. You must go out of your way to tackle such anxiety, even if it’s not expressed, by putting the interviewing organization’s virtues high on the list of exactly what you’re looking for, providing a credible reason for wanting these qualities.
If you do not express genuine enthusiasm for the firm, its culture, location, industry, etc., you may fail to answer this complex objection and as a result, leave the interviewer suspecting that a hotshot like you, coming from a Fortune 500 company in New York, just wouldn’t be happy at an unknown manufacturer based in Topeka, Kansas.
With the right research and preparation, it becomes easier for you to tackle questions like how to describe ideal work environment, and any other variation of “what is your ideal…”.
Do you know how to answer ideal work environment questions? How would you describe your ideal company location and job? Are you aware of other important interview questions? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.
