"Why do you want to work here?"

When interviewing, there's a fine balance between positioning yourself as an in-demand candidate, worthy of the company's every effort to woo, and expressing your enthusiasm for the company and the work they do. When I was recruiting, I would sometimes see interview feedback along this lines of "I'm  not sure s/he actually wants to work here." It's important to companies that the people they bring in really want to be there. Folks who don't will offer limited performance and can be a drag on morale.

I've also had candidates who have told me "I don't care what kind of work I have to do to get into (company), I will do it. I really, really want to work there." Um,no. That doesn't really make me feel good about you as a candidate. Especially since I never hired in the entry-level space. I was trying to hire people who are talented and recruited by other companies but who chose my company because we offered them the best opportunities.

So interviewees need to think about the inevitable question "why do you want to work here?" and have an answer that expresses appropriate enthusiasm while still acknowledging that they have options.

I like to pick out elements of the company vision that appeal to me and then identify some attributes of the actual work that will fit well with my interests and career goals. That way, I can show that I've done my homework on the company and am interested, but also leaves open the possibility that other companies could attract my interest as well. It also helps them think of me as a good investment in both the short term (general work enthusiasm) and long term (agreement with company vision).

The Muse published a post that helps you prepare to answer this question. One point of disagreement I have with this post is the part about viewing the company's website being enough research to determine why you want to work there. Don't just spit a company's marketing back at them. Do broader searches online and develop a point of view on their direction - not one that they fed to you.

And by the way, your answer to "why do you want to work here"should definitely not include the words "free food". You can keep that little nugget to yourself.