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How do you answer this question properly when you are perfectly content working for your current job?

I was contacted directly by a recruiter through LinkedIn about a new opportunity witih a different company. It appears to be a good fit for the next level in my career progression.

I am following the CT advice which is to always keep your options open. The honest answer to the subject question is that I'm always open to new possibilities

I am afraid that using this answer will result in a negative response form the interviewer, since they will not feel a strong vibe of enthusiasm from me. It's a much less sexy answer than "I've always wanted this job and to work for this company..."

At the same time, I don't want to pass up what could be a great opportunity for me in my career.

Lastly, I just started my new job in Jan of this year which makes it even more sticky.

 

maura's picture
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 At some point you have to move from the passive "hey the recruiter found me and I'm open to considering" phase, to the active  "I've considered it and based on what I know so far, I WANT this" phase.  That should happen before you take up the interviewer's time (I'm talking here about the interviewer at the destination company, not the interviewer from the recruiter's office). 

Of course you'll bring additional questions of your own to the interview, but I think by the time you are interviewing with someone from that company, you should have done your research about the company and the role, so that you can truthfully say it is a company you respect, the culture looks like a great place to be, it's a fit for your career goals, or whatever the positive things are that made you continue to the interview stage. 

TomW's picture
Training Badge

"I've always wanted to work here" is great when you're 22. If you say that when you're 40, you'd better be able to show that every step you took in your career was to further that goal or else it just comes off as fake. No, the truth is much simpler.

You're always open to new opportunities. Great. Does that mean you take every one that anyone shows you? Chik-Filet is hiring. Did you fill out an application? No, probably not. Something made you look into this one further.

At some point, you have to read over the company's website and any whitepapers or press releases and maybe Google them for a little more detail. Look at what they do, where they do it, what kind of products they make, what social organizations they are involved in, and then be able to intelligently state why you would want to work there.

If you can't put in the effort, then I hope I'm interviewing against you, because I did.