Maybe they applied to 80 jobs and this was the only one that invited them to interview? I think a lot of times the resumes go into a black hole, especially with AI screening no one even looks at them!
Sure, but why those 80? Hopefully there was at least one thing about each of those 80 jobs that made it worth applying to, vs. skipping it.
And if someone just mass-applied to literally every single job that was available, only got accepted to interview at one of them, and ended up across the interview table from me? Yeah, I'd think it would be a pretty basic expectation for them to do 20 minutes of research into the company or job description before the interview to find at least one or two things they like about it. Hell, those one or two things could even be learned during the interview process.
Doesn't have to be something earth-shattering. "I like working with $TECH_STACK that you use." "I like that I can take transit to your office and it's a short commute." "I enjoyed interacting with my interviewers and felt like we connected well and would work together well." It's not that hard!
Feels like a red flag if they can't even manage that.
Maybe you could interpret this question as "what makes you interested in this field/domain" rather than "why do you want to work for us in particular"?
And if someone just mass-applied to literally every single job that was available, only got accepted to interview at one of them, and ended up across the interview table from me? Yeah, I'd think it would be a pretty basic expectation for them to do 20 minutes of research into the company or job description before the interview to find at least one or two things they like about it. Hell, those one or two things could even be learned during the interview process.
Doesn't have to be something earth-shattering. "I like working with $TECH_STACK that you use." "I like that I can take transit to your office and it's a short commute." "I enjoyed interacting with my interviewers and felt like we connected well and would work together well." It's not that hard!
Feels like a red flag if they can't even manage that.