Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews

relocateme.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 42 posts

Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews

#31

Post by soco »

Kirby64 wrote: post #27
Aurornis wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I guess I just prioritize a job I want to work at over a city I live in. Most people don't prioritize work over everything else. They move toward the life they want and try to find a job that supports it. People move to be closer to friends and family or to be in a city they like more. A lot of applicants requesting relocation were moving because their spouse got a job in the city and they had to move, too.

I see it a little different. I'm not saying I prioritize work over everything else, I just see them as almost unrelated. The location is a filter, not a motivation. For various reasons, I wouldn't ever choose certain cities to live in and there's very few reasons a job would overcome that (I guess if you gave me enough money that would make me reconsider... but it's a pretty high bar that is likely unreasonable). Mea…

> it seems bizarre that a response on "why do you want to relocate" wouldn't just be some form of "my spouse got a job here, so I will be living here now".

That's no real passion to work for us buddy, byez.

Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews

#32

Post by Kirby64 »

soco wrote: post #31
Kirby64 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see it a little different. I'm not saying I prioritize work over everything else, I just see them as almost unrelated. The location is a filter, not a motivation. For various reasons, I wouldn't ever choose certain cities to live in and there's very few reasons a job would overcome that (I guess if you gave me enough money that would make me reconsider... but it's a pretty high bar that is likely unreasonable). Mea…

> it seems bizarre that a response on "why do you want to relocate" wouldn't just be some form of "my spouse got a job here, so I will be living here now". That's no real passion to work for us buddy, byez.

Again I see this as unrelated. You can be passionate about the job, but the location is a checkbox.

Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews

#33

Post by BrandoElFollito »

harshalizee wrote: post #29
Aurornis wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve done a number of interviews in my career. You don’t have to be a genius to see through the candidates who play this game where they tell you a perfectly sanitized, idyllic response that they’ve calculated as the optimal phrasing that you want to hear. A lot of applicants do it. The skill of interviewing is to get a sense of what the true situation is underneath what the candidate is saying with their words. Thes…

Then you shouldn't be asking those questions in the first place. Why do you want a job?, Why do you want to relocate?, Why do you want to work here?, etc. are BS "no-op" questions that are not relevant to the skills that they are promoting. If an interviewer asks these types of questions, they are literally showcasing that this part of the interview is a BS "Subordinate yourself to the desires of capital in all areas…

"Why do you want to work here" can be insightful.

I like to be asked this because I can for one tell the truth, and then see how the interviewer responds (when this is at an advanced stage of the process, with real people)

Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews

#34

Post by lofaszvanitt »

HR people are like alien entities from another dimension. These borderline stupid and ridiculous ideas they disseminate and the framework of nonsense bullshit they force on proper experts is mind boggling.

It's like a snotty kid telling a grown adult to go, f themselves because they think that's funny.

Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews

#35

Post by threatofrain »

Aurornis wrote: post #23
threatofrain wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A no-op is exactly what the candidate wants. The candidate wants to be judged on their skills which are transferable from job to job. There's nothing to "see through" here which is precisely why it's a no-op.

> A no-op is exactly what the candidate wants. The candidate wants to be judged on their skills which are transferable from job to job. The interview is to determine their skills. Some candidates will talk about their work history for 30 minutes and you leave the room with no real idea what they did. They tell you they created synergies and did cross-functional coordination with stakeholders in a metrics-driven blah…

There are questions where it's time to shine with your skills and experience and then there are questions that are kind of snore because they invite everyone to give perfect answers.

Why do you want to relocate is one of them.

Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews

#36

Post by [deleted] »

harshalizee wrote: post #29
Aurornis wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve done a number of interviews in my career. You don’t have to be a genius to see through the candidates who play this game where they tell you a perfectly sanitized, idyllic response that they’ve calculated as the optimal phrasing that you want to hear. A lot of applicants do it. The skill of interviewing is to get a sense of what the true situation is underneath what the candidate is saying with their words. Thes…

Then you shouldn't be asking those questions in the first place. Why do you want a job?, Why do you want to relocate?, Why do you want to work here?, etc. are BS "no-op" questions that are not relevant to the skills that they are promoting. If an interviewer asks these types of questions, they are literally showcasing that this part of the interview is a BS "Subordinate yourself to the desires of capital in all areas…

[deleted]

Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews

#37

Post by jemmyw »

Aurornis wrote: post #8

This is very good, practical advice. I would go even further and say that you shouldn’t even allow yourself to get into a position where you need to manipulate your answers to interviewers for this question. If the primary reason you want a job is for the relocation, you might be signing up for a job you don’t even like! I’ve been part of a small number of hiring decisions where relocation was involved. There were a…

Every job is the means to an end really. But if people are taking jobs at your employer and then feel unmotivated and are trying to get a new job elsewhere as soon as they can, doesn't that point to your employment situation being part of the problem? If it's so easy to get a job elsewhere for more favourable work and/or salary then are you just underpaying the market?

Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews

#38

Post by Aurornis »

harshalizee wrote: post #29
Aurornis wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve done a number of interviews in my career. You don’t have to be a genius to see through the candidates who play this game where they tell you a perfectly sanitized, idyllic response that they’ve calculated as the optimal phrasing that you want to hear. A lot of applicants do it. The skill of interviewing is to get a sense of what the true situation is underneath what the candidate is saying with their words. Thes…

Then you shouldn't be asking those questions in the first place. Why do you want a job?, Why do you want to relocate?, Why do you want to work here?, etc. are BS "no-op" questions that are not relevant to the skills that they are promoting. If an interviewer asks these types of questions, they are literally showcasing that this part of the interview is a BS "Subordinate yourself to the desires of capital in all areas…

> Then you shouldn't be asking those questions in the first place.

> Why do you want a job?, Why do you want to relocate?, Why do you want to work here?,

I never said anything about those questions or even the type of questions. Did you confuse my comment for someone else's?

The no-op answers I was talking about can come from any question, including technical ones. Some candidates will tell talk in circles for 30 minutes about the company's product and how the team did amazing things, but you can't pin them down to explaining what they did or anything that might prove they know what they're talking about.

They will change the subject at every opportunity and talk your ear off with things regurgitated from blogs, but you leave the interview feeling like you wasted 30 minutes because they were so busy dodging every question and combining words together that they thought you would like to hear.

One alternative is to skip the conversational format and go straight into coding and deep technical questions, but hey guess what? There are people who will hate you for doing that too!

Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews

#40

Post by josmor »

It is amazing to read the comments and see the level of cynicism about the hiring process. Anyway, a reason to relocate for me is bringing better opportunities to my children. I had the option to stay with a good paid job in my country of origin, where the social differences are huge, or relocate to another where society is more flat but to start again professionally. I took the second one.
Post reply on HN