“Why do you want to work in technology?”
You can prepare for an IT, programming, or development job interview by learning how to answer common questions about technology. An interviewer might ask you why you want to work in technology to learn more about your career goals and how you work. By planning how you’ll answer this question ahead of time, you can show the interviewer that you’re a good fit for the job and that you can add value to the company.
In this article, we look at why hiring managers might ask you about your tech interests and give you steps and examples to help you answer this interview question.
Why hiring managers ask questions about technology interests in interviews
Here are some reasons why an interviewer might ask you about your interest in technology:
To learn about you: A hiring manager can get to know you better by letting you talk about your interest in technology. This could make the interview more productive.
To find out what your goals are. For example, if you’re interested in technology, you might want to become an IT director, so a hiring manager might want to know if you have any leadership skills that can help the company.
Hiring managers might look for people whose work philosophy and interests match the organization’s mission or values to see if you’d be a good fit. This is because these candidates might find their work more satisfying and help the organization grow.
How to answer the question, “Why do you want to work in technology?”
Here are three ways to answer a question about why you want to work in technology:
1. Think about your professional goals.
Because technology is such a broad field, it might help your answer if you talked about your specific goals or what you like about your work. For example, a person applying for a job as a software engineer might talk about how rewarding it is to make new software, while a person applying for a job as an IT support technician might talk about how much they want to help other people use technology.
If you want to move up in your career, you could talk about how you plan to learn new skills and grow as a leader at work.
2. Incorporate specific examples
By giving examples in your answers to interview questions, you can show the hiring manager that you have the experience and skills to do the job and also show how interested you are in technology.
In your answer, you can talk about any jobs, internships, or technology classes you’ve taken in the past that have made you interested in this career path. Consider using the STAR method, which stands for situation, task, action, and result, to give your answer a logical structure.
3. Tie your examples and goals to what the job entails.
After you’ve talked about your relevant experiences, tell the hiring manager how they’ve made you a good candidate for the job. You can use words from the job description to show that you are interested in the job and have the skills to do the tasks that come with it.
Also, before your interview, you could look up the organization’s mission statement or key values and talk about how your experiences relate to those ideas. For instance, if you’re interviewing at a company that values innovation, you might talk about how interested you are in coming up with new ways to solve problems, as your example shows.
Answers to the question, “Why do you want to work in technology?”
Here are three answers to this question that you can use to prepare for an upcoming interview:
Example 1
“I want to work in tech because I’m really interested in helping businesses keep their data safe. When I was getting my IT degree, I did a cybersecurity internship with a big tech company in the same town as my college. It was fun to learn from experienced IT security analysts and come up with new ways to keep data safe from hackers.
During that internship, my mentor’s team was doing a security audit of a client company. We spent a few weeks testing the security functions of every department and making suggestions.
The client company took our advice and changed all of its security measures based on what we told them. I felt like I had helped them improve their business and keep their customers’ information safe, which was very satisfying. That’s when I decided I wanted to specialize in information security.”
Example 2
“I’m interested in working in technology because it gives me a chance to use both my analytical and creative skills. As a software engineer, I think that technology has no limits, especially in the video game business. I like working in technology because I get to learn new skills every day and use them to make unique games that take people to faraway places. I want to become a senior game developer in the long run, and this job can help me get the skills I need for that job.
I’ve been interested in making games since I first started programming, but it wasn’t until I went to a game development boot camp last summer that I really got into it. After learning the basics of making video games, we made our own short games with characters and settings of our own design. It was exciting to see how each piece of code works together to make an interactive game, and I plan to use my skills to help Genuflect Games give their users the same experience.”
Example 3
“I want to work in technology because I want to use my skills and knowledge to help other people do their jobs better and easier. IT support technicians are important members of any team, in my opinion, because they have both technical knowledge and people skills. It’s very rewarding to help other people use technology to reach their own professional goals.
When I was in college, I worked as a Student Technician at our school’s IT help desk. My job was to help my classmates and professors use a wide range of technology, like laptops, tablets, and smartphones, to access university systems and other tools. One semester, I spent a week teaching a new student how to use the accessibility tools on her laptop to make it easier for her to understand her professor’s lecture notes. This helped her get an A in the course. I want to show the same level of commitment at Tobe IT Support.”
