@AIQ: There are things between "researched and generic" and "saying a thousand "ummms"".

@user111388 What do you mean?

@AIQ I can't say I'm familiar with your culture, so don't know how applicable this is, but I'm a huge fan of being your best, authentic, self in an interview. That means having rehearsed different questions, different ideas, different flows enough to answer confidently without having to pause for a minute to think of something. While also being unscripted enough to flow with the questions/conversation without falling into a rehearsed answer.

@Kaz This is in Canada btw.

@Kaz There wasn't much of a conversation to flow with the questions to be honest. They asked me "What in particular about XYZ makes you want to work here?" and I gave an answer that I had prepared. If I had to be honest, I would have said "I don't care about XYZ. I am here because I need a job atm". - That would equally get me rejected ...

I don't know, may be next time I should try that ...

I am honestly very tired ... so many standards. I have good experiences, and yet I can't find even a simple job.

@Helena This post is part of a recent pattern of troll accounts posting questions and answers that are agism related. This particular post has been removed and the account suspended. As per the earlier message (see starred messages on the right), please flag any posts that seem to be related to agism as this will help us to verify whether they are on the level or not.

@AIQ If it helps, I've personally found a lot more success applying to smaller companies. There's usually a lot less bureaucracy and a lot more humanity to the process.

Showing yourself in the answers is something you'd expect when you get to behavioural questions and especially questions about past achievements and current skills. Didn't the interview address those?

@AIQ By researched and generic, the interviewer meant that the authentic, real you isn't coming out in the interview. I'm coaching someone on techniques right now. When I am interviewing someone, I am not looking for the right answer to my question, I am looking for who it is I'm going to recommend hiring.

I once worked for a major newspaper based out of New York City. The fellow I interviewed couldn't answer one technical answer I threw at him. We hired him because he didn't try to BS his way through the interview. The tech questions weren't there to test his knowledge, they were there to spot a BSer, as we wanted someone who would ask for help if they got stuck, because any mistakes would be seen by millions.

If an interviewer senses insincerity or rehearsed or memorized answers, they are not going to hire you because they don't know who you are. Again, this is what I am trying to teach someone I am coaching right now.

As to the "why do you want to work for us specifically", this is an interviewer testing you to see if you've done your research on a company. When you apply to a company, go to their website, learn as much as you can about them, and go into the interview knowing three things you like about them...

>why do you want to work for us?

@Lilienthal Weird, it didn't really seem like discrimination to me. Just someone blaming the industry for themselves not finding a job.

@Lilienthal I've flagged another couple of posts for this - one question and one answer

@motosubatsu I'm scratching my head trying to figure out what the payoff is for this game

Revenge on people in their 30ies by being cruel to them

@Helena LOL, maybe it's someone in their sixties trying to scare the kids

well, trying to put myself into their shoes, I would try something like that if I was a student having a homework essay like "ageism in the IT industry". Trolling site with invented questions on these matters would help me collect stuff for my essay. Another option is, if I was a social justice warrior, I would try stuff like that hoping to get something flashy, highly viewed and twittable for "raising awareness". There can be other reasons, I just picked first that jumped to mind

@gnat it does sound like someone trying to get free work done for them, now that you mention it.