I don't like the feeling of this...

April 25, 2013 7:00 AM

Is there any good reason why top-level management would ask me why I chose to work in their company after I started working there?

I'm afraid to be too specific lest this question gets pinpointed to me, but that's basically what happened: I was asked which other companies I applied to, what other offers I got, and why I chose to work with that company. I don't think I answered that very eloquently since I was put on the spot with the question. I haven't reached my first month yet, and the person who asked hasn't gotten around to asking my own superior how I was faring. Nevertheless, it got me pretty worried.

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (16 answers total)

They're sniffing you out. Make no mistake, every single time you talk with a manager of any kind, they are evaluating you. Respond as though it is a job interview because... it kind of is. They won't fire you based on your response, but they want to see what kind of future positions you could hold within the company.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:02 AM on April 25, 2013

In my experience, upper management types often ask these sorts of things when they notice a new person in the office, and it rarely means anything significant. Perhaps s/he was interested in knowing where else you applied to understand what other companies in your field attract candidates with your skill set, and your answer would shed a little light on why a candidate might pick your company over company X. I wouldn't get worried over this.
posted by little mouth at 7:05 AM on April 25, 2013 [8 favorites]

Sounds like they want to scope out their competition and find out if their hiring offers are in line with what similar companies do. You are a recent hire and have a good perspective on this. Seems fairly innocuous to me. If they were going to fire you, I'm guessing they wouldn't care about your offers from other companies.
posted by donajo at 7:06 AM on April 25, 2013 [16 favorites]

They're sniffing you out. Make no mistake, every single time you talk with a manager of any kind, they are evaluating you. Respond as though it is a job interview because... it kind of is. They won't fire you based on your response, but they want to see what kind of future positions you could hold within the company.

Or maybe it's someone involved with hiring practices who's interested in what draws new hires to work there and not elsewhere. "Oh, so you had an offer at MegaCorp for a bit more money, but you liked the opportunity for advancement here, and yeah, our dental plan is badass. Good to know!"

Occam's Razor applies. Top-level managers generally don't go around randomly interrogating new hires with the intent to fire them. They're much more apt to be curious, in ways that can be unintentionally intimidating to people much lower on the totem pole.
posted by Tomorrowful at 7:08 AM on April 25, 2013 [26 favorites]

Don't fret, it's harmless. Weird, but harmless.

Once a high-level muckity-muck asked me, "What do you do here?" Me, being in my bad-ass mode said, "I kick ass and take names." The guy winced and said, "No, I mean, what's your title."

So...yeah...sometimes you don't always have to have your game-face on. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 7:12 AM on April 25, 2013 [4 favorites]

Maybe you could think of this as "is there any bad reason they would be asking this?" What would be the point of asking with ill intent after they'd put the money into hiring you? I am the last to be relaxed about HR and management, but I have seen searches at all levels, and a search is a pain. Once you've recruited someone, you don't want to undercut them or drive them away - some people may be malicious or grossly incompetent and accidentally undercut or drive people away, but in general, people want new hires to work out.

I think it is much more likely that they're curious either about you or about who in general is getting recruited and why.
posted by Frowner at 7:14 AM on April 25, 2013

Yeah, I agree this is just about understanding their competitive positioning within the market for new hires.

My company regularly does this, mostly to understand how they are positioned relative to the other major firms. But, we hire mostly right out of school (undergrad and MBA programs) and our industry is relatively homogeneous (strategy consulting).

Also, in interview training (eg training people at our company to interview other people) we ask everyone what their answer to this question is going to be, because every single person we interview asks each of us the same question at the 'do you have any questions for me' part of the interview.
posted by CharlieSue at 7:14 AM on April 25, 2013

I wouldn't worry. It is expensive to hire and fire people in a short period. There's opportunity cost of forgoing other potentially qualified candidates, any fees spent on the search (headhunter, advertising, background checks etc.), the time lost as employees do the interviews, etc.

They're not sussing you out to fire you; they're assessing their own competitive advantages in hiring (e.g., kickass dental plan, as tomorrowful notes), and to ensure their comp structure is consistent with similarly situated peer firms.

But I also agree that it is best to be always--always!--in interview mode. How's the work? Exciting and challenging, and it's great to be part of a fantastic team. Couldn't be happier. Not one fucking little bit!
posted by Admiral Haddock at 7:14 AM on April 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

I've worked for CEOs my entire career and it is untrue that as a rule they're nefarious characters who are constantly evaluating your worth to the company. They're just people, and they've worked hard to build a place that is successful and employs happy people. If a high level person asked me that question, I'd assume they were interested in what about their company drew me in - that is, what about the company, viewed from the outside, sets itself apart from the competition. They're just curious. They don't want to hurt you.
posted by something something at 7:15 AM on April 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

I would not worry about it.

You didn't mention the size of your company. Every growing company eventually reaches a point where the top-level management are no longer directly involved in hiring people, and chatting up recent hires in this way helps them to feel connected to what's going on.
posted by DWRoelands at 7:19 AM on April 25, 2013

As others have said, I wouldn't worry about it.
It's more like what the Queen of England does...
"Is this your first time at the palace?" & "Is it what you expected?"
She ask those two questions, over and over and over. I would bet that it's just mindless small talk to the noob.
posted by It is better for you not to know. at 7:40 AM on April 25, 2013

It's not quite the same, but I was always confused when applying to grad school and people would ask what other schools I was applying to. On the other side of the equation, I found myself asking the question a lot because it gave me a bit of insight both into what applicants thought of my institution, and whether their application to my institution was a chance for them to go in a new direction, or nearer the center of gravity of their applications. It also signals someone's values. Are they there for the challenge or for the brand name on their resume or what?

But yeah, in basically no situation are there any disqualifying answers. It's just a way of seeing how you made a big decision and what your priorities were. Basically harmless, but might be more than just small talk.
posted by heresiarch at 8:21 AM on April 25, 2013

Where did they ask you this? If it was by the coffee/in the elevator then I would consider it small talk. If you were summoned into their office, that's another story.
posted by lyssabee at 9:06 AM on April 25, 2013

Knowing why your employees chose you over someone else is excellent data for recruiting. You find out who your major competitors are in the market and locally, you find out if you are competitive with them in your offers, you find out what sets you apart from them.
posted by magnetsphere at 9:30 AM on April 25, 2013

Right out of university, I took a position with a company that explicitly promised me an eventual position at a specific location (after one year).

Less than one month on the job, someone dropped by to ask me a bunch of questions (very similar to the ones you listed) and I was honest with him. Yes, I had been offered 10% more by company XYZ, and had been invited for final interviews with companies ABC and 123, but I took their offer because the location issue had been key.

I was "let go" the next day. They had overhired. They felt they wouldn't be able to keep me once it became clear they could no longer honor certain promises. There was not much I could do about it. I reported their business practices to my university's career services office. But otherwise, I scrambled and got back on my feet within four weeks.

So file my story under "hmmm...be aware" but statistically it is probably just small talk or sniffing you out. When you are new on any job, I caution people to evaluate the company's health and to assess the viability of the company's future prospects. It is so easy to cut the last person in the door.
posted by 99percentfake at 10:36 AM on April 25, 2013

I'm a senior manager at a company. When I'm talking with new people, this is one of my common discussion items. Where you looked tells me a lot about who you are and what you value, and what you might be interested in doing. I'm not evaluating you as an employee, for two reasons: First, we just hired you, so obviously people thought you were good enough to be here. Second, you're brand new, so I don't expect you to know anything yet.

As someone noted, this info is a key way to figure out how to beat out our competition in the race for good talent, and to understand if we're making competitive offers in the marketplace. It sure is a hell of a lot cheaper to ask someone new, as opposed to hiring a competitive intelligence firm or HR consultant to get the info for us.

Ignore any advice above - or that you get elsewhere - about management being out to get you. It's bullshit, and the people who offer it to you probably aren't the best sources of career advice.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 1:50 PM on April 25, 2013