Why do you even think that you are expected to lie? Out of tens of thousands of companies on the market, you chose maybe ten to apply, including mine. Why? “Because I need money” is not an answer, or at least not the complete one. Somehow, ten companies out of thousands fit your filter. Why? That's all I want to know as an interviewer when I ask that question. Saying “you have the best compensation” is completely okay. Saying “you fit my developer profile” is also completely okay. It’s ridiculous that anyone could think that some company praise is in order. Just tell the truth, stop making up cases to be offended by an interview question.
> Out of tens of thousands of companies on the market, you chose maybe ten to apply,
You're joking, right? The question is jarring because it's asked in an interview, for many, after applying to dozens if not hundreds of companies. Not getting too attached to any applications since the majority never even see a rejection email in response, many more will send the rejection months later, and the 1 in a few dozen applications will get to a phone call with a recruiter.
So yes, the reason I want to work "here" is because "here" is the company that responded.
"I just searched for jobs that match my skills, and you were one of them" also sounds fair enough to me.
However, when it comes to choosing between a candidate who scrambles for anything and someone who has at least some interest or knowledge of the company's business, the company will always choose the latter, and they will be right, and you would do the same in their place. If you force yourself to lie to get into the latter category, that's on you, not on them.
hmm, yeah, well I sorted by salary, proximity and my skills and uhm, yeah, your company came up. Oh, sorry, I mean I really believe in your product and my grandma and I have been using it for 15 years and I want to make a change in the world and Forketyfork Inc. works on exactly that.
Matching skills is nice, but do you really have no inclinations or preferences at all regarding the domain? You're just as (un)happy to program literally anything for money?
I personally don't do ecommerce and everything vice-related, including gambling. But I can't go to the interview and say: well I've picked you because you're not doing ecommerce and gambling.
Our company recently received 4k of resumes for single position.
90% wasn't even worth reading (literally zero experience, sometimes plainly saying they're eg salesman right now) - at this point you start to wonder if people did even read the job listing or some just told them IT is easy money.
