There are two types of candidates. People who want a job. And people who want THIS job.
The difference is everything.
Someone who wants a job sends the same resume to thirty companies. They don’t research any of them. They don’t watch your videos. They don’t read your website.
They show up to the interview hoping you’ll say yes.
When you ask why they want the role, they say, “I’m really passionate about the industry.”
Someone who wants THIS job did the work before the interview.
They read the about page. They found a case study. They watched a video and came with a specific question about it. When you ask why they want the role, they say something actually relevant to what your company does.
A tidbit.
A nugget.
That second person is bought in before they start.
And here’s why it matters beyond the interview:
When things get hard — and they always get hard — the person who wanted THIS job has a reason to fight through it. They chose this company for a reason. They’re connected to the mission or the work or the team. There’s something keeping them anchored.
The person who wanted A job has no anchor. When a better offer comes along — or when the work gets uncomfortable — they’re gone. Because there was nothing holding them here in the first place except the paycheck.
I test for this constantly.
“What do you know about our company?”
If they can’t tell me something specific — something that shows they spent five freakin’ whole minutes on the website or hell, watched one of my YouTube videos — they don’t want this job. They want a job.
“What questions do you have for me?”
If their questions are about PTO, work-from-home flexibility, and how soon they can get a raise — they’re thinking about what they can extract. Not what they can contribute.
But if they ask about challenges, team dynamics, what success looks like, or how messy the current systems are — they’re already thinking about doing the work. They’re evaluating whether they can win here. That’s a completely different energy.
You can teach skills. You can’t teach caring about where you work.
Hire the person who chose you.
Not the person who settled for you.
(This advice also applies to marriage. You’re welcome.)
To hire the top remote talent, guaranteed, without all the nonsense above, click here to learn how we completely take care of the entire hiring process for you:
Kyle Mau
CEO & Founder, HireUA
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