Why the same questions keep coming back
Most application forms are built in the same few applicant tracking systems, and employers pick their extra questions from the same short list. So after your name and CV, you will meet the same handful of questions again and again. Answer each one well once, keep the answer, and adapt it each time.
The questions fall into two kinds. Open questions want a few sentences about you and this employer. Short questions want a fact: a yes or no, a date, a number. Both are below.
The open questions
- “Why do you want to work here?” They are checking that you know what the company does and chose it. Name one specific thing: a product you use, a project they published, the team the role sits in. Then link it to what you want to do. Two or three sentences are enough. Praise that fits any company (“an innovative leader”) is the weakest answer you can give.
- “Why should we hire you?” or “What makes you a strong candidate?” Pick the two requirements in the posting you can back up best, and give one piece of evidence for each: what you did and what came of it. For a student, a course project or a part-time job counts.
- “Tell us about yourself”, “Personal statement” or “Anything else you would like us to know?” A short cover letter in a box. Say what you are studying or doing now, what you are good at, and why this role is the next step. If you have nothing to add to the last one, leave it empty rather than repeat your CV.
The internship cover letter guide has a worked example of the same three-part structure.
The short questions
- “Are you legally authorised to work in this country?” Answer for the country where the job is, not where you live. EU citizens can generally work in any EU country; if you are a student on a visa, check what hours and kinds of work it allows.
- “Will you now or in the future require visa sponsorship?” Answer honestly. A wrong “no” can end an offer later, when it is found out.
- “What are your salary expectations?” Give a range you have checked against similar roles in the same city, with its currency and period (per month or per year). If the posting states pay, stay close to it. The EU’s Pay Transparency Directive says employers must not ask applicants about their pay history (Directive (EU) 2023/970), so a question about your current or past salary is one you can expect to see less often in the EU.
- “What is your notice period?” or “When can you start?” Give a date or a number of weeks. For an internship, add the dates you are free and the hours you can work.
- “Are you willing to relocate?” or “Can you work on-site?” Answer for this role. A “yes” you would not act on wastes both sides’ time.
- “How did you hear about us?” Say where you found the posting. If someone referred you, name them: employers often track referrals.
- Demographic questions about gender, ethnicity, disability or veteran status. These are usually optional and often include “Decline to state”. In the US, Greenhouse switches its EEO questionnaire on job post by job post (Greenhouse support). In the EU, data about ethnic origin or health is a special category under the GDPR that may only be processed under specific conditions (GDPR, Article 9). Answering is your choice either way.
Write it once, then adapt it
Keep your answers in one place: a document, a spreadsheet, or your Guap account. The short answers rarely change. The open ones should change a little for each employer, at least the first sentence of “Why do you want to work here?”.
Barista, Guap’s Chrome extension, is built around these questions. It fills the short ones from your profile and saved answers, and fills demographic questions only if you have chosen to let it answer each one. For an open question, it puts a button by the box that drafts an answer from your profile and the job post, paid per use; you edit it and keep what you like as a saved answer. It never presses submit. See how it handles Greenhouse and Ashby forms.
