What's the point of these stupid questions? Do I really have to kiss some ass even before being hired?

It is to test 2 thing.

1) To see whether you have research the company you are applying for and how much time you spend researching on it

2) To see whether you can tell a convincing lie which hide your real reason to work (For money)

It's for marketing stooges. Not devs. Red flag af.

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If it's for a job as supermarket slave, it's a stupid question.

When it's more of a "career job", it's a valid question... as a developer you tend to have many recruiters who are all trying to match you up with a whole bunch of employers. There is a reason you are applying to company X instead of the other dozen options available.

If I worked in HR, I'd word it more like "What made us as a company stand out to you?"

@bittersweet The answer to that question would be "your salary has the highest range"

@mr-user

I wouldn't like to hire a professional lier in my company.

@kescherRant

When I applied to my current job, 4 years ago, salary wasn't the biggest motivator. I got +€500/m compared to my previous job, but there were two other companies -- Oracle and IBM -- offering significantly more. But I hated their office culture.

I chose for my current employer, because:

1. It's a startup with a mission I believe in. That's not a lie I tell the company for asskissing, I have often resorted to insulting my bosses when I felt they were steering away from our mission.

2. Secondary benefits. Money is nice, freedom is nicer. I can buy courses using company funds. I can take days off for a game launch. I can sleep in till noon every day if I want.

3. Responsibility & personal development. Startups can be chaotic, but they also offer the opportunity to find out what you LIKE doing. I've moved through half a dozen roles. I started fullstack, refused to do frontend, tried being devops, even joined a team as a PM. I'm now Tech Lead / DBA.

@juanjoespi Everybody has to be sort-of-a-liar in bigger companies. The skill is utilized in replies like "it seems i haven't explained it clearly in our previous conversation" instead of "fuck off, i already told ya".

@kescherRant For me it's also:

"This company is the only one which doesn't fire me for organizing a midnight bug-fixing hackathon, where the participants teleconference in their underwear under the influence of LSD, weed, whiskey and vodka until 4AM, appear at the office at 10AM, where the team decides to book the conference room to watch Adventure Time on the beamer and play cards until Lunch to get through their terrible hangover" 🤷‍♂

all honest answers are valid answera. if any honest answer is not a valid answer then they are not anyone you want to work for.

valid answers:
* I like the salary and/or benefits

* I like the projects you work on

* your company's focus on a particular issue, social, environmental, etc, aligns with my own beliefs

* A girl/guy I like works here.

* your roof is the ideal location to nude sunbathe and is close to my favorite bar

* I just really like your products and rather than start the umpteenth competitor cuz I think they can be improved, Id rather just work to make *yours* better instead of reinventing the wheel

* you were looking for a warm body that knows 2020's hottest new stack, and I know (how to google) it.

etc etc.

@Wisecrack "The employees of your company have the hottest profile pics on LinkedIn"

@bittersweet if they don't like that they must be swinging for the other team!

But frankly thats a very relatable one.

Too bad HR would toss you out and shake an angry fist at you for that one, hissing "never come back!" like scar from the lion king.