Why do employers ask: “Why do you want this job”?

This thread on Quora.com "Why do you want this job" is a well thought debate on this open question. The writer himself has been recruiting for over twenty years and says "PLEASE STOP ASKING THIS QUESTION", couldn't agree more!

Jobcentre ordering someone to purchase a smartphone

This article in yesterday's INews shows a Jobcentre adviser ordering a 56-year-old jobseeker to purchase a smartphone for his job search because his basic model was "not good enough". Even the Department for Work and Pensions spokesman in a statement said there was no requirement for Universal Credit claimants to own a mobile phone, but this one adviser had said this.

I agree because I don't like smartphones myself, I too own only a basic mobile which can call and text, also having a calculator and alarm clock. I see people so glued to smartphones to the extent of seeming to be oblivious to everything else, and 24/7 connectivity is being thought to be detrimental to mental health.

"Increasingly rigid job and person specifications"

This had been a comment on "21st century welfare" chapter 2 "Problems with the current system", a link which was on the DWP's own website back in 2010 (however now removed - edit Jan 2018). Most of the discussion is about "rates of welfare dependency and poverty" and "work incentives being poor", ie part time hours on mininum wage with regard to top up benefits. So much discussion of welfare reform does centre on blaming (a) unemployed people for not being willing to take jobs (b) the complexity of the system preventing the ones who ARE willing from taking many lower paid and/or part time jobs. No mention of the employer's role in this equation! First there have to be the jobs to take though, difficult enough in the current climate, then factor in the willingness of employers to offer them to some people who may not meet the criteria 100%, and I'm not just talking about disability here. This comment ties in with what I've often said about the need to re-educate employers. The writer touches on "Increasingly rigid job and person specifications" and the "human resources driven ‘closed shop’ mentality of employers", I've often wondered that many 'human resources' bods sometimes don't pass applications to the line managers that they might actually be interested in if they were to see them. How many applications / interviewees are turned down having only been interviewed / application seen ONLY by an HR bod and not the manager who would be responsible for them if taken on? Very good post, and standing out in that it focuses on the employer for once.