how do you tell a company that this is truly your dream company/job?

This post, how do you tell a company that this is truly your dream company/job? , was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.

A reader writes:

I have a second interview with a company I have been working towards my entire career. They only hire experienced candidates, and I’m finally at that level. I’ve also freelanced for this company, which was a wonderful experience.

How should I — or should I do this at all? — tell them how serious I am, not only about the specific job, but about working for the institution itself? I don’t want to come off as some deranged fan, but I would like to underscore how much I want the job (and honestly, I would do just about any job I am qualified for at this institution). How much emphasis should I place on this when explaining why I want to work there — I assume saying I’ve spent my entire career wanting to work there is overkill?

By the way, of course I know that “dream jobs” don’t truly exist. But this is close, and the institution has a great track record of how it treats its employees.

The thing about expressing intense enthusiasm — dream job level enthusiasm — is that very few jobs hire people because they’re wildly enthusiastic. They want to see a baseline level of interest, of course. But once that box is checked, having extra high levels of it doesn’t add that much. After all, they’re not going to hire you because you really want to work there; they’re going to hire you because you seem like you would excel at the work (at least at healthy companies, which are the ones you want to work for).

There’s also a point where it can become a negative. If you seem like you have rose-colored glasses on, interviewers will worry about whether you’re being realistic about what working there will really be like and how well you’re able to assess whether it’s really the right fit for you.

So you want to aim for a middle ground — interested and engaged, but grounded about it too. It’s this difference between this:

“This has always been my dream job! I’m so excited to be talking to you. I’ve always wanted to work here.”

and:

“Since the start of my career, I’ve been really interested in X Org’s work because of your focus on ___ and the unusual approach you’ve taken to ___. I’ve always hoped there might be an opportunity to work together and be part of your ___.”

The second one still expresses genuine interest, but it grounds it and adds more nuance (plus you sound informed!). Since you’ve freelanced for them in the past, you could potentially reference something specific from that experience too.

Also! Passion for the work is a different thing — someone who fully nerds out talking about their love of, say, data or customer service or llama grooming (or whatever the job is focused on) is much more exciting than someone who’s really focused on loving the company itself.