A recruiter organized an interview with a company for me. After the interview she wanted to debrief with me.
She asked "on a scale of 1 to 10 how excited and interested are you in the job after having done the interview?".
I'm not a fan of these types of questions and I just said "7 or 8".
She followed up with "what would make you give it a higher number?".
How should I reply to these types of questions when asked by a recruiter or in the interview itself?
These sorts of questions don't directly benefit you. Generally it's a good idea to defer them and hoard your information until such time as it does directly benefit you. The recruiter and you do not have the same agenda.
My response would be along the lines of 'Everything looks good so far, I can't put a number on it at this stage, it's too early to tell'.
I see three possible purposes of this question:
Therefore, only give 10 if you would sign right away and see no chance, not even a desire, for anything to be different. I'd say anything from 7 or maybe 6 upward sounds reasonably interested.
As to stating what might increase your rating, I'd use that opportunity for explaining my wishlist. Who knows, chances are the recruiter does have a job in their list that has some of what you are looking for.
If I had time to think about the question, I would consider that the recruiter is maybe not interested in a literal score out of 10. The recruiter is interested to know how much you like the company and how well you fit the candidacy.
So I would not say the number. I would not immediately say "8/10". I would say something like "It's a pretty good fit, I like it a lot. I can see myself accepting the offer and staying, but I'm also interested to hear how they can adjust X or Y because of A and B".
The numbers thing is a bad question. But nobody is interested in the number. By saying something that's not a number, you get to say something more relevant, which is the information the recruiter is after.
How to answer the question "on a scale of 1 to 10 how excited are you about this job?" from a recruiter.
A perfect 10 means that you absolutely want this job. A recruiter will be happy to pass this info to the hiring manager in case they want to move you to the next round of interview.
Anything less than 10 means that you don't think this job is a perfect fit for you although you may be still open for further job interviews down the road. But, the recruiter would now think that you will not 100% enjoy working for their company in this position. Thus, as you can guess, the hiring manager will be somewhat reluctant to move you to the next round of interview.
So, I would recommend that you are honest in answering this kind of questions.
If you don't think this position is a good fit for you, then you should tell the recruiter that because it will save both you and the company a lot of time. Then, you can spend your time looking for a better position elsewhere.
On the other hand, if you truly like this position and want to continue with the interview process, then tell them your interest for this position is at the perfect 10 level on their scale.
"what would make you give it a higher number?"
Tell them the truth. Tell them what you have in mind.
They will respond in 2 possible ways:
Either way, you will really get what you want.
Note: When you say that you are super excited about the job (perfect 10 on their scale), it does not mean that you are telling them that you are 100% happy about the salary and job benefits because this is not a salary and benefits negotiation yet. Instead, it is only an interview.
This question is only designed to measure your interest in this job and the company.
Usually, the salary and benefits negotiation will come much later after many more interviews with people from this company (if the candidates get that far).
I personally loathe these types of questions. It's a classic case of people wanting to quantify things that can't be quantified, which ultimately means someone is making decisions based on useless data.
I almost always answer that question with something like "the interview went a lot better than I expected" or "I'm more excited about the job than I was before the interview". It's enough of an answer to satisfy most recruiters' need to run through a standard questions list to check for red flags, but it doesn't actually provide any meaningful information that they could use against you later.
On rare occasions I'll have someone press me hard about providing a numerical answer. I'll just ask them to explain what their scale means. What does, say, a "6" mean? What's the difference between a "6" and a "7"? Invariably they'll admit they have no idea what the scale means either, some won't even know whether a "1" or a "10" is the "good" end of the scale. I'll just respond and say that I don't have enough information to answer the question.
For what it's worth, I am an engineer, and recruiters know that we're very analytical people. This response might come across completely differently for a candidate in other fields.
I never answer questions asking for 1-10 with only a number. Instead, I give a short summary of my answer, then the number, then a calibration point. (I do this when nurses ask my pain, when people ask me to rate job opportunities, or rate candidates, and a whole pile of other wildly varying situations, for example this answer.) So in your case, perhaps:
I am sure I could do the work, and the money and benefits seem ok, but [I would have a long commute / I was hoping to work for a household name / I'm not sure I could progress to being a [future goal]] there. So maybe an 8? If it was [slight difference] it would be a 9. With 20% more money and [the same thing you already mentioned], a 10.
There is one other thing to consider. If this recruiter works for you -- is trying to find a job for you -- then when you provide feedback, it is for the purpose of finding you a great job. You can be clear with such a person about what you liked and didn't like so that they can adjust the kinds of opportunities they bring to you. If the recruiter works for the company, and is your first point of contact with the company, and will not bring you other jobs, is just co-ordinating this one, then everything they ask you is an interview question. When you answer these questions you're negotiating. That wouldn't change my answer. If I LOVED the job and wanted it very much I would say so. I wouldn't act cool and disinterested in the hope of getting more money. I negotiate very openly and clearly (and once got a place to triple the money they were offering because I told them it sounded amazing and wonderful but I couldn't possibly do it for that and they asked what I could do it for, and they said ok) but I understand that other people don't. So consider the possibility that you are still answering interview questions and are in a negotiation, in the case of a company-specific recruiter.
In homage to an old idiom: if you don't have 10 to say, say nothing at all.
In other words, answer 10 if at whatever time this question is asked you want to be seriously considered.
If you're still unsure, I agree with @kilisi answer 100%; you waffle is a judicious, professional manner indicating you still need more information or want to get further into the process.
Questions like this aren't designed to measure your interest. They're designed to measure your commitment to the job opportunity, and put you in a position where the recruiter can later shame you over having questionably integrity if you pull back.
Let's say that you've asked for a $100,000 salary - a nice round number - and prior to this "scale of 1 to 10" question, the recruiter has stated that the client would be okay with that. But now, following "1 to 10", the recruiter comes back and says that the company is only willing to pay $85,000 (which might have been the true number all along). Now, if you start pulling back, the recruiter can say, "But you said your willingness to take this job was a TEN!" The recruiter has been trained to know that there are a lot of candidates who will take the $85,000 at this point just to not feel as if they've broken a promise. It's a hustle.
As one of the other answers here has stated, it's best to defer answering this question as it is induced conversation designed to give the recruiter some leverage over you. When you hear questions like this, just reflect on the fact that such a recruiter really isn't concerned with making sure you're the best candidate for the job, or the job is the best one for you. They're concerned with getting their 10% commission by any means necessary.
If this question is coming from a random 3rd party recruiter - can either be honest or give some non-specific answer such as "I'm definitely excited".
If this question is coming from a hiring manager or in house - lie and add spice. "I love what you guys are doing and would love to be a part of that! hovering around a high 9".
It's annoying but a lot of tech companies have this world view that jobs are supposed to be this passionate experience, and if you aren't completely buying in you aren't valuable as an employee. You CAN still be a great employee without being some corporate zealot, but there's no point in you trying to explain that to them.
Giving a 7 or 8 just tells them to defer you for someone who gives a 10. It is completely performative theatrics, but such theatrics are sometimes required to bypass these kinds of 'passion-oriented' rubbish hiring practices. Bad hiring practices are everywhere, and the only stick someone will get for them will be when they can't find anyone who can effectively do the job, not even someone who can do the required theatrics.
If you are even mildly interested in getting the job, just say 10. It will make a good impression with the recruiter (which in turn will make a good impression with the company), which will raise your chances.
You're not hooked to a polygraph while giving the answer (and the question is pretty dumb anyway), so "embellishing" the truth a little bit won't do any harm.
Followed up by: "How does any answer I give help you in getting me this or any other position?"
