Now that we've established that you need money, and have five companies in front of you that will give you money, surely there are some other reasons why you'd pick any one of those particular companies to work at, no?
Why assume the candidate has five companies willing to hire? What if the candidate has been searching for a job for the past year and, through a run of bad luck, hasn’t had an interview until now?
We assume that, because we're talking about article of software engineer posted on HN. IT jobs market might be worse recently, but I haven't heard about anyone looking for a job for a year.
perfect example -- the fact that this person has been unable to find a job so long is a great negative signal to find out about for a company. as a candidate I see only downsides in revealing that fact with such a poor answer to the question
Why assume the candidate has five companies willing to hire? What if the candidate has been searching for a job for the past year and, through a run of bad luck, hasn’t had an interview until now?
“Why do you want to work for us?”
“Because you’re willing to give me a job.”