Hi all,
I am a new member to this forum and I was hoping for some advice on a situation for certain someone I know.

Situation:
University Lecturer based in a City (state) that is away from home and wanting to secure a Lecturer / Senior Lecturer / Associate Professor job closer to home (preferably in the same City). This person is a Lecturer but performing the role of a Senior Lecturer.

The field is very niche & therefore the opportunities don't come as often as they would like and therefore this person has shown flexibility in the role(s) targetting (meaning the seniority of it). The main driver to the movement is the quality of life (close to family, further investments, friends, better location, home renovations, etc). Although in an ideal world the next step would be to move into an Associate Professor role, the figures don't look promising.

This person questions themselves whether or not they have properly convinced the interviewer in their response to the question "Why do you want this job?"

Normally the answer should reflect your desire to work for the company, attractions of the job are obvious points, but what if the situation is that the job is:

1) Less senior role therefore less challenging (for example the candidate is a Senior Lecturer and going for a "Lecturer" job).
2) Universities that are less known and succcessful and therefore not easy to highlight strong points.
3) You're not exactly "home" but closer to home.

What would you suggest to answer if this was the case?

Dear Sam,

I don't know if this will help you but here goes.

I had a friend in a similar predicament who had
a very high-paying job in an educational institution.
They also applied for a lower-status position closer
to home in a similar institution.

When asked, "Why Do You Want This Job?"
They replied, that they had been a student at that
particular institution and had been very impressed by
the attitudes of its teaching faculty. By the caring
and professionalism shown to students. It was a place
where they felt that they would be proud to be a part
of, a place which seemed to have an ethos that they
could support, and a place from which they could learn
a great detail, and, to which they felt they could also
contribute.

Money was not a driving force in their life, but job
satisfaction was important. And that was the primary
reason for their application.

Anyway, they got the job.

I hope this helps you.

All The Best.

Hi Sam, welcome.

I would tell the truth and couch it in terms of quality of life and balance between work and family in a similar way as Foxy described.

That you are not motivated only by career prospects, money etc. Other aspects of work can be motivating - the rewards of teaching students, of research in a particular field and ensuring that education is accessible and that means placing talent in lesser known institutions that may not be as highly regarded as others.

Perhaps 'highly regarded' might not be the best phrase, lesser known or lower profile might be better but you get the drift.

Hope it works out.

A friend recently expressed the opinion that the key to him getting his senior positions in the catholic education service was to state that he was:

" ... an adherant, not an advocate ... "

Horses for Courses perhaps also needs to be considered.

Thanks for all your input.

I've looked into this a fair bit and it's probably the question that you can easily justify the strong points about the role.

Now, if you are asked "why you are looking to leave your current role for this position?"

Then the best solution is to say you are looking to leave your current role simply by saying "i want to move back to (CITY), close to family".

So there's 2 different answers for 2 different questions. You don't need to reveal all when asked "Why do you want this particular job?"

Its harder to justify when you are already in a really good position.

They will simply follow a question by saying "Now we understand you want to come to this City, but why this particular job?" then you sell all the role features that come with it for e.g. same field, it's teaching, etc.

Idea is to focus on why you are applying for this particular position rather than why you are leaving...

Does that make sense?

I would have said that the question "Why do you want this job?" is the wrong question because it is open to spin, highly subjective and is a second order issue for an employer.

The better question is: "What are the skills, abilities and experience you would bring to this job?" That's more objective and focuses on what merit the applicant brings to the position.