> They don't want a faker, they want a true believer

I'm trying to explain that it's easy to spot the fakers.

When you do a lot of interviews you see a lot of candidates who follow the advice above. Unless it's your first month of doing interviews, it's really easy to see right through.

The candidates never think they're coming off as fake, though.

Really skilled interviewers can bait these candidates into telling little half-truths and inconsistencies that reveal their game.

You're explaining that you think you do a good job of spotting the fakers. How would you know if you weren't? And anyway, the fakers (approximately everyone) don't have a choice but to be fakers, since the truth (I want this job because I want the money and visa it will confer) is disqualifying. Because no one is motivated primarily on the opportunity to work on adtech (to pick a popular example), one must choose one of:

1) Be truthful, and say the main reason you want the job is the money and the visa. You will be looked over as not having enough passion for the work.

2) Lie completely and say your number one motivation is adtech, something you would prostrate yourself to do in slum conditions if necessary. You will be sussed out as a faker.

3) Come up with some mixture of the two that the company can believe. If you can fool them into thinking you are at least somewhat motivated by the chance to work on their awful product, but also that there is truthfully some other motivation, you come across as a good bet and might not be thrown out of the pipeline.