I’m interviewing for a job today. Undoubtedly they’re going to ask why I left my previous job of five years.
The short answer is that the job sucked and I quit.
The longer answer is that, though I loved the job at first, everything changed about two years ago. My original boss was replaced by an obsessive micro-manager who sucked all the joy out of the job. There was a productivity standard that was impossible for anyone in the division, myself included, to meet. Professional discourtesy was rampant - I’d be given permission to close a client’s case only to have it re-opened to another case manager a week later. These and other offenses led me to resign my position a couple of months ago.
Anyway, is there some euphemism or platitude that I can employ here?
I was not being given a chance to use my skills and was seeing the responsibility I’d been given diminish. I had the opportunity to take a few months off and (something that doesn’t make you sound like you walked off in a pique and then spent the past few months sitting on your butt) and I jumped at the chance.
“I enjoyed that position, but was interested in developing my career more.”
Do not imply that your former employers were micromanagers, or unprofessional, or that your responsibilities had decreased. Your best bet is to emphasize what you liked about the job – and that it wasn’t going to change, while your goals had changed.
And if you can say that you’re still on good terms with your former employers – or even a former boss or coworkers – that’s a good thing to mention, too.
“After a change in management, I realized the company was going in a different direction than I wanted for my career, so I decided to explore other opportunities.”
Certainly emphasize the positive – what you did well, what you learned – but I think it’s also reasonable to mention, non-specifically, what led you to leave. Otherwise, the interviewer’s response to “It was great!” will be “Then why’d you leave?”
I worked for a firm years ago that followed business practices I couldn’t get behind and, after a year, found I couldn’t live with – squishy ethics, hinky billing practices, that sort of thing. When asked why I quit, I told people that I was not comfortable with certain of the firms practices and came to realize that I would be a better fit elsewhere – but even when asked I declined to be specific as to their misdeeds, since slagging off your former employer is in every case, without exception, counterproductive. I just said something like, I was taught to believe a business should follow certain standards, and it became apparent my understanding of those standards wasn’t the same as that firm’s. You can say a lot without saying a lot, know what I mean?
It’s considered to be extremely bad to say anything negative about a previous place of employment - although IMO if you didn’t have a gripe, then why quit a job? - I’ve used the “excuse” that a previous company had been ‘taken over’ by an international conglomerate and they “downsized”, or there was a change in the staff structure - where someone was promoted to Managerial Level over the heads of several other more senior staff, and all bar two people have quit their jobs there (both are true stories)
How about “I could no longer tolerate the embezzlement of employee retirement funds by the president and his mistress so I chose to seek alternative employment”?
“I am seeking to fill a position that better utilizes my skillset.”
I’d agree that you don’t want to speak ill of the stupid. You don’t want a prospective employer getting the idea that you are willing and able to say about them what you’ve said about your past employers. It’s all about that positive and professional attitude, and most especially about making it seem like you’re really after bettering yourself and advancing into a more challenging, and consequently more rewarding position. It shows you’re at least marginally ambitious and interested in honing your skillset to better serve the company you’re applying to work for. My general rule of thumb is to keep in mind that job interviews are all about spelling out what you can offer them in such a way as to make them want you enough to lay out what they can offer you.
Sorry, but I think that’s a very poor choice to say. To me it means that (a) you object to a company that “makes you grow” and have no desire to be anything more than you are today and (b) you’ll be moving on shortly after any investment by the company in training or otherwise making you more productive.
Yep. You can follow this up by asking him if he has any daughters of his own, and if so, are they eighteen, and if not, if he’s bothered by that whole age of consent thing.
This would be a good time to burn all your bridges.
How you handle your recent extended time off is important. When I was unemployed for 15 months, I got sucked into doing some shows with a community theatre group. When asked by prospective employers what I did over the last year, I’d say “Well, gee, um, no one is really hiring, and things are tough, so I haven’t had many interviews.” The results were less than spectacular. At my last interview, when asked this question, I looked my (now) boss right in the eye and said “I conducted three operas.” I got an offer about 7 hours later.
Its important to realize that the person sitting across from you is a human being - we are random, unquie things - us human beings. But chances are pretty good that human being has had a bad boss in his career, been micromanaged, been in a politically disadvantaged position, and looked for other opportunities.
You can’t trash talk, but you can use all the codewords for “my last boss was a jerk” - starting with the “I am looking for a more professional environment” (that’s a great code for “my boss was a jerk.”)
Your real challenge is that you quit before you had another job lined up. Its hard to convince someone that “I didn’t have enough responsibility” and “I walked out on the responsibility I had” is compatible. Go conduct some operas.
As others have said, there’s no benefit in trashing your previous employer.
Also you want your prospective employer to think you’re up for the new job.
Thanks for the replies. I had the interview an hour or so ago.
I don’t think I’m going to get the job. My answer didn’t satisfy them, and they pressed for more. I guess I’m just not capable of speaking in ambiguities and platitudes.
