Hi Ronnie Ann! My friend needs your advice. I hope you can help. Recently she quit her job. But she doesn’t know how to handle some of her interview questions. Especially difficult for her is answering the “Why you left your job?” question.
She happened to leave the job as she was not given a promotion she believed she deserved. She did not give her employer the same reason for quitting the job. Now when she is asked the reason for quitting her job in interviews, she is not sure whether to tell the truth or give some other excuse.
She asked for my advice, and I thought you would be the best person to answer this. It would be great if you could help out.
Regards,
Jay
My response to Jay about “why you left your job”
Hi Jay!
Nice of you to want to help your friend. Answering the why you left your last job question can be tricky for anyone.
First in general … when talking about the reason you left your last position, stay positive about the job and the people. You don’t have to give them a glowing rave, but NEVER complain about how awful they were. Or how badly they treated you. Or how you didn’t get what you deserved. (Although it is ok to talk about wanting more opportunity, as this wonderful new job would provide.)
Even if it might feel good to get out all the complaints (valid as they may be), it’s all sour grapes to a potential new employer. And that would only brand her as high maintenance. Always keep in mind they are looking for a person who would be pleasant to work with. One who would never dish dirt about them!
A way to answer “why you left your job” question
Your friend should try to lead and end with positive strength. In the middle, it’s usually good to talk about something like looking for new opportunity and challenges, maybe with room for growth. And if she feels more comfortable with a shorter answer, then she can just talk about what she’s looking for instead, which will cover most of it.
In your friend’s case, since there will be reference checks, it’s also probably a good idea to make sure what she tells a potential new employer at least gels with what she told her last employer. Since I don’t know what that was, I can’t give you an precise example.
Hopefully she told them something that won’t trip her up, such as she wants to stop working altogether or leave the industry she’s still interviewing in. But, if she’s clever, she can probably get around that somehow. Or, she can simply say she changed her mind. And add reasons why this job is so much more in line with where she wants to go with her career now.
NOTE OF CAUTION:
Although I said be clever, I want to emphasize I don’t mean slick. What she says has to ring true to both herself and the interviewer, or she’ll come across as two-dimensional. Or phony. And maybe get tripped up down the road when the truth comes out.
Luckily, looking for new challenges and job growth are both excellent reasons for anyone to seek a new job or career. And no matter why you left your job, it’s always ok to re-evaluate who you are now and look for a great new job to match!
I wish your friend much luck. Please let us know how it goes.
~ Ronnie Ann
[Post updated 2020]
About the author…
Ronnie Ann, founder of Work To The Wise and Work Coach Cafe, bases her real-world advice on her many years as an organizational consultant where she helped interview and hire people, added to a certificate from NYU in Career Planning & Development and her own adventures as a serial job seeker.
More posts to help
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Job Interviews: What’s Your Greatest Weakness?
How To Handle Tell Me A Little About Yourself
How NOT to Handle the Biggest Weakness Question
Interview Help: How Do I Interview After Being Fired?
How Do I Explain Dropping Out of Law School?
18 Practical Tips to Help You Ace Your Job Interview
15 Things I Look for When I Interview People
After the Job Interview: Why Haven’t They Called Me Yet?
Stuck in the Waiting Game After 2nd Interview
How To Change Your Job Without Quitting
My Job Is So Boring. Should I Quit?
Thinking of Quitting Your Job? Write Yourself a Letter
And if you do need to quit your job
⇒ How To Quit a Job (Without Hurting Yourself)
Hello Ronnie Ann,
This is my first time posting in this forum and I would be the most grateful if you can provide me with some advice regarding how I should approach the situation. First, some background and context: I’m an executive-level employee with over 20 years of experience. I have definitely had my share of war stories to tell and have had to deal with all types of challenging and nasty situations. However, nothing had quite prepared me for the current situation. Long story short, I relocated to Asia (I am an American but this was not the first time working in a foreign country) over a year ago. It was a stressful work environment where the owners were known to swear at and throw things at people. However, the work was made bearable because my immediate boss was a good and honorable person who truly always did the right thing and protected his team. Unfortunately, he eventually left – which was quite understandable considering the proverbial bullets he had been taking. Right after, a new person joined and became my temporary boss. Unfortunately, this individual was nothing like my former boss. He had no content knowledge or actual experience in what he was hired for – this was made evident by the fact that he seemed to have a lot of trouble even understanding his own templates, which suggested that the templates he presented as his own were most likely files saved from previous projects in his previous places of employment (I actually recognized several of the templates as I had developed two of them back in my consulting days – but I said nothing, of course). Because he had no content knowledge, he wasn’t able to deliver. As a result, he took away my AVP and made my AVP did all the work for him. With one resource short, I was stuck to make do with more junior and less experienced resources, while my scope grew exponentially because this person had passed his work onto me as well. Things deteriorated when I had to start pushing back because I simply did not have the bandwidth to do four people’s work. Because I said no, and I actually saw through the fact that this person wasn’t doing any work and couldn’t deliver, I was soon singled out and sabotaged. He did so by badmouthing and spreading untrue stories about me to the owners and other senior leaders. This was further exacerbated by his altering email correspondences that had taken place between us, resulting in turning my own team against me. How did I know? I knew because one of the team members showed me the email he shared and I saw all the alteration. However, by that point it was moot point to even try to rectify. To further make the matter worse, he undermined me and prevented me from managing my own team. Because I had no one to help me do the work, it wasn’t unusual for me to stay until 2am 7 days a week just to make progress on the things that had to be done. On one such instances, I ended up hitting my head and suffered a head injury while returning home late from work. The injury put me out of commission for two weeks (with MRI scans showing lesions and abnormality) and during this time, this temporary boss called me up at 10:40pm, proceeded to yell at me, and then accused me of having mental issues before hanging up on me. When I returned to work, I also found out that he had managed to convince senior leadership that I was malingering (despite my having medical proof). In addition to the aforementioned instances, this person also made a point to constantly criticized me for my looks and had on more than one occasion made me go to the office to work during a category 5 hurricane. Most recently, he actually choked me when I pointed out (politely, by the way) that I could not sign a document that I did not endorse because that would be against policy. I have tried to resolve the situation, but the owners (who were his direct boss) refused to see me. I couldn’t go to HR because the owners were the HR. I couldn’t go to the government because local law offered no such protection against harassment or workplace bullying. I am now at the point where I felt as though I had no option but to quit. However, it would be difficult to explain to future employer because citing your typical reason of “looking for new challenges” wouldn’t quite fly if I were to remain in similar industry, while citing “I am looking for new opportunities or my growth has become stagnant” in some ways could imply that I wasn’t good enough to get far in the organization. What can I do in this case? I actually am concerned about my own physical safety and well-being.
Edit to add: This temporary boss is now using the ongoing restructure of my department as a way to design the future structure of my department. He is going to take away all of my resources to put under him, leaving me with no one. I’m also still going to be report to him (except it’d become permanent). Previously, I report straight to the SVP and by redrawing the structure this way, the temporary boss had effectively blocked my career progression while preventing me to ever become his peer while maintaining control and influence over me.
Wow! Terrible situation you are experiencing, and definitely time for you to find a new job!
“Looking for new challenges” is not the only reason to be looking for a new job. You cannot “trash” the new boss or the company in your explanation for leaving, but you can indicate that it was obviously time for you to move on. Say something along the lines of —
Don’t go into any of the details. If pressed, indicate that you had differences of opinion about management style, internal communications, and employee training (or whatever). Stay as generic and neutral as possible, like this:
Good luck with your job search!
Susan
Dear Susan,
Can you help me with my interview question Why did i leave my last job?
I worked for one year as regional health and safety manager in maintenance&services company. i was looking after 4 sates. when i first started i didn’t have any handover and replaced two people which i didn’t know and my both bosses didn’t inform me.
after 3 month they gave me additional duties for other 2 states bcoz a safety manager went on maternity leave. so i was working basically for 3 people and they were paying me for half person.
this company promised me a vehicle to do site visits and i was waiting it for 6 months. in 6 months time they said that there is no vehicle so i bought a car.
when i was going for business trips my manager told me that i have to pay for my meal myself. later i found out that it is not true and company provides a company card or $50 min per day.
They also didnt pay for my accommodation when i have arrived in Perth from Sydney for 4 days stay. It was sunday afternoon, our office was closed so i called to my manager. he said he didnt know about that and asked me to pass a phone to reception. after they finished talking she asked me to pay for one night min or they will not let me in. i was very disappointed. after this happened no one apologized.
also i had discussion with my manager that i need help as second person bcoz before they had people plus im doing work for lady who is on maternity leave. he told me that he doesnt think so, that two previous people did nothing and now im here to do all job.
i was very overload all the time, no help, no handover, no car.
But… as a professional i did my job very well and in time. i managed all stakeholders and improved safety management system within organisation. I planned and organised external audits that went very well. we had great results. one of my colleague thanked me and was very happy for that. But nothing from top management.
after one year in this position i prepared a salary increase letter. I have explained that company underpaying me and im doing more work than in my job description.
In 2 weeks i had discussion with general manager about my letter. he stated that he will increase my pay raise when i will complete some big project for national work. (my contract states im regional not national). also he said that he didnt know that i was doing work for west coast! he played a damn bcoz who else will do if im was only one safety person in the company! also he said that i should not do work for west coast and he will do smth about it.
we agreed on that i will complete national project and he will review my contract.
when i completed the project he kept quite and i didnt hear from him anything. i was still dealing with west coast to help them but he never replied on my emails or phone calls.
one week later one of my colleague came to my office yelling at me that i didnt do smth he saked me 3 months ago. i was really shocked bcoz i’ve done what he asked plus i had email to prove. but it wasnt my job to do that. i tried to explain me that its his responsibility to mange his team and i can only give advise on safety matter. i dont have to actually do your job. he raised his voice and walked off.
he went for a meeting with other managers. after he left i had tears in my eyes and hands were shaking. it was the last drop of all these mistreating and neglecting. i prepared a resignation letter.
it was friday.
monday morning general manager came in office just to ask me when im leaving. he didnt ask me why im leaving. i mentioned the situation with my colleague he said: i dont know about it and i done want to know. he didnt mention about the project i completed and reviewing my contract. i feel he got what he wanted and just let me go.
so now im looking for a new job in company with better culture.
when potential employer ask me why did i leave my last job, what shall i answer?
i cannot say that i was mistreated i felt not good. but yes i was feeling miserable ans stressed.
thanks a lot and sorry for big text.
M
Hi Ronnie Ann,
Hoping you can give me some advice for the interview question, why did you leave your last job.
I was a Police Officer for 8 years with the highest seniority, the department I worked for hired 3 different Chiefs in 1 year because there were internal issues. Everyone felt the tension and stress. I had never been disciplined before.The final Chief was hired and within 3 months of his arrival I was facing discipline and looking at a suspension without pay for 21 working days for insubordination and leaving my duty post.(long story there) I grieved the discipline through my union. They advised me it was in my best interest to sign a “last chance agreement”. Meaning if I violated several policies I would be fired. I told them I didn’t feel this was my best option but they said it was. I was naïve and signed it. From things the chief had said to me throughout this time I am left to believe he doesn’t like women in law enforcement and therefor used his command position to push me out.
I felt like I had an axe over my head for the next 5 months until I was fired over a minor policy violation. I didn’t accept a termination as I told the chief he could fire me that I did nothing wrong. The union set an arbitration date so a 3rd party could decide whether I should go back to work. This process took 7 very long months, in the end the union called me 3 days before the hearing date and said the chief would allow me to resign with no discipline in my file. I took the resignation. I am now interviewing for a public safety job and I am uncertain how to answer the dreaded question of why I have a gap in employment and why I left. I also fear the chief will bad mouth me. I don’t want to lie about what happened. I also don’t want to risk losing this job opportunity because I know I thrive in this line of work and it is difficult to get a job right now. Any comments would be of help. Thank you
Hi Ronnie Ann,
Good day! May you advice me about this interview question “why did you left your most recent job”.
I have been an accounting associate for 2 years and 2 months (from January 2012 to February 2014) in a company engaged in management and merchandising. I consider myself lucky within years of my stay. I was working with a great team with an understanding and supportive manager until the upper management decided to shutdown the branch I am working with and relocate the employees at head office at the end of year 2013 which I also got married December that same year. Unfortunately both home and office relocation makes it inconvenient for me because of long hours of travel. So, I sent a request on our Senior Assistant VP to relocate me on the branch nearest to our new home which she approves. I was so happy already, but then our SAVP talk to me to extend my stay in head office because lots of employees there are already resigning. I did not agree with the extension which made our SAVP mad and tell me to resign instead. I was taken aback because I know I am good at my job but then I decided to resign. To be honest, I also dont like working at head office because it lacks “work life balance”, which was very important to me considering that I have my own family now. Secondly, my husband did not also agree with the extension because he was always worried of me traveling at a long hours. Lastly, I always go out late from work because of overtime, say around 10-11 in the evening.
Please let me know your idea of what should I answer. I want to be really honest but it seems those reasons I mentioned above will give the interviewer a bad impression on my personality.
Thank you in advance for your advice. More power to you and God bless!
Sincerely,
Che
Hi Che,
You have a good straight-forward reason — the job was relocated to a location distant from your home when management shut down the branch where you worked. Then, the long hours and working late (10 or 11 at night) made the commute very uncomfortable and potentially hazardous.
Don’t go into any of the details about the SAVP, being asked to resign, or the work-life balance issue pending having your family. Just state the facts, and move on. No need for a long detailed description of what happened.
Thank you, and God bless you, too!
Good luck with your job search!
Susan