Now it is time to account for all of your misdeeds. You have provided a resume, filled out an application and have told the Hiring Manager about yourself. Inevitably, you are going to be asked this question early in the interview, and you are going to be asked it by every single person in the organization who talks to you in their interview process.
The question will begin innocently enough, and is really the interviewer turning around the question you should as at every interview. “So why did you leave your last job?”
If you weren’t at that last job very long, this is going to be followed with: “It looks like you’ve changed jobs a lot recently, why is that?”
And this is the question that has tripped many an interviewee up. What the interviewer is really asking is: “It looks like you can’t hold a stable job. Is that because of you? Are you unhirable and goIng to get me in trouble, because I don’t want to get in trouble. I mean if it wasn’t for my last shitty hire, I wouldn’t be interviewing YOU! God, I hate my life!”
Your existence and job search is creating self-hate for the HM, so you probably need to address this if you wish to progress further in this interview.
There are several rules to follow in navigating this minefield. I am going to help you tip toe through it and make sure that not only make the Hiring Manager feel self-love, but also will be dazzled at your interviewing prowess the same time and may even send you an Easter Basket and a Lilly! Here we go:
RULE #1: NEVER TALK BAD ABOUT YOUR PRIOR EMPLOYERS
Let’s go back to the dating metaphor. On the first date would you rather listen to your date talk about: (a) the traits, qualities and exciting experiences he / she has had or (b) hear them bitch about their ex for 2 hours straight? I’m-a gonna let you figure that one out. (Hint: If your answer is (b) you have lots of self-hate and may want to consider a job as a Hiring Manager.)
RULE #2: DON’T LIE
Things don’t work out. But you need to be honest with why you left your last job. If you were fired then you need to frame that properly. Ways to reply are, “it just wasn’t a good fit.” “My responsibilities ended up not being what I thought the job would be.” “The company culture was not for me.” And then answer the follow up question of “why?” Maybe the culture didn’t fit because you value human interaction and the job had you sitting silent in a corner. If you are going for a sales or customer service job, this is a great answer, because then you can turn that around to say “and that is why I am applying for this job, because I want to help people.”
You are discussing a break-up and you are going to want to frame this as unfortunate mismatch between 2 great people that just couldn’t get along. “I have no hard feelings and wish them well, but it just didn’t work out,” sounds so much more professional than “that rat-bastard got the the dog, the car and my mother’s China. I’m gonna slash his tires.”
Same thing when discussing the asshole of a bad boss that you left behind. It’s okay to say “my boss and I just didn’t get along well in that environment.” Maybe follow it up with “so I guess jobs are like marriages, why else is the divorce rate so high? People change and I am looking for a company where I feel I fit in better, and I feel this company fits the bill.” Then tell them why. Again, you come out of this looking good and being honest without badmouthing your prior employer and looking like a psycho ex.
RULE #3: DON’T GIVE UP TOO MUCH EITHER
It’s good to be general. You don’t need to give up too much information. Be brief and answer the follow up questions. If you feel you are being badgered or asked to give up too much personal information, you don’t have to answer. You can always end the interview and just say, “you know, I don’t this is what I’m looking for, thanks for your time.”
You shouldn’t have to be punished for having worked in shitty jobs. It’s okay to admit that you made a career mistake or took a job you had no business of taking or took a job out of desperation while between jobs. Remember, just because you worked a shitty job and they let you doesn’t make you a bad person. It just means you learned another hard life lesson!