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Question 5 Why are you leaving (or did you leave) this position?
TRAPS: Never badmouth your previous
industry, company, board, boss, staff, employees or customers. This
rule is inviolable: never be negative. Any mud you
hurl will only soil your suit.
Especially avoid words like “personality clash”, “didn’t
get along”, or others which cast a shadow on your competence, integrity,
or temperament.
BEST ANSWER:
(If you have a job presently)
If you’re not yet 100% committed to leaving your present post,
don’t be afraid to say so. Since you have a job, you are in
a stronger position than someone who does not. But don’t be
coy either. State honestly what you’d be hoping to find in a
new spot. Of course, as stated often before, you answer will all the
stronger if you have already uncovered what this position is all about and
you match your desires to it.
(If you do not presently have a job.)
Never lie about having been fired. It’s unethical –
and too easily checked. But do try to deflect the reason from you
personally. If your firing was the result of a takeover, merger, division
wide layoff, etc., so much the better.
But you should also do something totally unnatural that will demonstrate
consummate professionalism. Even if it hurts , describe your
own firing – candidly, succinctly and without a trace of bitterness
– from the company’s point-of-view, indicating that
you could understand why it happened and you might have made the same decision
yourself.
Your stature will rise immensely and, most important of all, you will show
you are healed from the wounds inflicted by the firing. You will enhance
your image as first-class management material and stand head and shoulders
above the legions of firing victims who, at the slightest provocation, zip
open their shirts to expose their battle scars and decry the unfairness
of it all.
For all prior positions:
Make sure you’ve prepared a brief reason for leaving. Best reasons: more money, opportunity, responsibility or growth.