Don’t go into a job interview without having some answers ready, says career expert Erin McGough. By pulling them out at the right time, you won’t have to scramble to find coherent answers to difficult questions.
According to McGoff, author of “The Secret Language of Work: Incredibly Helpful Scripts for Every Situation,” practicing what you want to say ahead of time can help you feel calmer and more grounded in high-pressure situations.
In her experience, one of the interview questions that often stumps job seekers is, “Why did you leave your last job?”
“This is a very common question that people struggle with because they don’t know how to express it in a way that feels true, but maybe not the full story,” she says.
Here’s her thoughts on how job seekers should answer these difficult questions and which answers to avoid.
How can I avoid being asked, “Why did you leave your last job?”
Basically, employers “don’t actually care why you left your last job,” McGoff writes in his book. “They’re looking for red flags and trying to understand why you’re leaving this job.”
The most important thing to keep in mind is that an interview is “not a venting session,” she says. Now is not the time to open up about your “terrible boss or co-workers” at your previous company.
When candidates complain about past work, from an employer’s perspective, “all they hear is, ‘This person is bringing a lot of baggage,’ or ‘They’re bringing a lot of drama,'” McGough says.
As a general rule, McGough advises candidates not to badmouth their former company or colleagues. Plus, she says, depending on the size of your industry, your interviewer may actually know your former colleagues.
what to say instead
Candidates need to answer this question “with some care,” McGough wrote.
“You still tell the truth to get the desired result in the interview: to impress the interviewer with you,” she says.
She recommends three steps to structure your response:
1. What did you like about your previous role?
For example, McGough says, “I really enjoyed the product I worked on,” or “I was proud of the work I was able to accomplish.”
2. Briefly explain the reason for your resignation
McGough advises candidates to keep their language neutral. Again, the unvarnished truth is “often not what they want to hear,” she says.
For example, instead of telling the interviewer, “I left my job because of a toxic boss,” you could say, “The company went through a leadership change, and unfortunately, that changed the dynamics of my role significantly.”
If you don’t want to share specific details, it’s okay to leave your answers vague. Whatever the real reason, McGough says the good answer is always that “it felt like the right time to move on.” Another option might be, “I was looking for further opportunities in my career.”
3. Focus on why you are interested in this job.
For example, “I saw this role come up out of the blue and thought I could bring a lot of value to this company. That’s why I’m here today,” McGough says.
Overall, she says candidates should “keep things very positive” by focusing on their skills and interest in the role they’re interviewing for, rather than the one they left.
Erin McGoff is the founder of AdviceWithErin, author of The Secret Language of Work, and course instructor for the CNBC Make It’s Smarter course How to Ace Your Job Interview. Follow @AdviceWithErin.
Do you want to get your dream job? Take CNBC’s online course How to Ace Your Job Interview to learn what hiring managers really want, body language techniques, what to say and what not to say, and the best ways to talk about salary.
