How to Answer Why Did You Leave Your Last Job - Interview Questions and Answers

The interview question, "Why did you leave your last job? " is an absolute landmine. It's so easy to get it wrong, and if you get it wrong, you're not going to get the job. I've been in recruitment for 15 years, and in today's video, I'm going to teach you exactly what to say to nail this interview question in less than 3 minutes. Let's go. Okay, so first things first, this is like a classic question, and it's designed to look for red flags. That is all you're doing when you're asked this question. As a recruiter, you ask this question, and you're looking for signals like, "Ah, this person might be a dangerous candidate. " Now, there are essentially three different ways that you can get this wrong, and you have to avoid them. Now, the first is any negativity. Negativity about your past job, uh the past company, your past teammates, your past boss, any of that. We are basically looking for you to say anything negative, and then that is getting it wrong. So, you need to avoid that. Now, the second is you can't have an answer here that does not make sense, right? Sometimes people say things like, "Well, it was a mutual decision. " It's never mutual. Always one side wants it more than the other, and the fact of the matter is if a candidate wanted to leave their job, they would say they chose to. They would never say it's mutual. So, when you say it's mutual, we assume you got fired. And if you have some other reason, it just has to make sense. Now, the last way you can get this wrong is your answer isn't compelling, right? It's not something that you say and the hiring manager or the recruiter listens, and they go, "Ah, that makes sense, and it's a good reason. I'm interested in this candidate. " So, what is a good reason for leaving a job? The best reason you can have for leaving a past job is because of opportunity. An opportunity that afforded you growth, bigger responsibility, bigger scope, more compelling industry. It has to be about something good. The main key to answering this interview question is you can't be running from something, you have to be running to something. And enthusiastic about that and not negative about the thing you're leaving. Another good reason to leave a job is that you were recruited from your job to another company for a compelling reason. Maybe it was a client who recruited you because of the great work you've done. Or a past manager recruited you to that opportunity because of how effective you were for them. These are good reasons that when a person is interviewing you and they're hearing them, they go, "Yes, that makes sense to me. " Effectively answering it might sound like this. "You know, that's a good question. I actually really loved the job I was at most recently, but I was recruited to come to my current employer by a past boss. So, I'd worked with him when I worked for ABC company, and he had actually promoted me a few times, and he ended up leaving the organization. But he reached out to me with a compelling role that for me represented a lot of growth and opportunity, so I felt like I could not pass it up. " There you go. Say something like that, and you're going to absolutely nail it. This could be a really challenging interview question, but if you do this, you're going to get it right. Another really challenging interview question is, "Tell me about a time you disagreed with your boss. " And if you want to know how to answer that in less than 3 minutes, watch this video next. I'll see you over there.