Never walk into a job interview without a few prepared answers in your back pocket, says career expert Erin McGoff. Plucking those out at the right moments can save you from scrambling to come up with a coherent response to a tough question.
According to McGoff, the author of “The Secret Language of Work: Hyper-Helpful Scripts for Every Situation,” practicing what you want to say ahead of time can help you feel calm and grounded in high-pressure situations.
In her experience, one interview question that often flummoxes job seekers is: “Why did you leave your last role?”
“It’s a really common question that people struggle with,” she says, because “people don’t know how to phrase it in a way where it feels truthful, but maybe not the full story.”
Here’s how she thinks job seekers should answer this tricky question — and which responses they should avoid.
How not to answer, ‘Why did you leave your last job?’
Fundamentally, employers “don’t actually care why you left your last job,” McGoff writes in her book. “They’re looking for red flags and trying to understand why you might leave this job.”
The most important thing to keep in mind is that an interview “isn’t a vent session,” she says: It’s not the time to open up about your “horrible boss and coworkers” at a previous company.
When a candidate complains about their past job, from an employer’s perspective, “all they’re hearing is, ‘This person is bringing a lot of baggage,’ or ‘They’re bringing a lot of drama,'” McGoff says.
As a rule, McGoff advises candidates to avoid badmouthing their former company or colleagues. Besides, depending on the size of your industry, she says, your interviewer might actually know your former coworkers.
What to say instead
Candidates should be “a little bit delicate” with their answer to this question, McGoff writes.
“You still tell the truth, just in a way that’s catered for the desired outcome of the interview, which is to have the interviewer [be] impressed by you,” she says.
She recommends following three steps to structure your response:
1. Name something you liked about your former role
For example, McGoff suggests, you might say: “I really enjoyed the products I worked on,” or “I was proud of the work that I was able to accomplish.”
2. Briefly address why you left
McGoff advises candidates to keep their language neutral — again, the unvarnished truth “is often not what they’re looking to hear,” she says.
For example, rather than telling your interviewer that you left because of a toxic boss, you could instead say something like: “The company made a management shift, and unfortunately, it really changed the dynamic of my role.”
If you’d rather avoid sharing any specific details, it’s okay to keep your answer vague. Regardless of the real reason, “It felt like the right time to move on” is always a good answer, McGoff says. Another option could be, “I was looking for more opportunity in my career.”
3. Pivot to why you’re interested in this job
For example, “I saw this role pop up, and I think that I can bring a lot of value to this company. So that’s why I’m here with you today,” McGoff says.
Overall, candidates should focus on their skills and their interest in the role they’re interviewing for rather than the one they left, she says, and “keep things extremely positive.”
Erin McGoff is the founder of AdviceWithErin, author of “The Secret Language of Work,” and course instructor for CNBC Make It’s Smarter course How to Ace Your Job Interview. Follow her @AdviceWithErin.
Want to land your dream job? Take CNBC’s online course How to Ace Your Job Interview to learn what hiring managers really look for, body language techniques, what to say and not to say, and the best way to talk about pay.
