Chris Wodke
Don’t get tripped up if asked this question. You want to answer in a way that highlights
your career goals and skills. Here are
some do’s and don’ts of answering this question.
Don’t
- Never ever say anything bad about a former company.
- Never ever bad mouth a bad boss.
- Don’t tell someone you were fired for misconduct.
- Don’t dwell on any negative aspects of your employment or how you were let go.
Do
- Focus on the opportunity you gained by moving to another position.
- Talk about what you learned by changing jobs.
- Be honest about why you made a move. You can do this without saying bad things about a former boss or company.
- Focus on what you learned or accomplished and how you would apply that in your new position.
- Be honest if you were laid off due to the economy. It is a common experience many of us have had.
Here is how an answer might sound. “I really enjoyed my work as a Materials
Engineer for ABC Company. Working in
research gave me an opportunity to learn something new as a regular part of my
job. ABC could not afford all the equipment we needed to do our research and we
had to contract out parts of it to the local university. I got a chance to move to Dynamic
Corporation. They had a bigger research budget.
I not only got the equipment I needed to carry out research I also got a
25% increase in salary. Unfortunately
Dynamic has been hard hit by this economy and has begun closing the Milwaukee division of
their research group. I really want to
stay in the area and am looking for looking opportunities using my Research
skills. I was attracted to this position because of your company’s leadership
in research and development.”
Work on your own answer to this question so you are ready
during your next interview.
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