Job Hopper

I always get asked by employers about every job that I left, and I tried my very best to tell them that my focus was to grow, improve my technical skill set with better responsibilities and ofcourse the $ (that we don't mention), so my skills is prepared for XYZ when the time comes.

I need to hear your 2 cents on what you say to them, I think this is a very important subject, thanks for your input

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Comments

paintb4707

The last company I worked for was a help desk. I was in what was SUPPOSEDLY a training program that was paid on a stipend. Ended up that we lost one of our hugest accounts and they had to kill the program.

Basically when I interviewed for new jobs, even though I didn't have a choice to leave, I said that there was no room for further growth in the company.

I don't think there's much else you could say without being unprofessional, its like a straight out of the textbook response when it comes to why you want to leave your current employer. There's tons of reasons why you would leave a job but how many of them would get you kicked out of an interview by repeating it? "I didn't enjoy it", "My supervisor and I didn't see eye to eye", "The pay sucked", etc etc.

I'd be interested in hearing what other people say though.

astorrs

I think the key thing is never to bad mouth the company (or its employees) that you had worked at.

Lee H

Hi

I can understand why you would not want to say bad things about the company bacause it suggests that the company may also say bad things about you so it may promt a definite reference fromthe company, i would prefer to say an answer that shows me in the best light possible

You could respond with a couple of reasons which individually are not worthy of a job change but collectivley make you want a new position, one of which is they dont use Outlook and instead they use Lotus, but your goal is to me MCP in Exchange and would like some hands on experiance using it, towards MCSA / MCSE, this also then lets them know you are keen to achieve accreditation

or there is no scope for advancement in the comapny until such time that someone leaves and that could be years when in fact you are ready to advance now

even if you lodged a sata drive into someone eye socket you still say you enjoyed working with every colleague and made some reall good friends who you will keep in touch with etc etc

willingness to adapt to any workplace, quick learning etc etc

Hope this helps

Lee H

cacharo

Lee H wrote:

One of which is they dont use Outlook and instead they use Lotus, but your goal is to me MCP in Exchange and would like some hands on experiance using it, towards MCSA / MCSE, this also then lets them know you are keen to achieve accreditation

I like Lee's point here. It also shows (assuming they are using exchange) that you have done the research about the company you are applying to. This question can quickly be turned around to speak positively about the interviewer's company and where they benefit over your current company.

DoubleD

astorrs wrote:

I think the key thing is never to bad mouth the company (or its employees) that you had worked at.

YES THIS

astorrs

Lee H wrote:

I can understand why you would not want to say bad things about the company bacause it suggests that the company may also say bad things about you so it may promt a definite reference fromthe company, i would prefer to say an answer that shows me in the best light possible

More that it can make you seem to be a "whiner" - even if everything you are saying about the company/job is true. Keep it in a positive light and it shows you to be someone who tried to make things work but there was just an incompatibility with your career goals, etc.

+1 to everything else you said.

Kaminsky

DoubleD wrote:

astorrs wrote:

I think the key thing is never to bad mouth the company (or its employees) that you had worked at.

YES THIS

I agree. This is a massive no no. Comes across like they are taking on someone else's disgruntdled employee with a high probability that they will become a disgruntled employe of theirs after 6 mohts or so.

The best course of action is to be honest in all interviews but temper it so that the company interviewing you won't think that you will be out of there in a few years on your next job hop.

Ambition is an attractive thing in a candidate at interview as long as it's realistic and has humility. There is nothing wrong with saying currently can do this but I want to grow so that I can do that as well.

More money also, is not a bad reason. If one of your reasons wasn't more money, I am sure they would be suspicious. Everyone knows that to get a substantial pay rise you need to change employers. However, you have to be upto that new role to justify the pay. Employers realise this so it is not that much of a problem to discuss it but just be careful how you do it. Don't say it's substantially more money than your last job becuase they will instantly lower the pay they were going to offer you and give you 2-3k more than your previous job and not the 10k that may have been on offer.

Just try to imagine yourself in their shoes listening to your story.