Job Jumping and Other Questions

Job Jumping; Your Last Job and Other Questions

You’re sitting in the interview room feeling pretty good that you’ve made it this far in the hiring process for a job you really want. You look good; you’ve arrived with extra copies of your résumé and you’re feeling comfortable and confident. You’re then hit with a question that leaves you stumbling for the right answer and all of a sudden your confidence goes out the window.

Interviews can seem like interrogations especially when the interviewer starts drilling down into specifics about past employment. This is a purpose of the interview. In addition to wanting to meet you to see if there is a good fit between you and the organization, a hiring manager is looking for answers to questions that jump out from your résumé.

When reviewing résumés, recruiters will look at how long you’ve held previous jobs. How would you address the comment; “You’ve had a lot of jobs over the last couple of years.”? Far from being a casual observation, the recruiter is asking you to explain why you have jumped from job to job. There may be a legitimate reason for this but in the mind of a recruiter this could be a potential red flag. Is the candidate unable to hold a job for more than a few months? Are they looking at this opportunity as merely a stepping stone to get somewhere else? Are there underlying issues we don’t know about that might cause problems later on? If you feel that you have included a lot of jobs over a short time frame in your résumé, be ready to explain why.

A de rigueur question during interviews is why did you leave your last job or why are you considering leaving your current position? This is a tricky one. In many cases it’s because we are looking for better remuneration. But does applying for another job for more money make us appear as if we have no loyalty beyond a pay cheque? We might be leaving because we truly cannot stand our boss or co-workers. Does stating this indicate we might not be a team player? Let’s be honest. If we all had amazingly fantastic and well paid jobs, would we be looking to leave or would we have quit in the first place? Perhaps not. Think carefully how you answer this question. Not only will the recruiter want to hear something that ties into the company’s values and business objectives but they will want to see if there is a consistency between your answer and the answer of the person at your previous company they speak to when they call them for a reference. A standard question on most recruiter’s reference call templates is “Why did your name here leave your company?”

Whatever answers you provide to the above, be sure to never talk negatively about a previous employer or company. Hiring managers and recruiters will want to know that they are talking to a potential employee who will be able to exhibit a certain degree of professionalism, tact and discretion. I have heard candidates use profanity and drag previous employers’ names through the mud. This does not go down too well in an interview.

Interviews are used to validate who you are as an applicant and your past experience. Be ready to ‘defend’ and explain your résumé and answer with conviction and certainty.