Why did you resign from your previous job? TOP Examples for this Job Interview Question!

Why did you leave your last job? This will be asked in the job interview and employers will be like Olympic hurdlers jumping to all the conclusions based on your answer. This is self made Millennial. I'm Madeline Mann and today I'm going to show you how to answer why did you leave your last job flawlessly every time? If you're new to this channel, welcome. You may recognize me from these places. I am an award winning career strategist and human resources leader. New Videos On Thursdays I'll show you how to answer this question whether you've been laid off, fired or left voluntarily. And I'll show you examples for each and make sure you stay to the end because you'll see multiple examples of how to spin a negative or even toxic work experience into a neutral response that will not elicit any follow up questions from the interviewer. So why do companies ask why did you leave your last job? They ask this question because they're focused on extending offers to the people who who they believe will be the best fit. One of the methods they use to determine if you're a good fit is understanding which work situations you liked and you didn't like in the past. Remember, the hiring and onboarding process is wildly time consuming and expensive for employers, so their goal is to hire you and not have you quit anytime soon. Since employers know that history tends to repeat itself, they try to get the inside scoop on what led you to leave your previous job. Then they assess if they feel confident in their ability to retain you. For example, if you left your last role because the work wasn't challenging enough, they will have the thought that goes through their mind. Will our work be novel and challenging enough to retain them? Why did you leave your last job? Is a very tricky question. Okay, if you don't answer this correctly and let something slip to the tune of I want an easier job or I didn't get along with my colleagues. Whatever it is, it can make your employer think negatively about you a big time. And the most challenging element of this question is that the answer is unique to your situation. So I'm going to give you examples on how to answer the question for three different scenarios. You were laid off from your last job, you were fired, or you left voluntarily. Then you can take these answers and adapt them to the specifics of your situation. There are three essential rules of thumb to to keep in mind when answering why did you leave your last job? Number one, make your answer short. I'm talking one to three sentences, a grave mistake people make is giving too much description too much detail? This question is a quick check for skeletons in your closet, not a full on excavation. Say something brief so the interviewer can put a nice check mark on their list you and move the heck on. Only expand your answer if they ask follow up questions. I'm going to challenge you. I want you to write your reason you left using only one sentence. To exercise this practice of brevity, put the phrase one sentence in the comments. If you're going to take this challenge, commit now and you'll be able to do it by the end of this video. Number two Keep it positive. I know this can be very challenging to do if your last role was oh so toxic, but I'll give you tips on how to create positive answers later in this video. Know this. If you speak poorly about a company, your interviewers first thought will be oh, are they going to talk about us this way if we hire them? The last thing you want is to have an employer dwell on your past rather than focus on your future and how you are going to be there with them. Number three Be confident. We often forget that we write our own narratives. You get to tell the story in the way you want to. The employer will only see it as a sob story or a difficult situation if you make it out to be that way. So answer quickly, confidently and move on. Another interview question that is always asked, and you absolutely need to learn how to answer it briefly, is Tell me about yourself. This is the most common interview question, so I've created a worksheet to help you craft the most impactful and concise answer. I've linked it in the comments in the description for you to download. Now let's walk through how to apply these three rules to three common scenarios. You were laid off, you were fired, or you left voluntarily. I recommend watching all three of these sections to see the different examples because your situation is unique and you may need to take elements of different examples to craft your perfect answer. How to respond to the question why did you leave your last job if you were laid off? Getting laid off is often one of the most shocking and brutal career experiences to handle. And I know because it's happened to me. So I completely feel your pain. But the fact of the matter is that employers know that layoffs happen all the time and that being laid off is almost never your fault. And so what you need to do is explain the situation to drive home the fact that it was an organizational issue, not an individual issue. Steer them clear of any impression that your layoff was performing performance related or that the company chose to let you go and kept most everyone else. If your past employer laid off a large percentage of the team, you should let your interviewer know how many people were on your team and how many were let go. For example, if there were 20 people on the team and they let three people go, that means that you were potentially in the bottom 15% of performers. So so let's keep that detail out, okay? And just simply say you were laid off due to organizational changes. But if the team had 20 people and the company laid off 16 of them, you would then in the 80th percentile and fell victim to an unfortunate situation. So you would include that in your answer. Here's an example of how to answer if you've been laid off for the past year, the company has been reorganizing due to the merger with ABC company and they ended up laying off 90% of the team. Okay, that was one sentence. Feeling you can do this. You can. Next, here is how to answer why did you leave your last job if you were fired? If you were fired from your previous job, I completely understand if this question stresses you out. The reality is highly competent people are fired every day. Oprah was fired from her job as a news reporter. J.K. rowling was forced out of her secretary job at Amnesty International. Getting fired doesn't mean you aren't an absolute stage star player. You're simply a flower planted in the wrong garden. We don't need to fix the flower. Instead, we need to find a more suitable garden. Throw some flower emojis in the comments if you agree. Unfortunately, being fired is often perceived as a red flag. Companies will be wary of you if you reveal that you were terminated for cause and it could jeopardize your ability to land the role. The good news is you are in control of the narrative. You pick the ending. M. Night Shyamalan Even if they do employment checks with your previous company, the human resources department typically only divulges your title and your dates of employment. Of course, if your last employer doesn't have an HR department or if back channel conversations occur, word of your termination could leak out. But my advice here is to not let the worry and anxiety consume you. Instead, keep your eye on the prize you and remember these three key points. Don't blame the former employer. State a learning experience or agree with the termination and share how you'll avoid similar situations in the future. Let's run through some examples. If you were fired for being late, you could say I found it wasn't a good idea to take a job with such a long commute. It interfered with my ability to maintain a healthy work life balance. That won't be an issue with your company given your location. Notice that you did not lie here, but you also didn't outright say that you were the answer is short because it should not be a focus and fortunately this version will likely not incite any follow up questions. Let's move on to another example. Let's say that you clashed with your supervisor. You could say my manager and I had different viewpoints. She was very focused on building out new features, whereas I saw that we need to address technology gaps first to be successful. She was incredibly driven and a great visionary, but it became clear that I need to work somewhere that emphasizes solid IT infrastructure and clean code. The reality is you absolutely hated working for her. She was anthrax level toxic, but you did compliment her authentically for the traits that are good about her. Everyone has a good trait or two and reference something that you value in a company and so this answer may incite some some follow up questions. So be prepared. Let's give you a third example for good measure. If your termination was performance related, you could say the company hired me for one role, but the role ended up changing to be something outside of my skill set. So it was an amicable split. That's why I'm very interested in your role because it focuses on my strengths in X, Y, Z areas. Here you are acknowledging that there isn't always an employment match and you are mature enough to recognize that you end it by bringing the topic back to the company, which reduces the chances that they will have follow up questions. Now it's time to jump into how to answer this question. If you left your last job or are considering leaving your job voluntarily if you left your last job or are looking to leave voluntarily One of the first few thoughts an interviewer often has is Is this person a job hopper? Will they leave as soon as a shiny new opportunity comes their way? I have a video explaining exactly why being perceived as a job hopper is detrimental to your job sear and how to avoid it. I will link it in the comments and in the description. For example, if you left your last job because you were getting passed up on promotions, avoid saying something like I left my last job because management kept passing me up for promotions. I had the most seniority among my peers working on that team for nearly seven years, so I had no choice but to leave. Okay, that's honest. That's Raw. I hear you, but it's negative. It's blaming the employer. It's kind of maybe making me think, why weren't you promoted? Is there something wrong with your performance? It's just not a good look to be speaking like this. Instead, say something along the lines of I hit a ceiling for growth in my role. When I explored new opportunities within the company, I found that they were limited. That's why I'm so excited about this role. I want to learn new skills and gain unique experiences such as X. By expressing that you explored opportunities, it takes you away from sounding like a victim where you just sat there and your manager didn't bring you opportunities. That just makes you sound too passive. You instead show that you're the type of employee who speaks up who owns their own development by saying proactively that you explored your options. If you truly feel that there is no way of getting around complaining about a toxic situation, express it as a learning experience experience that helped you clarify what you actually want in a company. Of course, not everyone leaves a job due to dissatisfaction with their previous employer. Therefore, you should always customize your response based on your situation. For example, if you left your last job for a personal reason, like parental leave, say something like I took some time off to care for my child when they were born, but now I am more excited than ever to jump back into work. It's such a simple answer I but that's all they need to know. Make sure you like this video and subscribe to this channel. You've got this wifi high five.