Answering: Why Did You Leave Your Last Job?

David writes:

I am aware that I should not say anything negative about a former employer. However, I quit my job because of procedural disagreements with my boss that we had discussed several times. He agreed he was partly to blame for our difficulties. He and my former company are great otherwise. I have taken some time away and am now ready to job-hunt again.

The questions I want to be very careful with are, “Why did you leave your former job?” “Why did you leave before you found another one?”

The Career Doctor responds:

Kudos to you for knowing some of the rules of interviewing — never say anything negative about your former bosses/employers and always anticipate questions so that you can prepare answers ahead of time.

Are you staying in the same career field or switching careers?

If you are stating in the same field… My standard answer for the why did you leave your last job is to focus on your accomplishments and make some sort of statement that you had reached your maximum contribution level to the company and there was no room for you to move within the company so you were forced to seek opportunities elsewhere where you could make a significant contribution.

And if they ask why you left before you had a new job, there are any number of responses, from not wanting to distract from your job… but the bigger issue may be the gap in time from the end of your last job to now — and you need to be prepared to discuss what you have been doing, and a good answer does not involve any comments about burn-out or the need for an extended vacation. Always put a spin on the positive; you needed time to research the next best career step — and the best employers.

If you are switching careers… then your answer to why you left your previous job becomes moot because you can simply state you left it to pursue a career change into your new career field. And as for the gap, you have hopefully been consulting, volunteering, or otherwise getting your foot in the door of your new career field and perhaps gotten more training or education…

As I always say, never lie in an interview, but always remember that the interview is a sales call, where you are selling the prospective employer on why you should be hired.

Get lots more tips, tools, and resources in this section of Quintessential Careers: Guide to Job Interviewing Resources.