One of the more common interview questions that you may be asked is what happened at
your last job, or if you're currently employed and working, why is it that you're looking
to leave?
In this video, I'm going to share with you what is, I believe one of the best answers
to this question.
Hello, everyone.
If we haven't been introduced before, my name is Bill Benoist.
I'm a certified professional career coach here in Silicon Valley, and I upload new career
tips and strategies every Tuesday.
So if you're in career transition or you find career development to be important, make sure
that you subscribe to this channel so you don't miss any of the videos.
What happened at your last job, or if you're currently working, why is it that you're looking
to leave?
These are two very common interview questions, and the way I coach my one on one clients
to answer these questions is by using something called an exit statement.
The exit statement is going to be in two parts.
The first part is going to answer the question, "What happened at your last job?"
Or if the question was, "Why is it that you're looking to leave?"
It's going to answer it by a statement that is very concise, short, direct, to the point.
Once sentence, absolutely no more than two, because we don't want to dwell on this part
of the question.
Let me give you an example.
"Intel had a restructuring that eliminated 11% of their workforce.
My position was one of them."
Boom.
I'm done.
I'm over that.
Or, "Cisco had a reorganization that eliminated duplicate departments in 250 positions.
Mine was one of them."
Here's a response if you're currently working: "After working three years with Soundbite,
I've made a conscious decision to pursue new opportunities and pursue new industries."
I want to talk now about the second part of the exist statement.
See, the reason why there's two parts to this is that if we just left it hanging on my position
was eliminated because of a restructuring or because of a reorganization, we're actually
ending this on somewhat of a sour note, a negative, note, and I don't want you to do
that.
I want you to end this on a positive, because when you think about it, nobody likes to be
around a pessimist, but people love to be around optimists, and I want you to be able
to show that hiring manager or that person that's interviewing you that even under the
darkest circumstances, you can see the silver lining.
This is a great way to show this, so let's go back to Intel for a second, and let's put
both of these part one and part two together and you can see what I mean.
"Intel had a restructuring that eliminated 11% of their workforce.
My position was one of them."
There's your negative.
"However, I look at this as an opportunity now to be able to explore some new industries
I've been interested for some time where I believe my skills and experience can be a
great asset."
Doesn't that sound a lot better?
We're now ending it on a positive.
Let's take Cisco for a moment.
"Cisco had a reorganization that resulted in the consolidation of duplicate departments
and the elimination of 250 positions.
Mine was one of them."
Boom, yuck, sour note.
"The layoff allowed me the opportunity to take some time and self-reflect on my career
goals, and I'm really excited to be interviewing with this company based upon your mission
statement and values."
Positive, we're up there.
You see the difference.
Now, what about if you're currently working?
Well, let me show you how this would work.
"After having worked with Soundbite for three years, I have made a conscious decision to
pursue opportunities that I believe will further develop my career.
While at Soundbite, I was able to develop my programming skills significantly, and I'm
now looking forward to bringing these skills to the next company."
I want you to end this statement on a positive, so when you're asked what happened at your
last job or why is it that you're looking to leave, you're going to show your optimism,
your likeability, your compatibility out there.
Before ending this video, there's two more points that I want to make about the exit
statement.
The first point is this: You were not laid off.
Your position was eliminated.
Don't make it about you, make it about the position.
The second point is this: You're going to need to prepare in advance for your interview,
and that means what are the responses that you're going to have for the salary question
and your biggest weakness, but when it comes to the question, "What happened at your last
job?"
or "Why is it that you're looking to leave?"
the exit statement, what I refer to, I want you to consider sitting down and writing our
your response on a piece of paper and reading it out loud and saying, "Okay, well, that
sounds like the way I want this to go, but it doesn't sound like the way I talk."
Rewrite it so it sounds as you were talking out loud, that it was just your natural language,
and practice this because if you try to put together your response to what happened at
your last job or why is it that you're looking to leave, and you want to try and craft that
exit statement right then and there, you're probably going to flub it up.
This is one that you really need to practice on before you ever go into the interview.
It's a great way to respond to the question.
It shows your optimism out there rather than, say, pessimism or ending on a sour note, but
you need to practice it.
Speaking of which, if you want to prepare for the interview, as I mentioned, I do have
the career tips and strategies every Tuesday, but I also have an online class that I developed
and launched a few months ago, but let you know about it.
It's in the note section below.
It's called "Finding Work That Fuels Your Passion," and in this class I actually go
through the most common interview questions and best practice answers to those questions.
So if you're in career transition, you might want to check that out.
Again, thank you for stopping by, and I look forward to seeing you in the next video.