"Why did you leave?" 3 Step Plan to a convincing answer

Do you dread this question? - “Why are you leaving your current job?” Or - “Why did you leave your last job?”
Often people worry about answering because at the core of the reply is a negative or even emotionally difficult reason.
Perhaps you didn’t get on with your boss or a colleague? Maybe you were interviewed for what you considered to be “your own job”? Or - more commonly these days - you were made redundant.
If this is the case it’s worth rehearsing what you’re going to say until you’re confident with your answer and you “own” the reasoning behind it.
Even if you’re not asked directly at the interview then someone, somewhere will probably ask you. It may be a new colleague when you start the job. It could be a friend or family member. Someone is going to ask you this question. You need to feel comfortable with your short and clear reply.
“Comfortable” because it has to be truthful and sound natural and positive. Craft your words carefully to avoid negative words like redundancy, low morale, personality clashes, etc
“Short” because the longer your answer the more likely that people become suspicious or that you’ll inadvertently “trip yourself up” by telling more of the story than you need to. The briefer the reply the less chance of follow up clarification questions too.
And “Clear” to appear factual and logical. Leave the listener feeling they’ve had a satisfactory reply and, most importantly of all, reassured that there are no potential causes for concern for them.
I’d like to suggest a possible 3 step structure:

Step One - “Legacy”

Explain what you’ve helped the organisation achieve. You may even have successes that you alone were responsible for.
What will you look back on with a sense of pride at having achieved while you were there?
Why is this logically the “right” time to leave?
E.g. “If I think back to when I started the job... when i finished it... it’s the right time to handover because... I’ve taken the role from ... to... I will look back knowing that during my time I and / or the organisation has achieved...”

Step 2 - ‘Big Picture”

Take as big a “step back” as you possibly can from your personal situation. Remove all the possible emotional “baggage”. You’re new employer doesn’t want to hear it and wants to feel you’re ready for your next career challenge.
Think global context if you have to get a wider perspective - regardless of what your role is or was.
What’s happening in the sector? In the local / regional / national / global market place?
What direction is the organisation going in that might be moving away from the reason you first joined them?
How has your role evolved while you’ve been in it? What impact has that had on you? How close are your skills matched to what the role has become?
What’s happened since you left? Or - Likely to happen when you go? Will they replace you with a “like for like” person?
Unless they replace your role with someone with exactly the same functions then there was a “restructure” or the company decided “to change their focus”.
E.g. “Ultimately the market has changed and the company has restructured in response to... / since I first started there my role has changed from ...to ....after I leave they’re likely to ....”

Step 3 - “Forwards’

This is where you emphasise why the new job is the perfect match to your skills and that your career has brought you to this point. Time to picture yourself in the new role and engage with its key competencies. Your reply should explain the logic of this next career step. 

Use reassuring phrases like “return to / do more of” so the listener knows you’ve used the same skills previously.
E.g. “I’m really looking forward to this job so I can return to ....do more of... this is a much better match to my x skills and y experience because...”

Remember - when you’ve decided what fits each of the 3 steps above then you’ll need to practise saying it out loud. Maybe get a friend to ask you the previously “dreaded question”, record yourself and listen back to your answer or even just practise in front of a mirror.

So next time someone asks you “why did you leave that job?” you’ll have your ready made, 3 step answer to convince your potential employer... and yourself!

What I did just before starting the business

I can still smell those bags of dirty washing as they ‘steamed’ in the boiling hot cab of the transit I was driving in the summer heat of 2011…  How did I get here?

The pungent odour was the New Zealand Women’s cricket team kit. And I was their Tour Liaison Manager for 3 weeks on behalf of the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) – after a suggestion by my “other half” to take the work while I formulated exactly what my business model would be for the Job Interview Coaching.

If I’d made a list of why I thought I could do this it might’ve been something like this: I’m good at project managing and persuading people to do things.  I played county cricket for 14 years and umpired hockey to international standard. I love sport enough to do a degree and postgrad diploma in Recreation Management… So, why wouldn’t I want to spend 24/7 “on call” to ensure things ran smoothly for the “White Ferns” while playing in the Quadrangular series against England, Australia and India?

I’d been told it would be long days, and involve driving a van full of cricket kit, water bottles and a ‘ginormous’ cool box around the country.  And that, whilst there would be the glamour of televised games and some free New Zealand kit, the most important task would be …ensuring the washing was done on time!

It makes sense.  You’re living out of a kit bag.  You’re getting through ‘warm up’ and playing kit at an amazing pace – and there’s only so many spare shirts, trousers, shorts etc the baggage allowance and your aforementioned ‘kit bag’ can hold.

Along the way… I nearly blew out the clutch pulling a particularly heavy vanload of kit up a steep hill in Bristol.  I had a plastic surgeon on standby to stitch a clean but gaping hole in the Kiwi Captain’s knee after she’d ‘spiked’ herself.  But more importantly I managed to avoid sitting in a launderette doing the washing myself – as my colleagues working with the other teams had done – by planning ahead, as we zigzagged across the country in our matching transit vans.

I loved the experience.  The “White Ferns” were brilliant to work with.  The job reminding me that I’m organized, I can adapt quickly and I have a canny knack of persuading folks to give me ‘stuff’ or to ‘acquire’ what the team needed.  Bearing in mind their requests varied from needing chocolate to …a spare set of stumps, a trip to A&E, contact lenses, vitamin C tablets… and the list goes on.

So my pre-business start up “cricket career” was really a fortunate ‘chance’ opportunity.  Although it reassured me that I could be useful in a role supporting and encouraging others to perform at their best.  Not able to do what they do, at the level they do it, but feeling a ‘high’ from knowing that I’d got the washing done in time for them to pull on clean kit to face England under the full glare of the Sky TV cameras.

How things often go "full circle"

"The Story of how my business came about and how things often go full circle”

How a walk can bring your life back round in a circle.

I started my business as a direct result of a chance conversation with my friend Tracy on a Christmas walk on The Wrekin in 2010.  As we chatted she mentioned in passing that she wanted her soon-to-be-graduate 3^rdyear Film & TV undergrads from the University of Wolverhampton to be better prepared for the world of work.

I’d recently been made redundant so I offered to chair some mock interviews with them if she’d be interested, as it was something I was trained to do, I’ve done a lot of and that I love doing. 

I thought nothing more of it until I got an email from Tracy with proposed dates and times for the sessions!  I did it for no payment that first year as I thought it would look good on my CV and to keep my interviewing skills “sharp". Since then I’ve returned each year:  and - what began as a useful ‘add on’ for the undergrads - is now a fully integrated part of their employability enrichment syllabus.

It’s unique in the fact that the students are interviewed in the University’s own TV studio and each of them gets to ‘walk away’ with footage of how they perform at a job interview.  I also coach them as a group about how best to prepare for and perform at panel interviews.  

To make it as meaningful as possible we’ve always used 'real life' jobs at the University that these students may well have an opportunity to apply for when they graduate. In fact in the first year one of my fellow panelists said they had to pinch themselves part way through to remember it wasn’t a real job interview!

For most of the students it’s the first time they’ll face a job interview panel or even an interview of any kind.  Being able to do it in a ‘safe’ environment they’re familiar with is vital preparation for the ‘real world’ after they graduate.  (Even if they’re more used to being behind the camera than in front of it.)

Having been through a panel interview experience once - surely the most testing part of the job-hunting process - the next time they face something similar it should feel easier, they should know more about what to expect and feel like they’re better equipped to perform at their best.

In my interactive lecture I cover: how to make a great first impression, how to guess the questions, what makes the best answers, how will these be measured by the panel and some top tips for preparation.

And I say things "go full circle" when you think that the college I graduated from is now the Walsall campus of the University of Wolverhampton.  So when I arrive to chair the mock interview panels several years on from my chat with Tracy I suppose I’m “going full circle” in some ways to help those who follow me make a smoother transition to the world of work.