An HR specialist asks this interview question to candidates who are currently continuing to work. Most often, candidates answer: “I am looking for the best opportunities for developing my career.” But this answer may not be suitable for all candidates.
For employees who have worked in the company for a long time and have not received a promotion, I do not recommend positioning their past place of work as a lack of career opportunities. It will be difficult enough to explain why you stayed at this job for so long if you did not see for yourself chances for developing your career. Therefore, you should avoid mentioning negative reasons for leaving the company.
How to answer the question: Why Do You Want to Change Your Job?
- Say that you are not in an active job search. For example, “I’m just thinking about leaving the company” or “I like my work in the company, but ...”.
- Indicate the reason that prompted you to start looking for a new job.
- Tell us about your career plan.
- Next, explain why you were attracted to work in their company.
- Also, complement your answer with the story of why you are interested in a vacancy, emphasize your strengths that are suitable for completing tasks at a new job.
Examples of answers to the question: Why do you Want to Change Your Job?
Reason 1: Reduction/Bankruptcy
- Last year, the flow of new projects with confirmed funding fell by half, key customers began to cut budgets for marketing services. The company management decided to leave the American market. So I started looking for work.
- The company took a loan five years ago to build another shopping center. In a crisis, the company was unable to fulfill its loan obligations. And now the bankruptcy proceedings have begun. When they declared bankruptcy, it came as a surprise to me. There was still hope that the company would solve its problems, but this did not happen. And I decided to look for work.
- I have been working in the company for six years. I started as an accountant. Now I work as the head of the settlement department. I like my work. We have a very friendly team. But now the company is going through bankruptcy, so I started looking for work.
Reason 2: Location/Relocation
- The company planned to relocate its office from the city of “X” to New York a year ago. So I moved to live in NY and immediately decided for myself that NY is my city and I want to live here. However, the crisis began, and the company altered its plans for relocation. And I spend a lot of time on travel, and it doesn’t quite suit me. Therefore, now I am looking for work in NY.
- I found out that an open position has appeared in your company. I enjoy my current position, but the opportunity to work in a stable company such as yours and get to the office in 15 minutes attracts me. In the present circumstances, it takes me from an hour to two to get on the road.
- I continue working, but I am ready to consider interesting options. I have decided to move to San Francisco and want to get a large area of responsibility. Within the company, there is a certain policy of internal competition between branches, with such a business model, expansion into other branches is practically impossible. And to get a leadership position in San Francisco, even in the long term, I hardly succeed. Therefore, I am open to suggestions.
Reason 3: Change of Direction
- I am not in an active search, but after a six-month assessment in the company, I realized that there are no prospects for moving to another position, and my previous experience relates to a different direction. Therefore, for myself, I determined that I want to build my future career in the retail business, and I consider the position of the head of the bank’s office. Therefore, your company and the vacancy interested me.
- At my current job, for the last couple of years, I have been developing the direction of data analytics and recently participated in a project to build a digitalization strategy. And I was convinced in practice how much the telecommunications industry has stepped forward since I worked hard on it. I realized for myself that I want to develop my expertise in project management in telecom, as I consider it much more promising. There is a deep understanding of investment processes in telecommunications. Well versed in the principles of the cellular network. Therefore, he decided to change the work from design work to the real sector.
Reason 4: Company Changed the Development Strategy
- At the moment, I work in the company “X.” Although I managed to go through five stages of interviews and win a competition for this vacancy, so I decided to leave this company. This year in January, management announced a change in the strategic development plans of the company. As you understand, I cannot disclose these changes since the information is confidential. Therefore, at the moment I am open to suggestions.
- Over the past three years, I have held the position of a training manager, which is the only one in the company. Now in the company, I train only sales representatives. The company had plans to develop a training department, but, unfortunately, they informed me that the company's strategy for the next five years does not include the opening of a new department. I would like to continue to work in the training department and conduct training for senior staff. Therefore, your vacancy is very interesting to me, as my experience and working portfolio of management training will allow me to implement new projects in your company.
Reason 5: Transition from a Startup / Small Company to a Large Company
- At the beginning of 2019, I moved to California for family reasons. It was difficult to combine job search and moving. So at that time, this proposal was the most interesting.
- It was a startup, the company was small, but the tasks were interesting and ambitious. However, even at that time, I did not consider this company in the long term, and in the future, I planned to change the company to a large one. Therefore, having worked in the company for a year, and having completed all the tasks, I decided to look for a new job.
- I considered the company as an initial stage for obtaining basic legal experience.
//Conclusion//
We collected for you some of the common reasons with answers to one of the most common interview questions why do you want to change your job? We hope they will help you to answer this question with great confidence and get the job!
