Why did I lose my best candidate?

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How to answer the interview question: “Why did you leave your past job?”

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“Why did you leave your past job?”

As a recruiter, I get asked this question every time I submit a resume. As an applicant, you can bet that 99% of the employers will ask you why you left your last position.  It’s is a difficult question; your integrity is on the line with this one.  Most candidates don’t answer the question directly, hoping an indirect answer will deflect the real reason why they left.  This is a fatal interview mistake that you don’t want to make!  You must be honest and forthright about why you left prior jobs!

Tips to Answer this Interview Question:

“It was mutual” or “I was laid off ” or “lack of work” doesn’t cut it, especially if the hiring manager knows someone else who is now doing your former job, knows your former boss, or has friends working at your former company. If you were laid off due to no fault of your own, whenever possible, obtain a letter from your prior company outlining the reasons for your layoff.

Here’s some examples of why people leave jobs or are out of work:

Personal reasons/medical/taking care of a family member: If you had to leave your past job due to personal reasons such as medical issues or caring for a family member, say so if you are comfortable with the details. If you are uncomfortable sharing the specifics, tell the interviewer you had to take care of some personal or family affairs and didn’t want your work to suffer, so you chose to resign until you could fully commit to a full-time role again. Explain that the situation has resolved itself and you are ready and excited to resume your career. Add that you kept your skills sharp by staying abreast of industry news and trends while you were not working.

Fired for cause/laid off without notice or reason: Most employers will only give dates of employment and maybe verify your title, but that’s just as bad as saying you were let go. In this case, no news is not good news! Be honest; again, it only takes a couple of phone calls in the industry to uncover the truth. Use the firing or termination experience to show how you learned from it and how your work is much better today as a result.

Short-term jobs/job hopper: Everyone is afraid to hire the job-hopper. You will always have an uphill battle with this one, but you can lessen the climb by talking about how and why you moved from job to job. If the company went out of business, relocated or closed your division, that’s legitimate and not your fault.  Remember, the employer is looking at how long between your jobs and is asking themselves why it took so long for you to be hired by the next employer. You have to satisfy their curiosity fully, or you will not be hired.  If you were recruited away, say so, just make sure you reinforce that you left for more opportunity and career growth and not just for more money. Explain that you were “referred” into the next job. Employers think the best people are always referred to them so use this to your advantage.

Long gaps between jobs/part time work: Don’t gloss over or make up bogus answers for significant time gaps in your résumé. If you were temping, say so. There’s no harm in that, at least you were working. If you have been unemployed for more than six months, and have been diligently looking for work, say so, but add that you have been taking classes to keep your skills current.  If you took a sabbatical to go back to school, start a family, or change careers, or were just burned out and needed a break, be honest and explain that the time off allowed you to refocus your energy and that you are now ready to resume your career full time.

Spouse relocation/military transfers: If you have moved a lot due to a spouse’s job or military transfers, say so, and tell the employer how moving around has enabled you to quickly learn new computer systems and procedures. Have solid examples of where you have come up to speed quickly and preferably letters of recommendation from past managers.  Stress that you are looking to stay in the area long-term.

We all leave jobs for various reasons. Remember that employers are simply “employed applicants” and they have also made good and bad choices with respect to the jobs they have held.  The key is to take responsibility for your job movements, good or bad, show how you career has progressed as a result, and move the conversation forward.  You can’t change the past, you can only shape the future and pick your next job wisely.

 

How to answer the interview question: “What is your greatest failure?”

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“What is your greatest failure?” 

The dreaded question; this one is even touchier than the weaknesses question because you have to admit a failure, not just a weakness.

Tips to Answer this Interview Question:

This one requires you to prepare an example ahead of time. It should be work-related, but you can discuss a personal experience if it is closely related to a work-like event.

The key here is in the presentation of the failure example. You do not want to come off as a victim. Do not blame others for the fact that something didn’t work. You must take ownership of the situation. Employers use this question to see how you deal with adversity. Do you take responsibility for your decisions or blame the world for what went wrong? This is especially important since you most likely don’t know about the inner workings and politics of the firm at this point. Always take the high road, even if your former company made decisions that derailed your project.

An example of a personal failure: “I didn’t graduate from college, I didn’t have the money to go.  I haven’t let it hold me back though.  I am constantly learning new things and I’m a student of self-study.  It is very important to me to keep current with changes in the insurance industry and I’m currently working on my  insurance designations.”

An example of a work-related failure: “I wanted to reorganize the work flow in my department to give us greater compliance and more detailed analytics. In short, my solution did not work.  Work flow bogged down, my team didn’t like the increased data entry, we started to lose employees, and moral was at an all-time low.  I ended up asking my team for ideas to put us back on track, and together we figured out how to improve work flow and our overall quality improved as a result.  Now I make sure that I get department consensus before making sweeping changes to any type of work flow.”
Remember, some of the best successes in the work place start out as huge failures.  Make sure you show the employer how your failures guide your decision-making today.

Employer Blog: Road Block #3: The Screening Interview: Is it helping you or hurting you?

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Here are some of the of the biggest complaints that I hear from good candidates when I ask them about screening interviews:

  • They are poorly conducted and the screener is often late in calling or misses the appointment
  • The screener does not have day to day knowledge of the job duties
  • The screener asks random questions from a list that doesn’t pertain to the candidate’s resume
  • The screener admits in the call that they haven’t really had time to review their resume
  • The screener asks flat, random, and lack luster questions
  • The screener leaves the candidate hanging by telling them that the company will get back to them if they want to move things forward, but won’t comment on a time table even when asked

There is no timely follow up after the screening interview leaving the candidate wondering if the employer is a viable prospect

The net result is that any one of these items can put a bad taste in the candidate’s mouth right off the bat, and in this tight market, you can’t afford to not make a great first impression!  Sadly, I have found, that Hiring Managers and/or owners are not aware that they are losing top people due to poorly managed and constructed phone screening interviews.

Whether you like it or not, candidates are judging you and your firm from the moment you make the first contact with them.  They are evaluating the speed with which you respond to their inquiries, as well as the tone and quality of the communication; is it friendly, welcoming, or the dreaded “we received your application, we will get back to you if we are interested”?

My advice is to put yourself in your applicant’s shoes and think about the “message” that your firm is sending during the first screening interview.  Ask yourself, the following questions:

  • Is our front end screening process in line with our corporate culture and values, or are we projecting the wrong message to candidates and losing them in the process?
  • Are we letting them know we are interested and are we aggressively following up with our top candidates and moving them quickly into a face to face meeting?
  • Do we have knowledgeable people who know the job and how it fits into our organization, doing the initial screening interview, and are they asking good logical questions to allow for meaningful Q & A?

By re-thinking your screening interview, you will increase your chances of attracting top talent and most importantly, keeping them interested as you go through your interview process.

In my next post, I will be discussing the first face to face interview and how to make it more meaningful and effective for all involved.

Salary Data for Northwest Job Applicants-1

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Salary matters—a lot. Better compensation and benefits were the #1 reasons employees chose to accept their current company’s job offer, according to LinkedIn’s Global Recruiting Trends 2017 report. Still, for something so critical, lots of recruiters lack any advanced insights on the salaries they offer.

That’s about to change. Today, we’re sharing LinkedIn’s latest salary data for recruiters, including average salaries across sectors, cities, and company sizes.

Knowing how your salary stacks up against the competition is important tactical info. Sure, not everyone in talent acquisition actually has the latitude to change compensation offers—sometimes that’s handled by a totally different department—but it can still inform how you make your pitch.

If you’re paying more than average, maybe you can afford to be more selective. If your compensation falls short of others in your space, you’ll know to emphasize other aspects of your offer (or even lower your standards a bit).

Let’s dive into the data from LinkedIn’s inaugural State of Salary Report for the US. (These stats will give you a great sense of general trends—but to find the exact figures for your role and city, recruiters can use the new LinkedIn Salary tool.)

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New tip of the week-1

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