Explaining Why You Are Leaving a Job when You Really Don't Want To

You're now ready to begin your job search, but you left your most recent job under less than auspicious circumstance. It happens sometimes - there can be "fit" issues, perhaps you've made an error of judgment - and in the end you left your employer.

The issue here is how to explain why you left your last job when you really don't want to. It can open some wounds, but how you handle it when you land that job interview will help determine whether or not you're considered further in the process.

Employers now routinely scan Google or other search engines for information and depending on why you left your job, how high profile your job and or company may have been, these searches will not infrequently turn something up - particularly if your name is relatively uncommon. Now, perhaps more than ever, it is important to get information out on the table.

There are few things I dislike more than referring someone along in a process who has turned out to be blatantly lying as to the circumstances behind leaving their last job or not being forthright as to what to expect what to find when we do the background search. And a background search will be done.

As a job candidate, you have to remember that the employment application you've completed is more than a relisting of your resume. It contains several disclaimers and waivers regarding investigating your employment history and consequences for providing false information. Even if you get away with false information and get a job, the company has reserved its right to terminate your employment when/if they find out. How sad would it be for you to get that job, start your career back on track, only to be found out and terminated thereby making your job twice as hard explaining your work history.

This also means that simply because you've provided specific contact people with whom to speak about you at a particular job doesn't mean the company is bound to those names. Read those waivers carefully - you're authorizing the company to speak with anyone about your work history. You cannot fail to provide relevant contact information or leave holes in your references - quite frankly those holes would be one of the first places I would look if I'm not quite satisfied with an explanation or if I get the feeling a candidate isn't completely forthcoming about a situation.

A hiring company would be more willing to give a person a shot if they believe they know what they're buying in the transaction. If you have been forthright about your situation, without demonstrably being angry, bitter, or vengeful, you may have done yourself a service. By not being forthright, you're putting a big roadblock in front of yourself - a candidate who does well in the interview setting, but completely bombs a reference screen won't get called back and won't get the chance to explain. Thereby extending the period of time (s)he is looking for work.

For the reasons I've noted above, sugar coating the truth is a bad strategy - if I feel like there is something I'm missing or that I don't feel good about an explanation after having spoken to references, I'm not hiring that candidate. For instance, it does you no good to explain a minor circumstance/misunderstanding as to why you left - it doesn't sit right. It doesn't feel right - particularly if you've come across as a stellar performer, you've denigrated your quality by explaining what happened in soft terms. A company wouldn't let a star performer go for such a minor transgression. Something else must be at work. You may have only one opportunity to explain why you left.

In the initial interview stages and depending on whom it is that you're interviewing with - perhaps an HR Assistant or someone other than the hiring manager - an explanation alluding to the actual circumstance may be enough, but when you're interviewing with the hiring manager you really need to explain.

Perhaps you made a costly error in judgment. You need to be able to speak to what it was that happened and what you've learned from it, what you would do differently. Perhaps you acted inappropriately in the workplace. Again, the best policy is to explain the situation. You're being asked your perspective - it's your best interest to make the essence jibes with what your former employer would say, even if you do not share the same analysis of the situation

There will be one of a few results from this: maybe you get the job, maybe you don't. If you don't, you've been honest and all other things being equal if you simply didn't get the job because you explained, it is likely an organization that would not have reacted any less than by terminating you when your past was eventually revealed to them. There are circumstances where after having lost a job because you've violated a serious workplace rule that will result in your being unhireable in that industry/field again (think accountants convicted of embezzlement, for instance). In these cases you're best to avoid that industry and make a career change. No amount of explanation will change that. Most of us don't make those egregious errors and most situations can be explained in rational terms.