What should I give as reason for wanting to move? 7

[TigerDivision]

Hello all!

I had lately applied for a post of network administrator with a private company as I am currently not happy with the company I've been working for these past 11 years. The reasons being that I am not respected and poorly paid.

However, I do not wish to give such reasons if asked during the interview why I wish to leave my current post. The company I work for seems to have a good name with certain people and is currently expanding but unfortunately there is a very bad culture within the company brought on by the directors.

I am stuck as to what type of reason/s I should give if asked during the interview because it is never wise to give as reasons for leaving; unhappiness and/or poor salary. Any ideas anyone?

Thank you all for your help!

 

[KornGeek]

Well,
on paper (and in the eyes of my former employer), it was bad. He felt my performance was unsatisfactory. Without bashing him, let's simply say that I disagree with his assessment, as does the company where I am currently doing temp work.

I've been telling people on interviews that I left due to personality differences between my former employer and myself. My previous experience of long periods with employers and employers re-hiring me helps show that it's an isolated situation.

(On a side note, the programmer who started right after I left only lasted 3 days, so my 6 months looks pretty good by comparison.)

If pressed, I've been pretty upfront about the issues, but I prefer not to bring it up.

 

[Stella740pl]

Six month? Is it possible to leave it out altogether somehow?

 

[stubnski]

Unless it required some skill that no other job requires, just leave it off your resume. 6 months is nothing especially if you have made your current employer happy and all the rest of your previous employers happy.

Stubnski

 

[monksnake]

How should you respond to the question if you were fired from your last job?

I think personality differences is a good reason/excuse to use. Since you are doing temp work with a new company and there are no problems there, that will really help you get over the hump of being fired from that job.

<.

 

[LNBruno]

You could always say "My former boss was an Uncle Rico," and that should satisfy any knowledgeable person in the IT community.

;-)

< M!ke >
I am not a hamster and life is not a wheel.

 

[KornGeek]

You could always say "My former boss was an Uncle Rico," and that should satisfy any knowledgeable person in the IT community.

 

[LARiot]

Any reasonable person would concede that bosses sometimes make mistakes.

-Neema

 

[monksnake]

Sometimes makes mistakes. The "sometimes" is key. If they make mistakes all the time, they shouldn't be in a mangement position.

An Uncle Rico makes mistakes all the time.

<.

 

[zbnet]

Interviewing is a process of scoring. Presumably everyone asked to attend an interview could potentially do the job (as judged on the CV/resume), so the interview is both to confirm that and also allow a selection of the 'best' candidate to be made.

So, when attending an interview, you are effectively being scored against the other people attending (presuming there is always more than one). Most interviewing questions are designed to elicit ways of scoring people, so they can count the negatives and positives, and find the 'best' candidate [I know there are some formal techniques as well, but most interviews still work out like this]. So, the way to succeed at interviews is to stand out from all the other candidates.

There is one simple way to do this: enthusiasm. Pure and simple. That means say nothing negative at all. It helps to be a natural optimist, but you can learn to behave like this as well if you try hard enough.

So, focus on the future, on the positives of the new opportunity, on the desire you have to contribute more, learn more, expand your horizons more. These are the kind of candidates that are successful at interview. You can respond like that even if your reasons for leaving your old job are negative - because every coin has 2 sides. You have to show the interviews only the shiny side of the coin.

 

[TigerDivision]

Thank you all for your very interesting posts I ended up withdrawing my application for the post of network administrator after all, as I realised that I was going to just switch companies at the end of the day doing the same work I'm doing here. I am now not sure whether applying for the post of IT Manager would be a better choice for me. One thing that scares me is that one has to be a people's person in such a role and coming from a techie background, this might prove a disadvantage. The skills needed in such a position are very different. Do network/system administrators make good IT Managers?
Has anyone made such a transition before?

 

[AlexCuse]

An Uncle Rico makes mistakes all the time.

I think the defining feature of an Uncle Rico is the inability to admit when they have made a mistake, no matter how frequent they are made. Something in their DNA maybe...

Ignorance of certain subjects is a great part of wisdom