Why are you quitting your current employment?
When I was hired seven years ago as salesperson and business development officer in charge of Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions, a lot of things needed to be done.
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From seeking, finding and in most cases reconstructing outlets and turning them into profitable businesses, transforming the selected few outlets into service station status all the way to finding and making profitable deals with timber, mining and construction companies in the enclave, the job was exciting.
Today, with the efforts i invested into developing these markets, my company can boast of some of the most profitable service stations in these areas.
My elevation last year to Territory Manager did little to bring back the excitements and adventures of real business development.
My point is that after seven years in largely business development and market growth roles, this position has left me equipped with the intelligence to get new businesses in petroleum downstream on their feet
This is a little of my working experience
The jobseeker with high rejection chances at interview will yield to the temptation to state, even if true, his frustrations with his difficult-to-please superior. This unlucky candidate may even extend his frustrations to the entire company, its policies and eventually go on a naming and shaming spree.
Smart interviewers often will follow you every step of the way as you damn every single soul in your department for your woes. In the end, when you feel done, they are going to thank you for the bad work and reward you with no job.
Distinguishing between professionally correct critique and personal vendetta either against an individual or the entire policy body of the company is the starting point of getting it right.
If you are dissatisfied with the direction and leadership vision of your current company and so you wish to try your luck elsewhere, it should be possible and prudent for you to ride above your emotions and present this case as professionally as possible.
Failing to extricate your emotional self from the career related complaints predisposes you to being considered an emotionally unbalanced personality. And persons with such emotional ailments often do not get the freedom to rise as high in their career choices and so unable to become the stars the company will wish to put on its current team.
State your case for wanting to leave in two distinct ways: the issues in your current employment that are occasioning the action and the prospects you foresee in the business that is having this dialogue with you.
Of these two tasks, the first assignment is more tasking than the second. This is so because in trying to convince the job-giver, the temptation to go way over and above board may be irresistible.
Prime yourself against crossing the thin line between what is acceptable in modern corporate circles and what may be judged as unreasonable outburst of unguarded emotions.
Seek reasonable justifications
Your boss may be the single thorn in your flesh that pricks you to death. His requests may be outrageously above board, unprofessional and ethically incorrect. You may be fed up with him but you feel you cannot catalogue these below the belt tactics easily around the interview table.
These issues, as much as they may seem bizarre introducing them at the table, are the strange options you have left. In your position, I will relate them to the job-giver but in ways that do not demonise your bad boss.
On the other hand if you are depressed at your current position and fear you might get no inspiration doing the job and so may be predisposed to low productivity, your excuse is as justifiable as that of the lady in the case study above.
Present your case, one fact after another, coherently, until you have exhausted whatever reasonable excuses you think are worthy of the attention of your prospective employer.
Extol the superior whenever and wherever he deserves it and loud credit where it is due him if that is the truth, stressing the point that you still would have found it fun and inspiring working for the company but for the superior.
Even if you cannot find any positives to ascribe to him and his manner of handling his team, desist from running commentaries that cast the bad boss in an ugly limelight.
The way to deal with the second part of the answer is to flatter the employer a little. While your justifications for wanting to exit from your present company should set you up as a man or woman in search of work, inspiration and growth and therefore, a person that should be sought after, the other part should suppose that a destination such as the one you are seeking is here. A dream job is at the horizon and almost ready to be clinched.
If you had invested reasonably well in researching the business ahead of the interview, this is the time to chant such songs as you found on your company research activities. That you are quitting in order to join a better team and seek membership of a family of men and women who collectively have produced the miracles that are attracting the likes of you would be a great song in the ears of the employer.
Go ahead to catalogue all the other positives that have been responsible for your decision. From the position of the company in the prestigious rating akin to the American Fortune 500 company, the global positioning of the business, the crop of talents the company has assembled and especially the reward system and the opportunities for self-development.
By the time you are done with these details, you certainly would have won over the heart and mind of the employer. Except where the entire interview is a sham because some favourites have been preselected, you could make it to the corporate training school, like the lady in the case study that opens this article.
