A weird thing about a job search is that even questions that have a perfectly reasonable answer can throw you. When a recruiter or a hiring manager asks you "Why are you job-hunting?" you may feel your throat tighten, just for an instant.
The answer could be complex and nuanced. It might not translate easily in a sentence or two --- and how could anyone be surprised at that? If we tell the absolute truth when we answer the question "Why are you job-hunting right now?" it could be awkward.
Just take a look at these examples of job-seekers who decided to share the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth:
Why are you job-hunting?
Here's Ricardo's answer:
The VCs are getting ready to pull out of that company and I overheard way too many shouting arguments between the CEO and the principal investors to stick around.
Here's what Eliza has to say:
My boss was a creeper who started sexually harassing me and then retaliated when I didn't respond to his advances the way he wanted me to.
He trashed my reputation at that company by falsely accusing me of stealing someone else's work. I was devastated but the Director of HR in that company is useless and told me to my face that she wouldn't go against my boss. I had no choice but to job-hunt!
Finally, here is Pan's response:
I was overlooked for two promotions and I know why. One of the women who got promoted told me that there's no way I would advance in that company because I had already let them know that I plan to go to law school in a few years. "That sounds like disloyalty to them," she told me.
The other woman who got promoted told me that the hiring manager made her swear she wouldn't have kids in the next five years. That's sick, not to mention illegal! I didn't want to job-hunt but here I am.
There is a tremendous amount of fear in the working world.
When I was an HR person, it didn't bother me at all when people would share ugly details about their past jobs, because I always thought "Cool! This person won't run into that problem working here!"
I had a new selling point. Still, nobody spills their guts about the problems at their last job intentionally. In fact, they try hard not to say anything bad about their previous employer. We've been trained not to.
We are trained not to say anything bad, even if it's true, about our past employment because recruiters and hiring managers can freak out very easily.
They can be skittish, and start to think that anyone who has anything negative to say about a past job must be a problem employee.
That is lunacy, but the mindset persists in large and small organizations everywhere.
Basically, by making it socially unacceptable for you to tell the truth about the reason you're leaving your current job or the reason you left your last job, they're forcing you to tell a white lie.
That's okay! Here are two answers to the question "Why are you looking for a new job?" that will make sense to prospective employers without forcing you to spill your guts on the interview table.
Why are you job-hunting now?
I had a great time at Acme Explosives and learned a ton, but then the learning slowed down and eventually stopped. It was obviously time to move on in order to keep learning and growing!
