How to Clarify Your Reason for Switching Jobs

Interviewers ask various questions at the time of the interview. When it is your turn, the most important question asked by the interviewer is – “why are you looking for a change or what are the reasons for your job change?”

The most common answer to this question is – career enhancement and higher pay (which a candidate can articulate better). One can fill out the reasons for leaving a job in the resignation mail sent to the previous organization. But preparing a concise and clear answer to the most obvious question “Why are you looking for change” will help the employer to familiarize with your future goals.

In our article on “Reason for a job change,” we will take you through the most useful answers for changing the job. So, let’s get started with learning about the best answer for the reason for a job change in an interview.

Evaluate your current job satisfaction

When your current employer has limited promotions or learning opportunities, it might prompt you to look for a change.

Giving yourself room to advance in your career is essential to feeling fulfilled on the job front. Employers who value their employees’ development conduct workshops, seminars, lectures and even offer learning reimbursement.

Before switching the job, ask yourself some important questions-

• What are your core beliefs?
• Do your professional objectives match the new job role?
• Where do you see yourself in five years?
• How will the new job role fulfill all your career requirements?
• What aspects of a job do you enjoy?

Read our full guide – How to prepare for a job interview

Identify your priorities and values

To answer why you are looking for a change, set up some priorities in life and then correlate them with real-life scenarios. Life sometimes is unpredictable and puts us in a position where we must give up on our professional career choices for personal reasons. These reasons can range from family issues to health concerns, making a job change necessary.

When your personal factors come before making a career choice, then you need to prepare a good reason for the job change. A good answer can be:

I couldn’t leave my city for a new job and accept your offer that didn’t match my skill level because. Also, I want to be closer to my home for my aging parents. I’m looking for new roles where I can use my skills and knowledge and gain new learnings for.

Consider potential career paths

Career exploration is what you do after you finish your studies and choose a career as per your personality, values, skills, interests, and career goals. It involves purposefully looking through a list of careers that matches your interest well and performing some research to see exactly what that career path entails. As you do so, you’ll see that some careers match your interests more while others may have a longer time.

The main agenda of career exploration is to do due diligence about available career options and narrow down your choices to one career path that fits your qualifications and personality best. It can be done by continually evaluating where you are in your career, whether you’re happy or not, and how you are finding more fulfilling career options.

Determine your career goals

When you are giving your reason for the job change in an interview, make sure that you should not sound like – you are making up stories. The employer is least bothered to hear your stories. Your reason should be genuine, and valid and show you’re desperate to leave the job. Get straight to the point to tell the real reason for making your mind look for a change.

Whatever your reason for changing the job may be, it is always safe to let your new employer know that the new job role will be of big help in achieving your long-term career goals. So, before appearing for the interview, make a list of all the good reasons why your new job will be a better choice than the old one. After that, you should be able to express all of these reasons with confidence. Remember to mention your long-term goals to the interviewer.

Conclusion

There could be plenty of reasons to look for a job change. Maybe you want to quit a bad working environment, or maybe you want to serve an MNC. Nevertheless, it’s important that you start preparing yourself for answering questions related to your career or job change.

In the blog we’ve tried to club all the important parameters and reasons that you can say as reasons for a job change. Please go through them one by one and modify them as per your requirements. We also recommend you hone your skills and reasoning to get that new job in the future.

NLB Services