[music] [Link] presents Interview Questions Answered, Episode 2.

Hello, I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for
Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

This series is designed to teach you the English you need to know to
have a successful interview.

We'll first listen to some tips on how to answer these questions, and then
we'll listen to and explain two sample answers for the question.

Our question in this episode is, "Why did you leave your last job, and why
are you looking for a new job?"

Let's start with some tips on answering this question.

Your goal in answering this question is to show the interviewer that you
had good reasons for leaving your last job, your previous position.

You want to minimize any problems that you had.

That is, you don't want them to think that you were a bad employee or
that your old boss hated you.

That would not be a good reason for leaving your job because it may
indicate to them that you will not be a good worker for them.

So the important point here is to look for the positive reasons for you
wanting to leave your job right now and look for a new job.

So the first tip is to mention the positive reasons.

These could be things like, "I want a new challenge." "I want to use my
skills in a different way." "I want to have more responsibility." Things that
indicate that you are perhaps ambitious, that you want to get ahead, that
you want to be successful.

The second tip in answering this question is to never criticize supervisors,

coworkers, or the company.

It's not a good idea to say, "Well, I'm leaving my job because my boss is
an idiot." Your boss might be an idiot. That might be true. I know mine is.

But that's not a very good reason to give the employer that you are
interviewing with because they will think negatively of you.

So don't say anything bad about the people you worked for or the people
you worked with, the other employees.

You also want to avoid saying negative things about the company that
you work for.

Again, you need to be positive.

You don't want to mention any problems with the management or the
supervisors or the bosses of your company right now.

You can also tell the interviewer what we would call neutral reasons for
leaving.

For example, your wife got a new job in a different city, and so now you
need to get a job in that city.

Or there may be some other personal or professional reason why you

need to move from one job to another or from one part of the country to
another.

These aren't necessarily things that are going to help you get the job, but
they explain why you are getting a new job, why you are looking for a new
job.

Maybe your company is closing its office in the city where you live, and
you have to find a new job.

Those would be neutral reasons.

Not positive, not negative, but neutral.

The next tip is to always stay positive no matter how bad the situation
you are leaving.

Once again, don't be negative about your current position.

You want to use the right words in your answer to this question so that
you don't sound too self-serving.

In other words, you don't want it to be that you are doing this change in
jobs just for you.

So instead of saying, "I'm seeking better opportunities," you might say,

"I'm looking for a situation that will use more of my skills and
experiences," so that the company sees that you are trying to offer
something to them.
Another thing to avoid, to not do, is to sound like a job hopper.

Someone who is a job hopper, H-O-P-P-E-R, is someone who moves jobs

frequently.

Every year, every two years, they have a new job.

You want to show your employer that you have some commitment to your
job.

You're not going to leave your job in a year or two years.

Employers usually don't want to hire people who are going to leave them
in a short amount of time.

So don't talk about the ten jobs that you had in the last year.

That would not make you look very good.

Use the opportunity of this question to tell the interviewer more about
your skills and abilities.

Even though the question is, "Why did you leave your last job?" you can
include in your answer more information about why you are a good person
for this job.

As always, you want to keep your explanation fairly short.

Otherwise, the interviewer might think that you are making excuses.

You don't want to give a long list of reasons why you left your last job.

You want to be honest, positive, and brief in your answer.

Let's listen to a sample answer now, then we will discuss the answer and
listen to it again at a normal speed.

Here we go.

I've been with Lauderdale for over five years and I've enjoyed working
there.

I learned a lot about software development and how to work effectively

with my colleagues.

About two years ago, I began getting interested in other aspects of design
and started learning about new ways that the field is creating and
developing new designs.
I completed training that qualifies me to oversee other types of projects
than the ones I work on now at Lauderdale.

That's why I'm now looking for a company that will allow me to more fully
utilize my new skills and where I can take on new challenges.

What I see in this position is also the opportunity for growth and
advancement.

I think that my current skills and abilities are a good match with the
current needs of this company.

In answering the question, "Why did you leave your last job and why are
you looking for a new job?" Our first sample answer begins by the woman
saying that she has worked for her current company, Lauderdale, for over
five years and I've enjoyed working there.

Notice that she's positive right away.

"I've worked here for X number of years, two years, five years, ten years,
and I enjoyed it. It was a good job." So she starts by saying something
positive.

She also says that, "I learned a lot about software development and how
to work effectively with my colleagues." Notice that she uses this answer
to give more information about her skills and qualifications.

She says, "Well, I worked at this company for five years and I learned a lot
about software development and I also learned how to work effectively
with my colleagues." A colleague, C-O-L-L-E-A-G-U-E, is the same as a co-
worker, a fellow employee, someone else who works with you at your
company.

So she gives an answer here that says how long she's worked at the
company, that she's enjoyed it, and that she has learned these new
important things.

She then goes on to say that, "About two years ago, I began getting
interested in other aspects or other parts of design and started learning
about new ways that the field is creating and developing new designs."
She's saying here that, "I got interested in other things," and again, this
shows creativity, this shows initiative, this shows ambition, that she wants
to get better, that she wants to improve her skills.
She then says that she completed training that qualifies me to oversee
other types of projects.

Training is the same as education. She maybe took a course or read some
books or went online and got training. She learned new information and
that information qualifies her to oversee other types of projects.

To qualify, Q-U-A-L-I-F-Y, means that it gives you the ability to, it gives you
the skills to.

So she did this training and that training gave her the ability to oversee
other types of projects. To oversee, O-V-E-R-S-E-E, one word, means the
same as to supervise, to have responsibility for someone else's work.

Once again, she's giving the reason why she left her last job and she's
saying that, "Well, now I have these new skills. I have these new
qualifications because I studied." And this is a reason why she's looking for
a company that will allow her to more fully utilize my new skills and where
I can take on new challenges.

So now that she has these skills, these new skills, that she can't really use
at her current job at Lauderdale Industries, she says, "Well, now I'm
looking for another company that will allow me to use or utilize." The verb
to utilize, U-T-I-L-I-Z-E, is the same as to use.

So she wants to more fully utilize, meaning she wants to use them
completely. She wants to use all of the skills that she has.

She finishes her answer, and remember, you want to keep the answer
short for this question, by saying, "What I see in this company is also the
opportunity for growth and advancement." Here she's complimenting the
company. She's saying, "Well, I like this company. I want to leave my job
because this is a good company." She uses two words that would be
common in describing a company that you might want to work for.

One is that there is opportunity for growth, G-R-O-W-T-H.

The word growth comes from the verb to grow, G-R-O-W, which normally
means to get bigger or to get older.

In this case, the noun growth is really talking about becoming better,
becoming better at something, either personally or professionally.

So she says she's looking for the opportunity for growth, the possibility
that she can get better at what she does.

She's also looking for advancement. This is an important word,

advancement, A-D-V-A-N-C-E, M-E-N-T.

Advancement is the same as promotion, getting a higher level job, getting

a better job.

If you're looking for opportunities for advancement, you're looking for a

company that can give you a better job, a higher level job.

This shows the employer that you are ambitious, that you want to
succeed, you want to be successful.

She ends her answer by saying, "I think that my current skills and abilities
are a good match with the current needs of this company." When she says
her skills are a good match, M-A-T-C-H, she means that they're a good
connection, a good fit between her skills and what the company needs so
that they complement each other, they combine well.

She says they're a good match with the current needs of the company.

The needs are the things that the company requires. It's a noun. It can
also be a verb, to need something.

Here it means this is what the company needs, this is what they don't
have now, and I have some of those things.

Now let's listen to the sample answer, this time at a normal speed.

I've been with Lauderdale for over five years, and I've enjoyed working
there.

I learned a lot about software development and how to work effectively

with my colleagues.

About two years ago, I began getting interested in other aspects of design
and started learning about new ways that the field is creating and
developing new designs.

I completed training that qualifies me to oversee other types of projects

than the ones I work on now at Lauderdale.

That's why I'm now looking for a company that will allow me to more fully
utilize my new skills and where I can take on new challenges.

What I see in this position is also the opportunity for growth and
advancement.

I think that my current skills and abilities are a good match with the
current needs of this company.

Now we're going to listen to another sample answer to the question, "Why
did you leave your last job, and why are you looking for a new job?" First,
we'll listen to this at a slow speed, followed by an explanation of the
answer and the vocabulary, and then again at a normal speed.

Let's get started.

The primary reason I left Mitch Muni Company was because the company
went through a restructuring, and my position was eliminated.

Up to that point, however, I had a very good track record and received
positive employee evaluations each of the three years I worked there.

Leaving Mitch Muni actually allowed me to make a career change that I

had been thinking about for some time and that is more aligned with my
career goals.

Although I've worked successfully in sales for the past several years, my
education and my interests are more closely related to marketing.

I'd like to find a position that would allow me to use my knowledge and
skills to do challenging work.

This position would also give me more responsibility than I had at my last
company and more promotion opportunities.

I think that my skills and abilities are a good match for this job.

In our second sample answer, we have a slightly different situation. In our

first answer, the person was leaving their job because they wanted a
better job.

Here, the main reason this person is leaving his job is because his
company had decided to eliminate or fire or get rid of some of their
employees.

He says, "The primary reason I left the company was because the
company went through a restructuring." The word restructuring, R-E-S-T-R-
U-C-T, U-R-I-N-G, is a popular word in American businesses.

That means that the company decided to reorganize, to become more

efficient.

Usually, this means that they fire or get rid of some of their people.

In this answer, the person says that his position, his job, was eliminated,
meaning they no longer were going to have his job at the company.

They got rid of it.

This is a polite way, a nice way of saying that I was fired.

However, you can be fired, you can be removed from your job because
you do a bad job, or in this case, because the company changed itself and
got rid of your job.

So, this person is saying, "Well, I didn't do a bad job. The company
restructured and they eliminated, got rid of, my job." He then continues by
saying the good things that he did at his job, why he did a good job, or
evidence that he did a good job.

He says up to that point, meaning before the company restructured and

eliminated his position, that point in time, or up to that time, he had a very
good track record.

A track record, T-R-A-C-K-R-E-C-O-R-D, two words, is your history of what

you did on a job.

It's how well you did something or how badly you did something.

So, if you say, "I have a good track record at sales," or "I have a good
track record in selling things," that means that I have a good history, I
have done it successfully for a certain amount of time.

He also says that he received positive employee evaluations each of the

three years he worked there.

Notice that he also says how long he worked there, three years.

Employee evaluations are when your boss usually writes a paper, a

report, on how good of a job you've been doing, or what his or her opinion
is of how you have performed at your job, how you have done your job.

And he says, "I received positive employee evaluations," meaning, "My

bosses liked my work." He then, instead of stopping there, he then gives
other reasons why he's looking for a new job that are more positive.

The fact that his job was restructured and eliminated, that is a neutral
reason, not positive, not negative.

This now is a positive reason for him looking for a new job.

He says leaving his company allowed him to make a career change that
he had been thinking about for some time, or for a long time.

A career change is the same as taking a new kind of job.

Your career, C-A-R-E-E-R, is the kind of work that you do.

You could be a university professor, you could be an auto mechanic, you

could be a lawyer.

All of these are different careers.

So he's saying that he wants to have a different or new career, and he's
looking for something that is more aligned with his career goals.

Your goals, G-O-A-L-S, are your objectives, what you are trying to
accomplish.

Your career goals are what you want to do with your work life, what you
want to do in terms of the work that you do.

When he says that he's looking for a job that is more aligned with his
career goals, he means he's looking for something that is closer to what
he wants to do. The verb to align, A-L-I-G-N, means to put things together,
to combine things so that there's a good match.

So he's looking for a different career that is better matched to what his
goals are.

He says, "Although I've worked successfully in sales for the past several
years, my education and my interests are more closely related to
marketing." So he's saying, "Well, I know I've worked in sales, and this is a
different job, a different kind of job.

However, I have education in this area, and I'm interested in this area."
This is an especially good way to answer this question if you're moving to
a different kind of job, from a software engineer to a manager position.
When you are changing your career, you want to say that you still have
experience or education related to this new job.

He says he'd like to find a position that would allow him to have more
responsibility than he had at his last position. Once again, he's showing
his ambition.

He's showing his desire to succeed, to do better. He's looking for more
responsibility.

Usually when we talk about responsibility at a job, we mean the person is

looking to be a boss, is looking to be a manager or a supervisor, or
someone who has more important work to do.

He's also looking for promotion opportunities. Promotion opportunities are

the same as advancement opportunities.

Remember, advancement is when you want a better job, a higher level

job.

This is what this person is also looking for. And again, American
businesses like that.

You say that because it shows that you have energy, that you have
ambition, that you want to do better.

And that's an important characteristic, an important personal quality that

many U.S. businesses look for in their employees.

Now let's listen to the sample answer at a normal speed.

The primary reason I left Mitch Muni Company was because the company
went through a restructuring and my position was eliminated.

Up to that point, however, I had a very good track record and received
positive employee evaluations each of the three years I worked there.

Leaving Mitch Muni actually allowed me to make a career change that I

had been thinking about for some time and that is more aligned with my
career goals.

Although I've worked successfully in sales for the past several years, my
education and my interests are more closely related to marketing.

I'd like to find a position that would allow me to use my knowledge and
skills to do challenging work.

This position would also give me more responsibility than I had at my last
company and more promotion opportunities.

I think that my skills and abilities are a good match for this job.
That concludes Episode 2 of Interview Questions Answered.

This course has been a production of the Center for Educational

Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

Visit our website at [Link]. This course was produced by Dr. Jeff
McQuillan and Dr. Lucy Saag. Copyright 2006.

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