Answering Questions About Quitting Within a Year of Joining
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
CNBC had an article on their website about quitting your job within the first year. It contained recommendations that someone:
Prepare recommendations for why you left so soon
Show your impact
Focus on what you learned from the experience
Discuss what you’re hoping to avoid
Focus your converation on the future
Talk about a side project and
Leave it off your resume.
I responded:
The thing people don’t want to hear is that not everyone will accept their explanation.
Employers don’t want to hear that a position was misrepresented (they are probably doing the same thing by emphasizing the positives and providing unrealistic expectations). They struggle to believe you had an impact in fewer than 6 months because the first three months were getting acclimated and the next 3 months were looking for another job.
The hard thing people don’t want to hear is that they AND their future manager are posturing to be attractive to the other and persuade them to get married. It is after the marriage that each discovers the blemishes that were shielded from the other.
Clearer questions about an employer’s expectations for the first 90 days and for the first year after joining can give you clues. Paying attention to the look on a team member’s face when you ask about what the last person did well and why they left provides another clue. If you receive the usual pablum answer of “They left for a better opportunity,” follow up and ask, “What made it a better opportunity,” in a non-threatening way.
There are clues everywhere. You have to be willing to see them.
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves career coaching, as well as executive job search coaching, job coaching, and interview coaching. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2300 episodes.
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