Why are you leaving your job? How to answer

This question comes up in almost every screening call. The Sobes question bank has dozens of versions of it: "Why did you decide to leave?", "Why did you decide to leave your current job?", "Why did you decide to go on the market? What's behind it?" The most popular version has been opened over 4,000 times in the Go section alone.

And this is exactly where many people start making excuses. Five minutes about a manager who didn't appreciate them, about a project that's going to be shut down anyway, about how "I wasn't really planning to leave, but…". The interviewer listens and draws conclusions, just not the ones you were hoping for.

What they actually want to know

It's not a trap. There are usually three things behind it:

• Whether the thing you're leaving will happen again with them. If you're leaving because of overtime and they have on-call every other night, better to find out now.
• What you're looking for, and whether it matches what they offer.
• How you talk about former colleagues. The interviewer can't help imagining how you'll talk about their team a year from now.

What a good answer looks like

Two or three sentences, twenty to thirty seconds:

1. A short, honest reason, without details.
2. What you're looking for now.
3. How that connects to this role.

Talk more about what you're moving toward than what you're moving away from. Naming the reason is enough, there's no need to analyze it. If the interviewer wants to know more, they'll ask.

Below are answers for the most common situations.

No room to grow

For the past year I've been doing roughly the same tasks. I talked to my manager, but there's nowhere to grow at the company in the next year. I want to take on harder problems and be more involved in architecture decisions, and as I understand it, that's exactly what this role is.

"I talked to my manager" matters. It shows you tried to solve it where you were first, instead of leaving at the first difficulty.

Conflict

You don't need to retell the conflict. Describe it neutrally, as a difference in approach, and don't blame anyone:

My new manager and I had different views on development: he focuses on release speed, and I prefer having time for tests and code review. We tried to find common ground, but decided it was better to part ways. It matters to me to work where quality gets time, which is why I'm asking about your processes.

If they ask for more, stick to facts, keep emotion out of it, and steer the conversation to what you took away from the situation. "He was a terrible manager" sounds bad in any context, even if it's true.

Layoff

There's nothing to be ashamed of here, just say it:

The company shut down our product area, and the whole team was laid off. I handed over my work and I'm now looking for a new role.

If not everyone was let go, you can still keep it short: "They cut part of the team, and I was one of them." Usually the next question is what you worked on and what you can do, and the conversation moves to your experience.

Burnout

The last two years had a lot of overtime and night on-call shifts, and I realized I couldn't keep that pace for long. I'm looking for a team with a more predictable workload, where I can focus on doing things well instead of constantly putting out fires.

Better not to make "burned out" the headline: the interviewer may hear "can't handle the workload". Talk about the kind of work rhythm that suits you, and it'll still be true without the extra risk.

If you've already left and took some time off, one sentence is enough: "I took a few months off, recharged, and I'm ready to get back to work." We cover how to talk about breaks in “Tell me about yourself”: examples for developers.

Money

I like the team, but my salary is well below the market, and it only gets reviewed every two years. So I'm looking at offers where my experience will be paid at market rate.

That's a perfectly fine answer. Just add what interests you about the role itself, so money doesn't look like the only reason.

You've only been there a short time

If you're leaving after a few months, the interviewer will almost certainly ask why. Explain where expectations and reality didn't match:

In the interview we discussed that I'd be working on a new product, but in practice I spent all six months maintaining the old system. I tried to change that, but the company has other priorities. I decided not to drag it out and to look for a role where the work matches what was promised.

What not to say

• Don't badmouth your former manager, team, or company.
• Don't go into the details of a conflict if no one asked.
• Don't use stock phrases like "I'm looking for new challenges". It sounds like something from the internet, and the next question will be "which ones?".
• Don't tell the recruiter one thing and the manager another at the next stage. They compare notes.

How to rehearse

Write your answer in two or three sentences and say it out loud a few times. If it runs longer than thirty seconds, you're probably making excuses. You can rehearse it together with other screening questions in the HR mode of the mock interview.

And at the end of the conversation, ask questions that check whether the same thing you're leaving is waiting for you here. Which ones exactly is covered in Questions to ask the interviewer as a developer.