No matter which side of the table youâve sat during interviews, youâve probably heard this question:
âWhy do you want this new job?â
In the recent past, Iâve interviewed a few candidates and heard the following answers so far:
- Iâm not learning much on the current job after itâs been 2-4 years.
- Iâm looking for something that offers better work-life balance.
- Iâm not really looking for a job. The recruiters got in touch and I thought Iâd discuss.
- Iâm looking for more challenging work.
All of the above are valid answers. I think thereâs another perfectly valid answer that candidates seldom mention probably due to the gravity of the interview room situation. Iâve interviewed over a hundred candidates across different companies and am yet to find anyone that mentions:
I am not happy with my current salary and benefits compared to my skills
Back to topic of answers. So, when someone answers that they are not learning new things on the job, obviously, youâd be curios to know why and how they have tried to change things. Unfortunately, most candidates simply mention that they are doing repeat work and thereâs not much to learn doing the same thing over and over again. This is where I start feeling a little uneasy. However, I understand that itâs a true statement. If youâre in a similar situation, hereâs some suggestion: read books, and write code based on what youâve read. Then, you can tell a much convincing story that, Iâve forced myself to learn new things and hereâs some proof, but I really want to apply the newly learned skills outside the scope of the âhello worldâ skills.
About work-life balance, I totally hear you. And if your current job doesnât suit what you need out of your life, itâs a perfectly valid reason to look for new opportunities. However, make sure youâre able to clearly set the expectation with your potential employer about what work-life balance means for you. For example, if you canât work over 40 hours a week, or must work from home one-two days a week, itâs best to discuss this even before an interview starts to ensure youâre a good match with the employer.
If you showed up at in interview just because a recruiter got in touch, Iâd say introspect first. Itâs possible that on our subconcious mind you have expectations that the potential of the new job offers you something that you donât get at the current job. So, instead of a passive asnwer that the you simply acted based on the recruiterâs invite, itâs much convincing to see if you can lay down one or two things that you expect from the new job that you donât get at the current job.
About looking for more challenge, it sounds like a cliche unless you can share examples of work that is of challenging to you. May be you like the challenge of using more complicated algorithms, may be you like dealing with a lot of data, may be you like supporting production emergencies, but thereâs gotta be something that you can explicitly mention as challenging. It helps employers to understand if theyâre able to provide you with enough challenge on the job.
Finally, if youâre looking for a new job because the current job isnât paying upto the level of your skills and contributions, make sure to communicate it clearly as well. With salaries and benefits, I find it much easier to work with people that know the actual $ figure thatâll make them happy instead of beating around the bush to create confusions all around. Just be confident and tell what makes you happy. If the employer can afford it, most likely theyâll want to get you onboard as a happy employee. If they canât afford it, theyâll do their best. The key here is to be explicit about what you want and be sure and confident about it.
In a nutshell, when you walk into an interview itâs yours to lose. The potential employer is investing their time and resources and would rather have you hired than having to interview other candidates. As long as you are able to justify why you want the new job, theyâll be quite accommodating.
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