How to Talk to a Hiring Manager About Changing Jobs
As an employee, you may change jobs often for reasons like not liking your current job or having personal problems. When you’re looking for a new job, a potential employer might not like how often you switch jobs. If you have changed jobs a lot in the past, you may have a better chance of getting a job in the future if you can explain why.
This article explains what it means to “job hop” and gives advice on how to talk about your work history in an interview.
What is it to switch jobs?
When a worker changes jobs more than once over a period of time, this is called “job hopping.” A worker might be called a “job hopper” if they don’t stay in one job for more than a year or two. As they try to figure out what they want to do with their careers, younger workers are more likely to switch jobs. People who change industries as they get older may also change jobs as they learn what they like and don’t like.
Not everyone who changes jobs does so because they want to. Things like layoffs are sometimes out of their control. When you’re looking for a new job, you might worry that having changed jobs a lot in the past will make you look bad. Some managers think that people who change jobs often aren’t reliable, so they might be less likely to hire someone who has done this before. If you talk about how you changed jobs in a good way, you can use your past to get the job you want.
How to explain a job change
Some hiring managers don’t mind if a potential worker has moved from job to job in the past, but others think it’s a bad sign. Here are some ways to explain why you have changed jobs so that you are more likely to get the job you want:
1. Enhance your cover letter
Your cover letter could be the first time you get to talk about why you left your last job. A cover letter is a short piece of writing that goes with your resume and tells the employer about yourself. Cover letters give you a chance to say more about yourself and add to the information on your resume. You can talk about job-hopping in your cover letter and explain it in the best way possible. If you think that changing jobs too often will bother a potential employer, bring it up right away. Talk to the employer about your past jobs and why you left them.
- Clearly and directly say why you left.
- Don’t say bad things about the people who used to hire you.
- Avoid using passive voice.
- Talk about your leaving in a positive way, like by saying it was a chance to grow your career.
Tell them why you left in a clear and direct way. Talk about your former employers in a positive way and try to explain what happened from your point of view as much as possible by using the active voice. Try your best to explain why you changed jobs in a short way. There’s no need to explain everything in more than two or three paragraphs. You should talk about your good qualities and why you want to work for that company in the rest of the cover letter.
2. Adapt your resume
When you format your resume well, a hiring manager will pay less attention to your work history and more attention to your strengths as a candidate. The most common way to list your experiences is in order, but if you’ve had a lot of jobs, this may not be the best way to go. You can instead use a format that puts the focus on your skills and achievements instead of your work history. For example, you can make a section for each of the most important skills needed for the job you want.
Then you can talk about how you got better at each skill at different jobs in each section. By putting them all together, you can show how your experiences make you the best candidate. You can also show your experience in a summary without calling attention to how many jobs you’ve had. About five to ten sentences are needed for a career summary, which can be written as a paragraph or as a list of bullet points. When you write your career summary, make sure it fits the job you’re applying for.
3. Be ready to talk to people
You should still talk about your past jobs in a good way during the interview. For example, you could say that you are always looking for a new challenge instead of implying that you get bored easily. You can say that you want a job that will challenge you and that you think the one you’re applying for will do that.
You could also talk about how changing jobs has made you a more flexible worker. When you start a new job, you have to learn a lot and change how you work to fit the company. You can tell a hiring manager that the jobs you’ve had have taught you how to quickly adapt to new challenges. Moving from job to job quickly can be a good thing if you can show your work history in a good way. Practice how you’ll talk about changing jobs before the interview, and think of a few ways to answer questions about it so the hiring manager thinks you’re sure of yourself.
4. Be honest
No matter how you talk to the employer, whether it’s in a cover letter, a resume, an interview, or some other way, you should always be honest. There are a lot of job changes, and most employers don’t mind. By telling the hiring manager the truth about your past, you show that you want to move up in your career no matter what.
When you tell your interviewer how often you’ve changed jobs, they can tell you what worries them. This gives you a chance to deal with their worries by putting your attention on your other skills. You can also use the time you have with them to tell them you want to keep the job for a long time. You can talk about how this job is different from others you’ve had and why you think you’ll be able to stay with the company for a long time.
