“Why Did You Leave Your Last Position?”

As you practice questions for your next interview, consider that an employer may ask you why you want to leave your last or current position.  The following post has advice on how to answer this question.

A common question asked during an interview is “Why Did You Leave Your Last Position?” A friend of mine who worked in Iran during the 1979 revolution offers an easy answer: his resume always says “civil unrest.” While that is a concrete and completely honest answer, most of us don’t usually have such a perfect answer when asked that question during an interview. Futhermore, the answer can be even more difficult if you are still in your current position and interviewing for a new position at another company.

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“Why Did You Leave Your Last Position?”

40% of Employers Don’t Have Severance Policies

The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported the national unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent in January 2012, the lowest it’s been in three years. Although the rate of unemployment continues to slowly trend downward, it remains important for employers to have a defined set of post-employment practices in place. The Compdata Surveys BenchmarkPro 2011 survey results found 60.5 percent of companies currently have a severance policy.

This rate varies by industry as 71.2 percent of insurance companies report having a severance policy in place, compared to 62.4 percent in healthcare. Services employers have severance policies at a rate of 58.5 percent. Organizations in not-for-profit report having them the least, 45.6 percent. Continue Reading

32% of Employees Seriously Considering Quitting Their Jobs

Employee loyalty is dropping around the world, according to new global analysis of Mercer’s What’s Working™ survey. The research, conducted among nearly 30,000 employees in 17 geographic markets between the fourth quarter of 2010 and the second quarter of 2011, shows that the percentage of workers seriously considering leaving their organization has risen since the last time the survey was conducted in each market (between 2003 and 2006 prior to the economic downturn).

In many markets, the increase is 10 percentage points or more. In the US, the increase was 9 points, from 23% in 2005 to 32% in 2010. Continue Reading

Discontent With Economy Spreading to Boardrooms: 108 CEO’s Terminated in September