How to Talk Positively About a Negative Employer [VIDEO]

During an interview, you can encounter questions that involve a previous or current employer. When answering these questions, it's important to be truthful while also being positive and professional. Watch this Vault video for tips on answering these questions during your next interview. 

Transcript

During interviews, hiring managers will ask you questions about your previous work experience and employers to determine if you’re qualified for the role. When talking about a previous or current employer, it’s important to always use a positive tone, even if you didn’t have a positive experience. Here’s how to find a positive balance of honesty and professionalism during your interview. 

1. “Why are you leaving your current role”?

When you’re asked this very common interview question, it may by instinctual for you to open up and explain how you truly despise how your manager micromanages you, like this: 

“My boss is a horrible micromanager. He asks to be copied on every email, needs detailed daily status updates on every single project, and checks in with me almost every hour. He’s the main reason I’m leaving.”

This instinct won’t be helpful during your job search. Instead, it will make you appear bitter and unprofessional. Instead of focusing solely on the negative behavior of one person, think of the organization as a whole. 

You could instead focus on looking for more challenging assignments that align more with your values. An answer like this will sound much better to a hiring manager:

“I’m very thankful for the time I spent at the organization. Right now I am looking to broaden my horizons and take on more challenging work. I think it’s important to learn and adapt to new challenges, and I’m hoping to do that here with your company.”

The second statement shows that instead of blaming others, you acknowledge your respect for the organization, but focus on what you are looking for that’s different in the future.

2. “What are you looking for in a future employer?” 

While this is a question that mainly determines your fit with the employer, it can also serve as a covert way of seeing if you’ll speak poorly about previous employers. 

This is how you don’t want to answer the question: 

“I’m looking for a workplace that absolutely does not allow micromanagement. My last manager was a micromanager. Many of my colleagues were micromanagers too. It was a horrible experience. I don’t want to be put into another bad situation like that.”

A large part of micromanagement is a lack of trust, so instead of focusing on the management style (the negative), focus on the trust aspect (the positive). Your answer could sound like this instead: 

“I’m looking for a workplace that focuses on building trust among its team members. I’ve worked in environments where trust was not the priority, and I didn’t find that to be helpful for morale, productivity, or creativity. Now I’m looking for an employer that truly emphasizes the importance of trust across the entire organization. I’ve read that your company shares these values, which is what drew me to this opportunity. 

Changing your perspective to eliminate most of the negativity from your answers will benefit you during your interview process. The hiring manager will see you as a positive person, and also be happy to know that if you’re selected for the position, they won’t have to worry about negative conversations happening if you choose to pursue other opportunities down the road.

For more career advice, check out Vault.com!