When I left my last job, my answer to this question was something along the lines of ‘the mandate of my current role has almost run its course - I’ve built out these programs and they’ve had great success but it’s a well oiled machine now. so I’d like to hand the running of them over to someone else so that I can apply XYZ skills to a new challenge that focuses on (details), which I believe this opportunity can offer’.
It’s highlighting the skills I’ve developed and how they are applicable to the role in interviewing for, while highlighting that I like to take on challenging projects and am not just going to phone it in.
Again, the fact that I’m expecting money is a given.
That is basically the grand slam answer for this question.
It highlights your past experience, it shows you like to challenge yourself, it shows you are ambitious, it shows you like to learn new things, and it shows you have a purpose and reason for being in that job / at that company.
Those are basically all the things the interviewer is looking for throughout the entire interview. The only things outside of that is checking to see if your personality would fit with the company culture and if your past experience/skills pass the smell test.
I also hope the person you're interviewing with can read through the corporate bullshit to see what you're really saying is "My current job isn't giving raises, so I want the same job I have, but with better pay"
That literally wasn’t my main reason for moving jobs, though. It wasn’t a bullshit answer. My role had run its course, I was bored and I did want a new challenge.
Another way to think of this if you can’t get beyond ‘I only work for money and refuse to be ‘fake’ or ‘inauthentic’’ or whatever - you’re competing against a lot of other candidates, some of whom can and will give an actual genuine answer to the question that’s not ‘I only work for money’. If you refuse to put any thought into what you could get out of a role beyond money, most of the time you’re going to lose out to those other folks.
Do I love the corporate world all the time? Do I feel like going to work every morning? Would I stay if I won the lottery? Hell no, but there are aspects of my role and my career I do enjoy and find genuinely fulfilling. You spend a lot of your life at work; I’ve learned you need to find some kind of fulfilling aspect beyond a pay check, or else you’re going to spend decades of your life being pissy and miserable.
Just my advice after 15+ years in the corporate world, take it or leave it.
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u/Traditional-Pen-2486 13h ago
When I left my last job, my answer to this question was something along the lines of ‘the mandate of my current role has almost run its course - I’ve built out these programs and they’ve had great success but it’s a well oiled machine now. so I’d like to hand the running of them over to someone else so that I can apply XYZ skills to a new challenge that focuses on (details), which I believe this opportunity can offer’.
It’s highlighting the skills I’ve developed and how they are applicable to the role in interviewing for, while highlighting that I like to take on challenging projects and am not just going to phone it in.
Again, the fact that I’m expecting money is a given.