fidelcashflow

Account Executive

How do you explain departures?

I had a 3rd interview with a Director of sales. When I tried to close him at the end he said his only hesitations would be the departures at my last two jobs (Current is 1y2m and my last was 1y11m). Leaving current because quota has been impossible to hit for 3Qs in a row, no one has hit numbers and they are not fixing it. Job before that; I was verbally promised a promotion which I basically did for 6 months without official title/pay. When I asked for the job they started interviewing externally.

Anyways, the Director basically said he doesn't validate those reasons. I somewhat understand but I've interviewed a lot and no one normally has an issue. I really want to land this job. How can I make it sound better now, or in the future?

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30 comments

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CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Well if he doesn't validate your honesty now, imagine what your life would look like working for that jerk.

Abtruhit

Personal Narrative

Entrepreneur & Sales Expert

Completely agree to this! But I will play devils advocate and it could be how it was presented.

I would highlight a positive in that first negative.

Example:

Leaving my current position because quota has been unattainable for over 3Qs for our entire team. I've been in the top 10% ( or whatever % as long as it's above 25%) of every quarter. This shows you are crushing it, but its not just you missing quota.. if everyone is missing quota and you are still doing better than most, it takes the blame off you and shows its a company issue, not a you issue.

I had teams in my previous company that never hit quota, but my team and a few others did.. aka its attainable.. but if no one is hitting quota then it's not you.

ChumpChange

Politicker

Channel Manager

^ This! He basically giving you the heads up that you're going to be treated the same way.

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

To move up you sometimes need to move out. I use that often.

I also use the reason “I have taken some big risk/big reward moves in my career. Some work and some don’t”.

butwhy

Politicker

Solutions Engineer

Oh, I am SO stealing that second line.

SkolVikings

Director, Global Sales

As a sales director who typically deals with this question while interviewing I would focus on how you frame it.

In reading your above answer, I would have concerns also. Let me explain.

When describing why you left your previous role you indicated you were promised a promotion (you then performed the job functions for this role for 6 months with no pay or recognition) and was then notified the company chose to look outside the organization for an alternate candidate. I would take this as your previous employer uncovered concerns regarding your ability to perform the key functions required. This could be a result of characteristics you displayed or a lack of competencies you exhibited during the 6 month interview.

When discussing why you left this role I would frame it this way

"I enjoyed the role and responsibilities but decided to pursue a new challenge with more opportunities for growth" This is simple and straightforward. It indicates you aspire for more responsibility without selling yourself short or telling a potential leader that your previous employer passed over an internal candidate for an external one.

Regarding your most recent role,

You stated you are looking to leave because your current quota is unattainable and you have underperformed for three straight quarters. This is a tricky one. As a sales leader I want someone who is comfortable with high expectations (granted they need to be realistic and attainable). I would stay away from this entirely. Frankly, there is no good way to answer. If you must, I would give examples of why it was unattainable versus saying no one hit it. My reason is this. When you say no one else hit it, I would ask, what was the attainment percentage of the top performer, middle performer and underperformer? Where did you rank? If you were a top performer but came in at 90% of plan that tells a different story then 20% attainment and ranking at the bottom of stack rankings. By providing context you can frame the conversation.

Example:

My challenge with my current role is a lack of alignment between leadership and front line staff. The company has experienced changes to our go to market strategy and as a result has created a gap between expectations for what defines success in this role. Quota's can be overly aggressive and unattainable. Top performers in this role typically attain X percentage of quota. This has led to a culture issue within the organization and as a result I want to move on to a role that better aligns with my personal and professional goals.

Interviewing is an art. Anticipate the hard questions and rehearse your answers. A good tip to remember is, tell your story in a way that truthfully answers the question, while allowing you to anticipate a possible objection and framing to that. Put yourself in the shoes of your perspective leader. They are asking themselves is this an excuse or is this someone who holds themselves accountable and perhaps just hasn't found the right fit?

Lastly, I agree with the below, a leader telling you they don't validate your honesty is a big red flag and an indication of their leadership style. When a sales person fails to hit a quota a true leader has ownership in that failure also.

Best of luck on your search. You will find your fit! Hope this helps.

Quickquestion

Executive

Enterprise Account Executive

200% on the leader not being a good fit but all your responses are spot on. Going through the same thing and needless to say, just like in customer conversations - less is always more.
As long as you're being honest, let them ask the question and you can unpack it and spin it back around.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Doesn't sound like a spot you really want to be...

Honestly, that kind of tenure is pretty normal these days, but you need to be compelling in your messaging and show commitment to making it work at the next gig.

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

Rolling 20's all day

He could have just been looking for a reason to disqualify you as a candidate.
Those both sound reasonable, but part of a sales job is also showing you're able to hold up to hard times.

I wouldn't sweat it. Just practice your interview answers. There are too many companies hiring right now to get hung up on one.

Corpslovechild

Politicker

Inbound Sales Manager

Good point.

radracing

Personal Narrative

National Sales Director

agree. many companies out there are hiring. however, you should be more articulate in your story as to why you left the last 2 companies. loyalty and tenure are two pieces hiring managers want to know they are getting if they go with you. you have such a small window of time to convince them or they will move to another candidate. at this moment in the interview journey, that all depends on your ability to persuade the director now that you are all in and he/she doesn't need to search for those pieces anymore.

Abtruhit

Personal Narrative

Entrepreneur & Sales Expert

Agreed!

fidelcashflow

Catalyst

Account Executive

Loving the feedback but just to be clear; I think the problem here was in the way I explained. I will admit that it was not as smooth as my previous bouts of explaining my departures.

I 100% want to be at this company. The Director of sales and entire team are amazing + a top notch product. This was more of my fault than anything. At this moment I don’t believe it’s a red flag or anything like that

GDO

Politicker

BDM

Seems quite normal in sales.

boredAnti

Tycoon

That One Guy

It can be a topic of discussion like have just experienced, however I have only really seen it matter when it was a tenure less than 6 months or even 12 months, but both are over a year mark. At that point, you stuck it out and it didn't work out for you or whatever.

Employers should see that as a plus, you gave it over 365 days of your life, mental real estate, and emotional capital. You are good. So if this job doesn't take you because of that, then they don't deserve you and I quite honestly wouldn't want to work with them either.

Corpslovechild

Politicker

Inbound Sales Manager

Are you sure you want to work for him?

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

ERP Sales

Main thing is to be honest. It hard for me to believe he isnt okay with you leaving b/c you didnt get a promotion you were promised. Unless he has done that which is good thing if they dont hire you.

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

damn well im sorry to hear that!

If the boss doesnt agree with why you left, i feel like thats a red flag.

When i talk about my job history i normally do a few things.

1. be honest about what happened (in a short, direct story)
2. Explain what I learned from that experience
3. Turn it into a positive somehow

that has gotten me positive responses before.

adrienmc

Good Citizen

Founder @LaGrowthMachine

As the one doing such interviews, here’s my take : there are no right answers to this question.

If it was all perfect, you wouldn’t be looking for another position! A good interviewer takes that into account

What I look for when asking this question is “is the guy being honest about it?” And “can he take responsibility for the experience’s failure?”.

I’ll verify the first part during the background checks (calling their past boss) and the latter is just a gut feeling.

I’m probably biased because I actually prefer to hire people that have faced struggled in their past experiences such as the one you’re mentioning : from my experience, it tends to set your priorities straight, as well as teaches you to value when a situation is great (rather than move from one company to another every two years always asking for more).

Skynyrd

Personal Narrative

National Sales Director

You need to consider company culture and who you will reporting to/working with as your first two takeaways from interviews. I would not work for this person.

roccob

Contributor

Sales Director/VP

Given you left your past company(s) for these reasons they must be very important to you. Why would want to signup to work for management who are telling you they would treat you same?

CRAG112

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

Sounds like you will leave them pretty quickly, what with the old guard attitude this VP has.

He won't validate those answers as the truth because he won't admit to people in your role being treated poorly, and is quite likely a culprit of said treatment as well.

Forget these people and move on to the next.

Disqualified.

Angusmacg

Valued Contributor

Territory Account Mgr.

I've tried to answer this multiple ways and there doesn't seem to be a "right way" to approach it. I have decided that moving forward I will be checking LI for the profiles of who I am interviewing with and will check what they list for employment history to see if they had the same situation in the past and will turn the question on them.

I have gotten jobs that I thought were great but then turned out to be less than ideal, for various reasons. I try not to dwell on this question and just give generic answers..."was approached by another company" "manager that hired me left and the new mgr. had a different focus and goals" "the position wasn't challenging to me" etc. If the interviewer asks for specifics I always reply that I do not speak negatively about previous employers.

Slipshot007

Executive

Director of New Business Development

Say you were offered alot more money at your next job. The truth will often hurt you in job interviews.

BBunch

Executive

Account Executive

If anyone should understand these reasons, it should be a Sales Director. I take into consideration that the story behind each is relevant, and how reps present these issues in an objective vs. finger pointing manner (not you specifically, but in general). His response tells me A) this happens at their org as well, B) His personal experiences dont allow him to believe that this happens at his org or others, or C) He is challenging you as a test. Either way, I would caution against this role. This would personally turn me off from the role, but I would also need to experience the interactions myself to be sure. As a Sales rep, I would use his information to push back on his stance. ex. So do you think its acceptable if zero reps are hitting a quarterly target for 3 Quarters, and the targets arnt adjusted? If so, what would your do as a sales leader to build strategy, coaching, training, in order to make sure this doesnt happen in 4th straight quarter?

Jenkins518

AE (Account Executive)

Turn your reasons for leaving into a positive by sharing how you accomplished "x," and are eagerly looking for "y" which is why I am here today.

Cdrive

Contributor

Business Development Manager

You will reply with quick 1 sentence answers on why you left your previous roles with a positive tilt, and then control the conversation to turn it around, to discuss your knowledge on the company, why you're interviewing for the role, and why you're a good fit to both their company culture and the position's required skillset... If the manager is concerned that they will invest in training and onboarding, then you're going to jump, perhaps he doesn't have strong confidence in his management ability or the company itself to retain high-performing employees. Build up his confidence or ask what the company turnover is like there, if he continues to push.

Nc138

Manager

If the companies have history of turnover of sales people that would help.

notdavemoss

Valued Contributor

CCBW

Does this joker validate that the sun comes up every day? Sounds like a middling sales manager whose best days (if he ever had any) are behind him. I've probably hired over 100 people in my career and I have never asked "why did you leave your last job?" It doesn't tell you anything and most of the time the person who answers has to massage the truth. It's a waste of time and count yourself lucky you don't have to work for this guy.

MattClark

Executive

Senior CyberSecurity Consultant

Unless you’re a terrible employee and that’s why you were let go, I think that’s an unfair question these days. I’ve got some similar tenures in my career, all very explainable, and I simply offer references to corroborate my explanations. I’d be inclined to ask “now that I’ve given you what I believe should be a satisfactory answer to your question, can you tell me what the average tenure is of your salespeople and the reasons why folks have stayed or left? I’d like to confirm that, if I do everything I’m supposed to do and more, my loyalty will be returned by the organization.”

10k+ people just got laid off via email…companies have no right to ask for your loyalty anymore unless they can promise it in return.

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