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&lt;p&gt;&quot;So why do you want to leave your current job?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Like many interview questions, there are lots of potential subtexts that might start running through your head when you hear this one come out of an interviewer&#39;s mouth.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Are they trying to get me to dish the dirt on my current employer?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Have they heard something?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Can I tell them that I&#39;m bored and underpaid?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What Employers Want&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here&#39;s the truth: none of these things is what your interviewer is looking for (unless you&#39;ve got some real dirt—they&#39;ll happily listen to anything you have to say about a competitor, but your lack of discretion is all but certain to kill your application stone dead).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What they &lt;em&gt;are&lt;/em&gt; looking for is evidence that you&#39;ve thought this through. Yes: they know you want more money. Everyone wants more money, with two exceptions: people who are looking for a better work-life balance; and those who will take any port in a storm. It&#39;s the latter person that employers are trying to screen out—not because they don&#39;t want someone who is fleeing a bad situation at work, but because they want to be sure that, if they hire that person, they&#39;re not going to turn around and quit 6 months later when the offer they really wanted finally materializes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How to Answer&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So what&#39;s that got to do with you, and how you approach your answer?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That&#39;s the good news: it&#39;s actually pretty simple. All you need is a good rationale for &lt;em&gt;why you want to join the new firm&lt;/em&gt;. Which means that the key to answering this question isn&#39;t about what&#39;s wrong at your current job: it&#39;s about what you want to do at the new one.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Consider the following two answers:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;I feel like I&#39;ve gone as far as I can at my current job, and am looking for a new challenge.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;vs.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;I really want to concentrate on business analytics, and I know that that&#39;s a big focus here. In my current role I have a limited amount of ability to practice analytics, and so I&#39;m looking for an opportunity where I can continue to develop that skillset and put it to use.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;See the difference? The first one literally explains why you want to leave your job, but it doesn&#39;t tell your potential employer anything about you. The second answer, though, does both: it explains your current frustration in a professional manner, but also clearly communicates that you&#39;ve done some research about the company, know what you can bring with you, and are excited about the possibilities offered by the role. That&#39;s exactly what an employer wants to see in a potential hire.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What to Remember&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The key to answering this question—like most others—is to do some preparation. At a minimum, you should have enough knowledge about your target firm to be able to spell out how you&#39;d see yourself fitting in. You should also be able to explain how the opportunities in the new role match what you&#39;re looking for, and use that as the point of contrast with your current employer. If you can manage that, you&#39;ll have taken another step towards leaving your current job behind—regardless of the reason why.&lt;/p&gt;

Phil Stott

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