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How to explain to the employer the frequent change of work? Who are the "Flyers and Runners"? The Art of Refusing an Employer: Diplomacy at the Service of a Career

Why this item worries the employer and how you can change his opinion in your favor

How long can you search new job? Week, month, half a year - depends on a situation and each separate person. Good specialists and do not have to spend a single minute on it, because they are lured to another company right from the workplace. But let's say you are not one of those professionals, and the search for a new job takes an inexcusably long time.

Reasons why a new job is not found:

Before talking about the behavior at the interview, let's outline the reasons that prevent you from getting into it. This is a question you should definitely ask yourself after two months of unsuccessful job searches. Either your specialty has disappeared from the face of the labor market, or the problem is with you.

The most common reasons why employers may stubbornly ignore job seekers are as follows:

1. Bad resume. An illiterate, inconsistent, meager resume is the kind of clothes that no one wants to meet a candidate for. Literature on the topic "How to write a good resume?" a lot, the desire to put good advice into practice should be just as much.
2. Bad presentation. Slurred speech, stupid answers, unpresentable appearance will not save, even if the resume is excellent.
3. Inflated salary expectations. If the salary requirements do not match the experience and qualifications of the candidate or are significantly higher than the average figures in the market, such searches are doomed.
4. Passive job search. Rare viewing of vacancies, reluctance to write cover letters resumes reduce the chances of finding a job soon.

Why do employers hate gaps in seniority?

Doubts about professionalism. Any company is interested in its development and increase in profits. The professionalism of the employees greatly contributes to this, so no one wants to hire parasites and mediocrity. It is in these "qualities" that employers suspect those who interrupted their work experience for 4 months or more.

During the time that a person spent without work, he could well pass probation in any company, and not even one. Since there is still no work, therefore, the deadline has not been passed. Such data in work book are not entered, so the applicant can generally remain silent about an unsuccessful attempt.

Doubt about hard work. It does not matter for what reasons a person did not work before, he is clearly not used to the office schedule, rules, perseverance, the art of creating the appearance of work even when there is no work, etc. All this can discourage the desire to work after a week or a month. Of course, the employer is not interested in finding and training a new employee again, so he often refuses to take unnecessary risks.

Follow the herd mentality. “Since others don’t take it, I won’t take it either” - this is how many personnel officers / employers argue the refusal for themselves. This reinsurance seems to them a logical saving of time (for sure, in other companies this employee was checked in all respects).

Correct justification for a break in work experience

It is in your power to convince the employer of your professional suitability and desire to work. You should prepare in advance a sensible answer to the question about the reasons for the gap in your work experience (you can briefly indicate these reasons directly in the resume, otherwise the matter may not reach the interview).

It is important to understand here that the validity of the reason is a relative concept: what is acceptable and obvious to you may be completely incomprehensible to the employer. Let's say a person is simply incredibly tired of the office bustle, and he took a time-out for six months to live in silence, in the countryside. The employer can interpret the situation as follows: neurasthenic, introvert, unbalanced and irresponsible.

1. Walkthrough full-time education / graduation - a valid explanation from a young professional who started his seniority even while studying.
2. Circumstances of a personal nature (immediately explain what exactly is meant - a decree, caring for a sick relative, etc.). It is also desirable to make it clear that such a “vacation” is not foreseen in the coming years.
3. Waiting for a response from the employer. In large and transnational corporations, the interview is carried out in several stages, including interviews, tests and other checks, which takes more than one week. The same amount is required to determine a successful candidate. Even if this test ended unsuccessfully for you, the fact that you went so far in an interview with a famous company deserves respect.
4. Distant work, freelancing, work without formal employment. Once there was work - there must be a result. You may be asked to name the company / brands with which you have worked, to demonstrate your work, to analyze the experience gained.
5. Training / advanced training well compensates for the temporary interruption of work experience. Following this argument, you should present documents that confirm this version (certificate, diploma).
6. Search for new ideas. People of such professions as fashion designers, writers, artists, photographers, etc., can afford a "sabbatical" and absolutely not be embarrassed. Of course, it would be appropriate to specify what this vacation was spent on, where the specialist visited, what exhibitions/shows he attended, what master classes he attended.

There is nothing terrible in the frequent change of work: it is human nature to choose the best. The question is the reasons for the frequent change. What circumstances encourage specialists to turn their work book into a motley directory of firms and companies?

What does the employer think about the reasons for frequent job changes?

There are usually two main reasons for frequent job changes:

  • the desire to earn more;
  • desire to be fulfilled.

Most employers are distrustful of candidates who change jobs like gloves 2-5 times a year. It is generally accepted that the minimum period of work in one place is 1 year.

At the same time, the opinions of employers about people who often change jobs are different.

What employers think about job seekers who change jobs frequently:

  1. the candidate is prone to conflicts;
  2. applicant talented person: he quickly peaks at work and wants to move on;
  3. "flyers" are eternal envious people who believe that it is better where they are not.

We must explain!

You can learn about the reasons for the frequent change of job of the applicant by carefully studying his resume or during the interview. For example, a frequent change may be due to the need to rent housing or problems related to the "housing issue": an increase in rent for housing, therefore, the need to look for higher earnings, moving to another place of residence - hence transport problems. With all this, the applicant can be a responsible, conscientious specialist in his field.

That is why it is so important to be able to explain to the employer frequent shift work, if it was caused by objective reasons and necessity, not allowing you to draw wrong conclusions based on your own guesses.

By the way, with no less apprehension, employers treat applicants who not only often change jobs, but also radically change the type of activity. Agree, in a short period of time it is not easy even to get up to date with the company, not to mention acquiring the skills of a new profession.

Wallet or...?

In addition to the ambiguous attitude of employers, frequent job changes bring candidates and financial difficulties. It is very difficult to increase your market value in a short time:

  • firstly, employers, fearing the prospect of an early departure of an employee, may underestimate the level of wages;
  • secondly, frequent job changes hinder the possibility of career growth and higher wages for seniority.

True, there are exceptions to the rules related to the specifics of the applicant's activities.

In most cases, these are candidates whose work depends on a particular project: architects, designers, construction project managers.

Frequent job changes: good or bad

Benefits of frequent job changes

  • there is an opportunity to find a better job;
  • do not stop there;
  • gaining valuable experience of working in different teams;
  • training in various methods of conducting business processes;
  • defining your specialization.

Disadvantages of frequent job changes

  • biased or deliberately negative attitude of employers, if there are no objective reasons explaining the change of work activity;
  • difficulties in the growth of its market value;
  • lack of stability.

Instead of concluding...

If you often change jobs, focus the attention of the employer at the interview on your strengths. After all, it is much more important that the company has won from your professional activity than the time you worked there.

Candidates who have changed jobs frequently tend to be suspicious of employers - finding a new job can be more difficult for them. The Village learned how to explain their fickleness in interviews and whether to lie about it.

Elena Yakhontova

Professor high school corporate governance of RANEPA

In itself, frequent job changes are not a crime. But there must be reasonable explanations for this. For example, an employee is looking for OWN job or specifically develops multi-competencies. Or other circumstances beyond his control. For example, in a crisis and layoffs, not everyone is lucky to have a permanent and Good work. Temporary is better than nothing. The representative of the employer should explain the reasons for the situation, but not make excuses. And certainly you can not lie in any case.

In summary ( summary work experience for a specific vacancy) you can not give all the work, especially if they are not related to the one that the applicant is currently applying for. Many movements will have to be explained during the interview. And it should also be noted that times when there are many different places the applicant’s work was perceived exclusively as a negative (this person was called disparagingly “flyer”), passed. At present, the employer is more interested in the achievements of the applicant, what he achieved in his previous job, what he really knows how to do. There are companies, primarily high-tech ones, that are interested in the long-term behavioral orientation of their employees. For them, employees who often change jobs are less preferred. But even here there is a reasonable explanation for everything. You will also have to reasonably prove your motivation for a long and successful work in this company.

Maria Kelina

Headhunting company "Contact Agency" consultant

Frequent transitions do not always indicate the inconstancy or frivolity of the candidate. There are entire markets and specialties that are characterized by high mobility. For example, the e-commerce market, where work is often project-based, or young graduates who are in search of themselves. Middle and top management usually has long-term goals and objectives in business, therefore such specialists change jobs less often. In any case, if there is a situation where your resume is full of frequent transitions, you need to be ready to argue this.

It is better to reflect all the places of work in the resume so that your relationship with the employer is transparent and trusting from the first interview. Everyone knows that the situation on the market is unstable: you could have been laid off, closed a foreign representative office, or moved your office to another city. Tell your partner about it! To reinforce your words, you can give contacts of colleagues from past jobs. Reference checking is now widely used by recruiters.

If, for some reason, your recent transitions were associated with internal conflicts, it is better not to wash dirty linen in public and not to blame everyone around. It is better to describe such cases as neutrally as possible and be prepared to share responsibility.

Illustration: Nastya Grigorieva

Anna Kurskaya, RIA Novosti.

Most employers check how long a candidate stayed at a previous job and analyze the reasons for leaving, according to a survey by HeadHunter released Tuesday. Experts advise employees to maintain partnerships with employers and not be afraid to speak the truth about themselves in job interviews.

According to researchers who interviewed representatives of 860 companies, 80% of employers are sure to be interested in the duration of a candidate's work in last place. In almost every fifth company, this factor can become decisive when choosing between several candidates.

“On average, employees under 40 years old work in one place for 2.5-3 years,” HeadHunter President Yury Virovets told RIA Novosti. “Of course, this is an average figure. three years. However, people are more professionally mobile than they were five years ago."

The duration of work in one place of two or three years suits not only employees, but also most employers, according to the results of the survey. But only 2% of companies can not hesitate to hire a candidate who has been in his previous job for less than a year.

"Frequent job changes help 20-year-olds try several different directions and decide on the choice of their path," explains the Deputy CEO HR-company "Veles Personnel" Marina Mironova. “But when a person by the age of 30 works everywhere for a year, this is probably already a pathology.”

According to the expert, people who change jobs every six months or a year are not ready to cope with difficulties, they prefer to quit in the hope that the next job will be better.

Finding a job just got harder

Experts warn Russians against ill-conceived attempts to change jobs this fall, since the situation on the labor market is not very favorable for this. There is no active growth in any industry, the management of many companies has suspended recruitment, and even large companies the number of vacancies decreased by 10-15%. At the same time, the number of resumes from applicants has increased significantly, says Marina Mironova.

"If until recently, 10-15 responses came to each position of specialists, now there are about a hundred. For technical positions (secretaries, drivers, couriers), the number of responses reaches 600-700 responses. No matter how candidates say that an experienced specialist is always "They will tear off their hands," in reality, the search for a job can take 2-3 months," said the deputy head of the Veles Personnel company.

Employees sensed not too optimistic moods in the labor market and became more cautious about changing jobs. “Over the past six months, people have become less likely to quit, many have taken a wait-and-see attitude,” said Yuri Virovets. than a year ago, but workers are holding on tighter to their jobs."

When to change jobs

Some experts say that if a person does not make a leap in his job for three years, and does not change his job for seven years, then his eyes become blurred and he stops in his development.

"It is impossible to show high results, being in the same place without any changes. A person needs challenges. If he is a businessman, his business must develop; if he is employed, he must advance in career ladder", - told RIA Novosti the director of the Russian Center practical psychology Sergey Klyuchnikov.

If a person has ceased to feel the benefit, benefit, interest, he does not have new prospects, new contracts, new proposals, but has the same monotonous feeling of habitual tedious activity, then it is better to think about changing jobs, the psychologist says.

Signs of a more serious situation - when difficulties at work begin to affect personal life, health, emotional state worker. "If every day he has to spend too much effort to come to terms with the situation, the work really needs to be changed," Marina Mironova believes.

How to resign

Ideally, you should look for a job without leaving your old job. But even if the most brilliant prospects open up before the employee, he should take care to maintain his reputation among colleagues and partnerships with his former boss.

“Resigning properly means not spoiling relations with colleagues upon dismissal and not setting them up negatively in relation to the company,” Yuriy Virovets emphasized.

Experts do not advise the departing employee to "slam the door" and quarrel with the former boss and the team. “They will remember how the person left for a very long time, and it is in the interests of the employee to leave well. New employers will call their former places of work. In addition, sometimes your former boss or subordinate becomes your boss in a new place,” warns Marina Mironov.

If an employee has complaints about his superiors, silently putting a letter of resignation on the table is also not the best way out. You should try to discuss your dissatisfaction with the manager. Perhaps it will not come to dismissal.

If you are going to leave in earnest, you should try to explain your dismissal to your boss with objective reasons. “It will be more correct than saying “I didn’t like it here”, “I’m going to where they pay more,” Sergey Klyuchnikov advises.

"Many people who are leaving have a children's complex:" So I'll leave, and you look how bad it is without me. "It looks like a child:" I'll die and see how you cry on my grave. "This is a sign of personal immaturity, emphasized the deputy head of Veles Personnel.

Why did you leave your previous job?

Researchers at HeadHunter note that a candidate's chances of finding a job do not decrease if the reasons for his departure suit the employer.

“I can only advise one thing: always tell the truth,” says Yury Virovets. “Situations are very different, sometimes very confusing, each side has its own truth. If you are honest with your future employer, he will understand you.”

Try to avoid cliche explanations, advises Marina Mironova: "At the interview, 90% of candidates say" I do not see career prospects, "but we understand that most leave because of relationships and because of money."

Most candidates are afraid to talk at the interview about the fact that they did not have a relationship with their boss. They do not want to be thought of: "conflict, cannot get along." But you still need to try to talk to the future employer "like a human being", to explain to him close to reality what happened, experts say. When a candidate speaks in formulaic slogans, this causes even greater suspicion.

You can say: "It was not very comfortable working with the new team, although I had worked in the team for several years before that." Or that "the tasks were not very interesting to me," that the candidate "tried to discuss this with the employer, but they did not hear him," psychologists advise.

Of course, the candidate should keep in mind that his version will be rechecked. "If you are confident in yourself and in the fact that you will be given good performance, you yourself can offer to call your boss or the personnel department, advises Sergey Klyuchnikov. “This step makes a favorable impression, and even if they don’t call from a new location, it still has a positive effect.”

All experts agree that complaining about former boss it is forbidden.

“A complaint against a previous employer indicates the problems of the employee himself. You are leaving not because the boss is bad, but because you specifically feel uncomfortable working with him. Therefore, you need to talk about yourself, your feelings, and not discuss the boss,” sums up Marina Mironova.

“We choose, we are chosen” - the job search process can be quite accurately described by a line from a famous song. Not surprisingly, applicants have to not only listen to employers refuse, but also say “no” themselves. How to do it correctly?

To help your diplomatic skills in your career, read the recommendations.

How not to go to interviews
“I sent my resume to the vacancy, they called me and invited me for an interview. Already after we agreed on a meeting, I realized that I did not want to go. First, it is planned a good place in another company, and secondly, it is difficult to get to this office. Is it worth it to call and refuse? Maybe just not show up for the interview?

Applicants give each other advice, as they say, to the best of their upbringing. "Why to call? Recruiters constantly promise to call us back and do not call back”; “Be sure to inform that you will not come, so as not to make a person wait for you in vain” - opinions, as we see, are polar.

And yet, experts recommend taking the time to make a call or write an email, even if you don’t feel like it, it’s unpleasant or just laziness. Since recruiters do not keep their promises, then we will not - such logic is unacceptable for a polite and responsible person. Whatever they say, diplomacy - mandatory weapon career oriented professional.

Cultivating a culture of rejection is also necessary because the professional world is often tighter than we think. It is possible that you will still have to intersect with this company or even with a specific recruiter. Rest assured that your diplomatic efforts will not be in vain. Many HR managers maintain their database of applicants, and if the mark “did not appear” appears opposite your last name, then most likely the path to this company will be closed to you.

According to the Research Center of the recruiting portal site, 22% of recruiting managers are sure that they usually lie "in the absence of a culture of behavior and business ethics”, 19% - in irresponsibility. Obviously, no one wants to be among the uncivilized and irresponsible. Therefore, you still have to call and cancel the arrangement. If you don't get through, send an email.

It is better to do this in advance, for example, on the eve of the appointed day of the interview. It didn’t work out - call at least an hour or two in advance: the recruiter will have time to reschedule his working hours.

How do you explain your refusal to appear for an interview? Since the negotiations have just begun, no special explanation is required - a polite message in a friendly tone is enough. “Thank you for being interested in my candidacy, but the circumstances are such that now I am not ready to negotiate a job in your company. I wish you to find the right manager. Have a good day”, - such a message will not leave any doubts about your upbringing and knowledge of the rules of business ethics. Most likely, no further explanation is required - recruiters encounter such cases quite often.

“I have to refuse your offer…”
It’s a different matter if you have already passed the selection, attended interviews, completed test tasks and received a job offer. Or perhaps you have agreed, and on Monday you are expected at a new workplace. And suddenly you changed your mind: a more interesting option was found, a child fell ill, doubted the prospects - the reasons may be different. How to be?

Here you can not do without explaining the reasons for your refusal, at least in in general terms. Both the recruiter and the future boss, and you yourself have spent a lot of time and effort on interviews. If at the final stage of negotiations one of the participants suddenly refuses to continue them, the rest have the right to know about the reasons. Such explanations are not justifications at all, but reasonable observance of ethical norms.

Politely and kindly explain why you do not want to join this company. “I have another proposal, and at the moment it is more interesting to me”; “I have soberly assessed my capabilities and have to refuse your offer: it is inconvenient for me to spend two hours on the road to the office”; “At the current place, I was offered to lead new project, so I stop looking for a job, ”- in most cases, you don’t need to invent anything. Both the HR manager and the boss are likely to understand your motives without any embellishment.

However, if the reason for your refusal lies in the personality of the future leader or in the poor, in your opinion, organization of business processes in the company, do not rush to publicly declare this. The art of diplomacy is to smooth out the negative moments. So instead of posting everything you think (“Look for others who want to work from dawn to dusk and tolerate an unbalanced boss for such a salary”), it’s better to say: “Now I’m not ready to accept your offer, because the working conditions do not suit me” .

At this stage, it is better to report the refusal by phone. Email is also acceptable, but personal contact is preferred. Don’t forget to thank the failed employer for taking the time, wish you all the best, and if your refusal puts someone in an awkward position (for example, if you already agreed and had to go to work), then also apologize for the inconvenience caused.

“Do unto others as you would like to be done unto you” - this adage has not lost its relevance for centuries. If we want recruiters to honestly inform us about the refusal, and not leave us alone with conjectures, then it makes sense to comply with all agreements ourselves and report the decision in time.

Good luck in your job search!