What To Expect In An Exit Interview

Exit interviews are commonplace nowadays particularly in larger organisations.  HR Departments conduct this type of interview for a number of reasons such as to garner information to improve the work environment to help with employee retention and also for legal reasons in some instances.

It should also be noted that you are not obliged to take part in an exit interview but you are best advised to do so, to help ensure you receive a positive reference from your company.  Job seekers are often torn between giving honest reasons why they are leaving versus giving canned responses that are not true representations of his/her reasons for changing jobs.  The reason that employees provide canned responses because they are afraid that if they provide their true reasons they again may not receive the glowing reference they expected.

The types of questions you can expect to face in an exit interview include:

- what are the main reasons for you leaving?

- what have you enjoyed about working here?

- what have you not enjoyed about working here?

- did you receive the necessary training and support to help you do your job?

- did you have any issues with management / colleagues or is it a career decision?

- how could we have helped to make you enjoy the role more?

- what would we need to do to make you reconsider your decision?

It is fine to be honest in answering questions as long as you do so in a rational constructive manner.  An exit interview is not the place for snide comments, there is no point in burning bridges with the company.  Look forward to new beginnings in your new job and don’t use your exit interview as a vendetta against your employer or else your reference may not be so glowing after all.  It may be worth your while reading a previous blog post 6 rules to successful job references.

Filed under: Exit interviews • Interview tips

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