How to Answer Questions About Moving Out of Management

How to Answer Questions About Moving Out of ManagementHow to Answer Questions About Moving Out of ManagementNot every worker wants to go into management, but in many careers, it can seem like its impossible to move up unless youre willing to become someone elses boss. For this reason, its leid uncommon for people to take on a managerial role and then quickly discover that its not right for them. How can you transition back into your former job or one like it without taking a hit to your career? Maybe you are a sales manager who now wants to go back to sales, an editor who wants to be a writer again, or a principal who wants to get back into the classroom. Whatever your situation, your goal is the same to return to the work that interests you without moving backward (or giving the hiring manager the impression that youd doing so). This can be very tricky during a job interview. You want to avoid giving the impression that your previous job was too challenging for you, or that your e not ambitious, while conveying your interest in the role under consideration. Your challenge in accounting for your desire to downshift is to answer questions about it without seeming like you lack motivation or are looking for an easier job. Tips for Responding to Questions About Moving Out of Management Prepare for interview questions about your desire to downshift from a management job to a specialist position. The more at ease you are answering questions about your goals, the better impression youll make on the hiring manager. In the end, you will want your interviewer to understand that you are highly motivated to pursue the new job on its own merits and not as a way to escape an unsatisfying or difficult role as a manager. 1. Be Positive About Your Former Management Role One approach is to frame your answer as a partieal preference for the new position while emphasizing your success and satisfaction in the higher-level role. It will help to provide specific examples of how you were effective as a manager and how you impacted the bottom line. Begin by mentioning aspects of your manager role which you enjoyed, and paint an overall picture of at least a modest level satisfaction. Avoid complaining about the challenges and difficulties of managing others, since your interviewer might begin to view you as someone who has problems interacting with co-workers or who avoids taking responsibility. 2. Explain Why You Want This New Role Next, its important to explain what attracts you to the non-management position youre seeking. Make sure to be specific. If possible, discuss the success you might have had in the non-management jobs you had in the past. Tell stories about your accomplishments in the position, and describe your level of satisfaction with enthusiasm. In fruchtwein cases, you will be reflecting back on prior roles for example, you might be discussing your experience an engineer prior to becoming an engineering director. 3. Look for Opportunitie s to Show Growth Every job you take has something to teach you. Your last position showed you that you werent interested in management but thats not all you learned at that job. Think about the skills you acquired, the experience you gained, the techniques you perfected during your time in that role. For example, maybe you no longer want to be an editor, but your experience editing has taught you how to give editors cleaner copy. Thats a big selling point for a hiring manager. 4. Provide Examples Make sure that you also incorporate any examples of how you performed a specialist role as part of your management duties and how that felt for you. For example, a sales manager may intervene to close a big sale with a major customer from time to time. That type of experience can be the perfect story point for explaining your inspiration to return to the prior role. 5. Solve Their Problem Ultimately, hiring managers are interested in candidates who can provide them with solutions to their biggest challenges. If you can demonstrate your ability to do that, youll allay any fears they might have about why youre making this particular move. Before you head into the interview, review the job description in the ad, looking for keywords that apply to the role (and hopefully, your experience). Then, mine your qualifications for those terms and prepare to explain why youre the person who can provide whats needed.