Exit Interview Questions and Answers

Exit Interview Questions and Answers

Leaving your existing employer to explore the greener pastures? The last official formality – exit interview awaits you. It is no doubt difficult to answer all the questions while being both honest as well as diplomatic at the same time. Here are some of the questions you can expect to be asked at your exit interview – some of them are quite common and casual while others are really tricky to handle.

The model answer for each question should help you create your own “right” answer.

1.Why do you want to leave your job?

The reasons to change the job can be numerous – may be you are not happy with the work you are doing or you want to explore better opportunities or you may have some personal problems.

If you are moving on for better opportunities your answer could be something like –

I have worked with this company for more than 5 years and I have a feeling that I have grown as much as I could have grown here. It is the time for me to explore newer pastures where I can shoulder more responsibilities, get to do newer things, handle more projects, meet more people and get an enriching experience as I have got here in all these years.

If you are moving on for a personal reason you can say something like –

My parents are old now and I am the only one to take care of them. I want to move to a place nearer to them from where it is easier to reach them. Being nearer to my native place, the new employment provides me this benefit.

2.How do you rate our management and skills? Is there anything we can do to improve them?

If you have been happy with the overall management style but see some areas for improvement, you can say something like:

Overall, I am happy with the management style of the company but there’s a scope of improvement in the way we deal with our new recruits. We can allow them to be more independent from the beginning so that they start performing more quickly. Further, if we can also streamline our decision making process, it will be more helpful in cutting out unnecessary steps and reaching a conclusion faster.

3.How did you inform your supervisor about your decision to leave the job? How did he react?

I and my supervisor share a good rapport. Before sending him a formal e-mail, I verbally informed him about my decision to move on. He was a bit surprised to hear this but when I explained him my reasons, he was quite respectful of my decision.

4.Were you happy with the type of supervision you received?
If you have been happy with your supervisor, you can say something like –

Yes, I have enjoyed working with my supervisor. He supported me in all my correct decisions and stopped me whenever I was going on a wrong track. He gave me the liberty to do my work more independently while ensuring that the official structures are followed.

If you have not been happy with your supervisor, your answer to this question can be something like –

I believe there’s some scope of improvement in the type of supervision being offered to the marketing team. I understand that XYZ handles a lot of opportunities at a time and it becomes difficult for him to give time to every one but without his guidance the team at times lands up losing its productive hours and is often de-motivated. If he could have some hierarchy set up under him, it will give him more time at hand to discuss things with the team while improving the overall performance of the team.

5.Do you think that the company was able to help you meet your career aspirations?

Yes, the company did help me learn and grow all these year but I believe that my growth and opportunities to learn have reached a plateau here and it’s the time to move on.

6.If any future opportunities arise, will you recommend your family and friends to work with us?

Definitely! With the type of learning and experience I have gained here, I would surely recommend my family and friends to work for this company.

7.Was there any particular thing or event that triggered your decision to leave?

If there’s a particular reason for you to leave your current job, you can say something like:

In last some months, I had been handling a lot of responsibilities. I tried to extend myself to do justice with all of them. Some of the tasks were actually exhaustive and I had asked for more support in terms of resources and better planning from the management but somehow it could not work out.

8.Is there anything you would like to be changed about your job that you did with us?

Overall, I am happy with the roles I executed. During my employment with the company, I worked on the profiles that were both already well established as well as those which had to be established from the scratch. Both kinds of profiles added a lot of value to the experience I possess today. Now, when I look back, I feel that things could have worked better with more planning in second case.

9.Are there any additional benefits, responsibilities or perks offered by your new employer that encouraged you to leave us?

Yes, the new job offers me more challenges, responsibilities, opportunities to grow with a better compensation.

10. Is there anything we could have done to retain you?

Probably not! The main reasons for change were more challenges and opportunities to grow. So, I don’t think doing anything much was possible.

11. What were your parameters to select your new employer?

There were a lot of things which I considered while selecting my new employer. For e.g. – the growth opportunity, work culture, work environment, flexibility, scope to apply what I have learnt and experienced till date etc.

12. Did you have all the resources to accomplish your job with us? If not, what was missing?

I think, at most of the times, I had the required resources. However, at times I felt a need for better planning and a way to better understand the intention of the top management while making any strategic decision so that I could align my actions better.