It’s never easy to apply for a new job, but the challenge becomes even greater when you bring your past work experience to your interview. One of the trickiest questions you’ll be asked is why you’re leaving your old job in the first place. Your interviewer can make a lot of judgment calls on your abilities and personal character based on how you answer. An inappropriate response may give off the impression that you’re finicky, hard to please, hard to get along with, or even insincere about your intentions to work for the company. That, in turn, may reduce your chances of getting hired and truly being able to start life anew.

If you’ve recently applied for new Philippines jobs and are preparing to leave your old position, be ready to answer this question with tact. Here are some tips for getting the message across with the utmost integrity and professionalism.

Be Honest about Why You’re Leaving Your Current Company

Being honest during your interview is non-negotiable, especially on the issue of why you’re vacating your old job. Your interviewer may be good at detecting lies or half-truths, which will definitely damage your prospects of getting hired. And even if you do manage to get through the interview without telling the truth, it may come out during your onboarding or while you’re already working at your new company. When that happens, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be renewed or recommended for a better position.

It’s definitely best to tell your interviewer the truth about why you’re leaving, whether that pertains to needing a higher salary, being retrenched, or getting laid off because you weren’t the best fit for the role. Leave it to them to make an accurate call about whether you’re the best person for the new job, but always let their assumptions be based on the truth.

Be Balanced in Your Assessment of Your Last Job

Your interviewer may also ask you to elaborate on your old company and the nature of your old job. When doing so, take care not to veer towards extremes. Only speaking highly of your previous company will have the interviewer wondering why you’re leaving in the first place. Conversely, citing nothing but faults on the part of your former employer may sour the interviewer’s first impression of you.

Come to your interview with a balanced assessment of your experience with your old employer. Talk about the old company’s strengths in terms of their work culture or industry achievements, as well as the role they played in making you the employee you are today. Follow that up with honest insights about what the company lacked and why continuing to work with them may have caused a standstill in your career.

Be Objective and Factual about Your Last Work Experience

When going through the details of your past work experience, remember to keep your emotions in check and to be as objective and factual in your recounting as possible. For example, if your biggest problems at your old job lay with your boss or colleagues, tell your interviewer about the issue involved and about the steps you took to try and resolve it. Avoid giving unnecessary information, such as your personal thoughts about your boss’s or coworkers’ characters.

In short, be tactful and resist the urge to rant or to add emotional color to your previous work experiences. For sure, there’s a place and time to speak candidly about your previous work experiences. A job interview, however, is not one of them.

Talk about the Different Opportunities You See with Your New Job

If you’re looking for the perfect note to end your answer on, talk about the good things you’re excited to do for yourself and for your new company if you’re hired for the job. You can tell your interviewer about how the new role may help you step up as a leader or get you to utilize previously untapped talents, like your creative side.

It’s inevitable that you will spend a portion of your interview reexamining your past. But when given the opportunity, speak more about how you’ll move forward in the future. Doing so will likely have a positive impact on your interviewer and make you an even more attractive candidate for the job.

Some Last Tips on Confronting Tricky Questions during Job Interviews

Don’t forget that the question of why you’re leaving your old job is not the only difficult question you’ll have to answer during your interview. Try to come up with a list of tricky questions that you think you’ll be asked, starting with common issues like your expected salary and the strengths and weaknesses you perceive in yourself. There’s no shame in coming up with tentative answers and rehearsing them well before you meet your interviewer.

You may be looking forward to a change of scenery with regard to your work environment. But this will only happen if you make a favorable enough impression on the people who are thinking of hiring you. Take time to prepare for your job interview, and put your best foot forward!