How to best explain career changes

One of the first questions asked when reviewing a resume is why the candidate has made career changes, especially recent ones.  Sometimes it is more evident than others - a relocation from another state for personal reasons, a company closing or being merged with another, a layoff, etc.  But other times it raises some serious questions.  If you have had basically the same position for ten years, but with seven different employers, it will make a person wonder why you have made all of the changes.

Here are a few basic tips to consider when explaining job movement:

1) Less is not always more.  Candidates falsely believe that providing as little information up front is okay as they can answer questions when their arise in the interview process.  Well, what happens if you never make it to interview stage?  Or if you do make it and the questions come up, but it is at an awkward moment in the interview after staring the discussion with some early momentum.  It can derail the conversation if you don't already have some basic facts outlined in a resume or even a cover letter.

2) Keep it positive.  Don't assume your audience knows why you would leave an employer that is perhaps notorious for high turnover.  Or that there wouldn't be a connection to that employer within the group of people interviewing you for a job.  It is a small world out there and only getting smaller.  If you bad mouth a former employer and hope that counts as an explanation for your departure, you are badly mistaken.

3) Keep it professional, but keep it real.  This line gets blurred sometimes when candidates outline details of a personal situation that affected job performance.  I had to chuckle thinking about this while watching a recent episode of "The Office".  There were some office break-ups that really affected the working culture within the office.  While it might make sense at the time, a prospective employer will not want to hear the gory details of a past personal relationship gone bad that led to your resignation or termination.  While on the other hand there are sometimes personal tie-ups that require a change in job or even some time away from the working world altogether.  You do not always need to be worried about what people will think of these situations as they may have been unavoidable and won't impact job performance going forward.

4) Don't blame others for failures.  No one wants to hear about a boss that stifled all of your brilliant ideas and prevented you from being successful.  People naturally want to hear about how you succeeded, and sometimes despite your working environment.  That is much more valuable to a prospective employer as opposed to you alluding to the fact that you'll need someone else to "set you up" in a certain manner as the only way to be successful.  While having resources and support is important, it is much more impressive to have new ideas and the desire for an open dialogue to finding avenues to succeed in the future.

The bottom line is that the vast majority of us will experience at least 3-5 job changes in their career, if not more.  I will never forget a college professor telling me that the average person will have 6-7 job changes after they graduate and before they turn 35.  At the time I thought he was crazy.  Now after ten years of recruiting I have to admit that he was spot on with his assessment.  Which makes this topic a pretty relevant one and something to keep in mind whether in active job search or not.