Is this the first time you have made an effort to move away from your current employers?

Is this the first time you have made an effort to move away from your current employers?

Alternative and related questions:

Have you been tempted to leave your current employers before?

The meaning behind the question:

This is a good question, from the interviewer's point of view.  It helps them to probe further into your reasons for wishing to leave your current employers.  It helps them to get a better grasp on the way you manage your career.  It helps them to better understand what makes you tick.

Your answer:

It's superficially a closed question with an obvious "Yes" or "No" answer.  But it's actually a lot more complicated than that.  For a start, you need to decide if you want to tell the truth or not!  The choice is yours.  But, whether you answer "Yes" or "No", you should aim to support your answer with your reasoning and to justify that reasoning.  If you haven't been tempted to leave before then why not.  If you have then why did you decide to stay.

In Chapter 2 we covered the highly popular question, "Why do you wish to leave your current position?"  You need to bear in mind your answer to this when formulating your answer to this new question.

Example:

No, it's not the first time I've considered moving on.  An opportunity did previously arise via my network.  However, at the time I still felt sufficiently challenged in my role and still had plenty of things I wanted to achieve.  So I declined the offer.  Clearly, things are different now and I feel ready to embrace a new challenge.

Word of warning:

If you answered that you have indeed previously been tempted to leave but you don't explain your reasons for deciding to stay then there's every chance you'll be hit with the obvious follow-up question, "Why did you decide to stay?"  Pre-empt that question by explaining your reasoning up front.

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