These interview questions are sometimes classified under the 'reasons not to hire you' group, but they do have a legitimate purpose. Not everybody has a sparkling employment record, and the need for information increases with the degree of difficulty in understanding someone's work history.

Interviewers have to investigate these issues. Remember, this is nothing personal. The only information they have is what you've given them. Any interview questions are to clarify, not condemn.

It's in your interest to answer these interview questions so you can express your position as well as possible. Your interview answers are under your control. Experienced managers and supervisors need to be able to judge things on their merits. Your interview answers could provide some irrefutable facts in your favor.

Your feelings can sabotage your interview answers. If you feel you've suffered injustice, it can boil over right in the middle of an interview.

The feelings may be understandable, but they do absolutely nothing for the quality of the interview answer. It doesn't help you think clearly, either, and your interview answers can get very disjointed.

Things to avoid with 'Problems with the boss' interview questions

However justifiable, these things do you no good in any interview answer, and must be avoided:

• Accusations: these are negative and useless as interview answers.
• Allegations of illegality: technically, it can be defamation.
• Detailed information: this is private information, between you and your former employer. You may create problems for yourself if you make any disclosures you're under an obligation not to make.
• Emotionalism: this just makes you feel worse, and can easily wreck an interview answer.

Structuring, preparing and controlling your interview answers

The best way to deal with these highly charged interview questions is to be strictly factual. You have to prepare your interview answers in advance.

Preparation:

These are the questions you should ask yourself:

• What were the issues with the boss?
• How do you express those in simple statements without allegations?
• What's the big area of concern for the new employer?
• How do you defuse any worries about your suitability?
• What information do you have to show the new employer to make your point?

Example

The interview question is, 'You had some problems with your former employer. Can you tell us what happened?'

Your answer is, 'The manager accused me of dishonesty. There was a lot of money, thousands of dollars, missing from the receipts for one particular week. I was deemed responsible, because I was in charge of doing the daily balances. I denied any involvement, and I was surprised because the balances were OK when I sent them on. They fired me, but I wasn't charged.'

Interviewer's assessment of the interview answer

Because of your factual and candid answer in the example above, the interviewer should conclude that the termination of previous employment was based on poor accounts management practices, and was groundless. Hopefully this leads to being recommended for appointment to the position you were interviewing for.