Interview Questions and Answers: Problems with the boss

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