"I actually come prepared for this question, and have a line to explain each and every job I've departed in reverse chronological order. And I'd be happy to read them off if you'd like. You do? Okay...
- VCs merged us with a Chinese acquisition and sent our work overseas
- Manager ignored my memos for 5 years and then said "you have no new ideas" to my face in a review
- Sales team demanded an emergency prototype and then let a competitor steal the contract
- Company pivoted into a different tech stack overnight
- Google rewrote our code in a weekend and kicked us out of Android
- Owner wouldn't install health benefits (+$5K) but hired his daughter for the summer for busywork
- Company abandoned the market and went into Facebook games
Now hopefully none of these scenarios will ever happen here. Right? Glad to hear it."
While I agree all of these scenarios are good reasons to leave, I have a feeling (based on being an American for all 30 years of my life now), these answers would be classified as "TOO REAL" and as a result you might be filtered for "culture fit" aka manager doesn't think he/she can control you.
I agree, but at that point if they're going to make this kind of observation on my resume ("hmm, you move around a lot"), the reply is going to be of equal tone ("I move around a lot because the companies I choose tend to make bad decisions and change direction with equal frequency").
Lol, after 3 small companies, I joined a large systemic bank. It's less exciting but I can see projects to their completion without being surrounded by bumbling idiots barely out of business school barking nonsensical orders.
