Is it ok to ask about a manager's record for team attrition / reasons for attrition, if they ask why you left past jobs?
I've been asked recently by hiring managers why I left that job or why I left this job. These are pretty awkward questions because they are inviting negativity. The answer is never going to be "I loved my job so much that's why I left..." I read that most people say they leave a job because of a bad manager or poor pay. If you got fired sharing that would definitely not work in your favor. Even if you bs an answer about not growing enough, it could still be a red flag... the manager might think you are a flight risk and require extra attention for your personal career growth. This question is always going to produce something that will count against you. How have you handled this question before? But now thinking it through we never really pry into the manager's attrition numbers and it is actually very useful information for the interviewer! Since HR works to protects the company and by extension management, they will get away with a lot of offenses against their ICs but their attrition numbers could be a tell tail sign. Back in the day when Uber managers groped their ICs, HR buried these complaints to protect the company. The HR investigations always concluded that nothing wrong happened... the ICs were then targeted by their manager/gropers with the help of HR to make them look like poor performers... When Eric Holder of the DoJ conducted the same investigation, the result was completely different than the ones done by HR. Would it be risky to ask about a manager's record for team attrition and reasons for the attrition on an interview? especially if they ask about why you left a previous job?
Good good to ask but I would ask it after getting the offer.
I can give an honest and non-negative explanation for leaving every team/job I moved on from. "I was working at <big company>. A former coworker went to <small company>, and recommended it. They offered me a role leading the team that would building a solution to <the problem I was working on> from scratch." "I worked at <company> in <location > for two years. In those two years, I realized that <location> was not where I wanted to live in the long term. I took a new job in <other location>, which was a better choice for my family." "My team worked on <problem>. We shipped a solution on <date>. At that point the remaining work was maintenance, and people started to leave. The people I most respected were on their way out, so I started looking for other jobs."
Some of you really lack emotional intelligence.
Let's not assume a manager's job or goal is to retain employees forever though. Some need to go. Those ones will be unhappy about it. But that doesn't mean everyone else on the team is unhappy.
You're an SDM at Amazon right?
The facts are what they are.
Nailed it!
I don’t think I would respond to such a fact-seeking question. Most likely you’d get “Apple does not generally provide this statistics to candidates” You can ask a softer version like “horse is the dynamic in the team, has there been much attrition” but if you push for more answers than the manager is comfortable sharing you’d be red flagged - no manager wants to be subject to hostile employees and it is likely people are at their most docile in interviews so if you are argumentative in an interview, I’d assume you just scream at your boss in real life
Basically keep your heads down and keep working slves.
Call it what you will, you are paid money to do work
This is a great question
As a HM, reason for leaving or wanting to leave can be a telling information that matters in hiring decision. Obviously interviewees can make up stuffs but it’s on hiring team to filter / digest. In the other direction, I am willing to discuss past attritions (and have been asked and responded), assuming the question is raised in professional manner.
I asked this when interviewing at G for team matching. They said they only lost 1 person since they had a better opportunity externally. In the end, the answer didn’t matter. Because after joining, many people transferred internally to other teams/products. So maybe asking about internal transfers can be the first question before you jump into talking about real attrition. Some ppl here are saying it’s a negative question but who cares, it’s just an interview.
I usually ask why this position was created. If the manager replies the previous person left then I ask the reason why he/she left