Interview help - answsering why you want to leave your current job/career?

Make it a positive thign - not why you're looking to leave but why you want this job. You want a new challenge, you want to get back to working with people more, you want to gain experience in X area

Yeah, i will put all that positive stuff in Hazel, just worried they will focus on why i left nursing specifically, especially since i trained for it for 3 years, and worked as a nurse for 3 years.

Im not currently nursing, and although my current job is ok, i want this new one. I do want to get back into a medical setting, and work with people again.

However, im not sure how much a positive spin i can put on leaving nursing to work as a waitress. Full time permanenet nursing position at £21k/year to working part time as a waitress for national min wage.

Like Hazel said, you have to make it positive. You could say something like, you want to get back into an environment which has a medical aspect to it, as this is an aspect you liked from nursing and which you have missed when working as a waitress?

You shouldn't go too much into what you didn't like about nursing - you sound like you had very legitimate grievances, but you don't want to come across as someone who moans and complains (as that's how it might look to others).

Could you say you changed to waitressing as it fit into your circumstances at the time, but now you want to use your medical knowledge and experience, combined with customer service experience gained from waitressing...?

This is obviously a really sore point for you so it's a good idea to have an answer handy. The main thing is keep it brief and move on. It's not relevant to now, if anything I'd be looking for an answer to why you stayed in waitressing - my answer to that would probably be that I didn't mean to stay, but the other staff / customers made it such fun that time flied.

Possible answers .... so long as you don't actually lie you can use any tiny bit of the whole story

I just wasn't enjoying it any more and so I wanted to leave before I became less effective or

I just felt after six years I needed something with a bit less responsibility for a while or

The system had changed a great deal from how it was when I started.

Then STOP. They don't really want to know, they are opening up discussion and checking that you're not going to get into a rant about ex employers! With most professional interviews now for big companies they have a format that they ask the same questions to everyone so if they ask at all it's just to tick the box to say they have.

All the best, let us know how you get on.

Thanks for the replies everyone, really useful.

Tumbleweed, thanks for mentioning about why i stayed in waitressing for so long. Thats a good point, and i guess the answer is that I enjoyed it. I enjoy working with customers, and my other colleagues.

I wasnt actually actively looking for a job, but this one stood out so much for me that i couldnt not apply for it.

This is a good answer, if they ask about why you stayed in waitressing for so long, especially the bit in bold as it holds passion...when I was interviewing sometimes the best candidates weren't the one's that gave the textbook answers (once interviewed an ex recruitment agency person so knew all the right things to say) but those who showed a real passion.

Good luck for today.

Thanks for all your help!

Interview was today, seemed to go well, he commented a few times, "ah yes, thats what i was looking for, yes thats the kinda skill im looking for".

He thinks my medical knowledge is excellent, the 2nd stage medical terminology test would be a breeze for me.

Mentioned that i stayed in waitressing cos I enjoyed it, but that this job just stood out so much that i couldnt not apply for it.

They asked what my notice period was with current job, and mentioned that might like to start poeple a week tomorrow, and would that be a problem. Shouldnt be, my current work are fairly flexible, and i can get other folk to cover my shifts.

Seemed to go ok, however it was only 30mins, which i didnt realise til i got out. Seemed like a natural length, IYSWIM.

Shall here back today or tomorrow.

Fingers crossed