My Interviewing Experiences

I would like to share my experience interviewing for jobs in new fields that are unrelated to my previous career in software testing, i.e. interviewing for non-software jobs. What is common among all the interviews is the insistence on why I would like to do the career change and why I am a fit for the new job. Most interviewers were pretty adamant about these two questions and kept rephrasing these same questions until they got an answer that satisfied them. Even though I prepared appropriate answers for these questions, my initial answers were not sufficiently acceptable.

So in particular, the positions that I interviewed for were for real estate appraisal and a retail job at FedEx Kinko’s. I did not get the impression that they judged me because I am trying to switch to a new field. I felt that the opposition was not about trying new things, but it was more about the classical question "Why did you leave Microsoft???" :-) Most interviewers questioned why I want to leave a career that seems to be more lucrative and stable than the one I am applying for. Many of them got angry at why I did not try to do the career change while still at MS, and they did not seem to understand how I can give up something that is perceived to be "good" and "desirable". So they drilled down with their questions on my previous role in software testing and asked me why I don't go back to testing. What don't I like about it? They kept rephrasing the same question until they got an answer from me that satisfied them. Usually after they insist so much and after I exhaust my prepared answers (e.g. I liked what I did before but I want to explore something new because I want to use skill x and skill y, or something along those lines), I just say that I don't like to be in front of a computer the whole day, or I don't like the amount of chaos and ambiguity that I had to deal with, and that's what changes the tone of the interview and I think is the critical point when they decide not to hire me. :-) I don't know what else to answer because they are not satisfied with my initial answer that is focused on the positive. I try to stay away from the negative, but they insist.

This is what I have to share about my personal interviewing experience. I feel that for the next interview I need to be very convincing to the interviewer that I am a fit for their job opening and have a strong sales pitch and confident attitude!