Should I reveal I have a difficult boss when interviewing for jobs?

This week’s problem

I have worked in my current PR role for a year but feel I am underachieving due to a supervisor who hoards work. Despite skirting the supervisor issue tactfully during an interview for a role at another company, I was unsuccessful. The feedback was that when I mentioned why I was looking to move, apparently it raised red flags about my working relationships. How do I find a new role if working with a difficult person is being held against me? Should I reveal it at all? Anonymous

Jonathan’s answer

It is encouraging that your application for a new role, after just a year in your current job, secured an interview. Evidently your CV, cover letter, and any other assessment tests, demonstrated that you had the skills and experience to do the job. While you may feel you are underachieving, the new organisation clearly felt that on paper you were appointable and wanted to meet you to learn more.

You have also had the benefit, all too rare, of receiving some useful, open and honest feedback. The one overarching question interviewers have of candidates is: “Do I want to work with you?” When they hear criticism of a previous supervisor, however justified, they project that disapproval on to themselves. The natural reaction is to avoid that outcome, and therefore not hire you.

Your job in an interview is to give the best possible image of you so that the other side can make an informed decision. That way, whatever the outcome, you can be satisfied that you could have done no more. Whether they decide to appoint you or not is their job, not yours. You may have given a perfect interview and have written a perfect application, but there was someone better on the day, or they changed their mind about the job.

The question then is, what is the best possible image of you for this particular role?

Everyone has experienced issues in their relationships at work, including the interviewers. They will be asking about your behaviour in how you deal with workplace tensions to find out if you are a good team player. There is no need to voluntarily discuss your poor working relationship with someone, though you do need to be ready if they ask you for an example of friction in the workplace. Turn your issue into something positive, how you handled it deftly, defused the tension, the actions you took, and the successful outcome.

For the rest of the interview, remember that they think you can do the job and want the interview to go well. Focus on what attracts you to the new role, not why you are leaving: presumably you are seeking a role in which you can develop, use your skills, and contribute to the new organisation.

Approach it, perhaps, from the point of view of an actor: the audience is not interested in previous roles or how long it took to learn the part, the audience wants a great performance on the night.

Readers’ advice

Your objective is to get a job where you can achieve more. In an interview, say the things that will help you reach your objective. A prospective employer has no motive to hire you just because your current supervisor is difficult. HughCameron

Recruitment is in many ways like dating. Best not to talk about your problems and your past on your “first date”. Jaded in-house counsel

Being underused in your current role, and keen to do more, is a good reason to want to move, and need not carry negative implications about working relationships. Tench

Jonathan Black is director of the Careers Service at the University of Oxford. Every fortnight he answers your questions on personal and career development, and working life. Do you have a question for him? Email dear.jonathan@ft.com