Imagine for a moment that an exceptional job candidate is about thirty minutes into an important job interview. The candidate, whom we’ll call Joe, and the hiring manager seemed to have hit it off almost from the start. Joe has nailed every job-related question the hiring manager has thus far asked him. Because the hiring manager has such a pleasant personality and a relaxed friendly manner, she has put Joe completely at ease. He is absolutely certain at this point that he is a virtual “shoe-in” for the job. Then, seemingly out of the blue, the hiring manager asks him, “So, tell me about your boss.”

Suddenly, an alarm – albeit, a small alarm – goes off in Joe’s head. He hesitates to answer her question for a moment because he is unsure how to answer it, or at least how to truthfully answer it. This could be a “trap,” he thinks. “How can I say anything positive about the jerk I now work for?” he asks himself. After all, his current boss is the primary reason he is looking for a new job!

The hiring manager, sensing Joe’s hesitation, quickly, and apparently with a great deal of empathy and genuine concern and understanding, adds, “Oh, you can be honest with me, Joe. Let’s face it, we’ve all had some pretty bad bosses in our time, including me. Just tell me the truth. I assure you’ll understand.”

Whew! Joe thinks to himself, once again relaxing, for a moment there I was fearful that I might “blow it!”

“Well, all right,” Joe finally says, and then immediately begins to detail everything he feels is bad about his current boss. He brow-beats his employees. Joe literally leaves no stone unturned when it comes to berating his current boss and describing just how truly awful he is. Finally, he adds, almost gratuitously, that the principal reason he is now looking for a new job is because of his current boss!

Sound the buzzer! Blow the whistle! Ring the bell! Joe is “out of the game!”

Joe did, in fact, and in every sense of the term, just “blow it!” He instantly and irretrievably branded himself as a whiner and a complainer, someone who probably can be expected to cause nothing but trouble and discontent, in the now extremely unlikely event that the hiring manager was to select him as her candidate of choice. He literally is “out of the game” at this point.

Unfair? You bet it is. Wasn’t the hiring manager just “game playing?” Again, you bet. But there is even more bad news: Today, hiring managers and the companies they represent don’t play “fair.” And, as I repeatedly point out, hiring is indeed a “game,” a very serious game, to be sure, and one with all new rules! Either accept these facts, then learn these new rules, as well as how to effectively play by them, or you will be quickly eliminated as a viable candidate in today’s job market—just as Joe was.

Joe, of course, should have gone with his first instinct. The hiring manager (aka his “new best friend”) did indeed set a “trap” for him—one of a number of “traps” today’s hiring managers sometimes want to set for the unwary, unsuspecting job candidate!—and guess what? Joe rushed headlong right into that trap! As a result, Joe’s candidacy ended right then and there.

So, how should Joe have answered the hiring manager’s question?

“I’ve enjoyed my time with my current boss and team, I have learned a lot about how to project manage, improve team motivation, and how to become a more organized professional, and I am looking forward to the opportunity to bring everything my boss has taught me to a new team.”

Find a way to take what you have learned from working with your boss, and make it into a positive. Maybe your boss is disrespectful to your team members, and you saw the negative effects that had on team productivity. In a backward way, they DID teach you how not to improve team motivation, and in turn how to motivate teams better.

Always remember, a job interview is not the time to air out your grievances, keep it positive and to the point.