Interview Q: "Why not move within your firm?"

How do you politically answer a question of "why not just move within your current firm?" Currently on acquisitions looking to move to asset management, trying to make a move but the AM team at current firm is hard to work with (i.e. just a mean spirited head that trickles down). Always get this question and never felt I had a solid answer.

How would you answer this question? Let's say the lateral firm is completely identical in every way, so can't say "I want to focus on X region or X property type".

7 Comments
 

This is a great answer - only thing I could say you could add (depending on the audience/circumstance) is you could stroke the ego and somehow work in a line that you think the team you're interviewing with is smarter/better to learn from/more dynamic, etc. Just make sure you say it in a subtle way so as to not throw current team under bus and make it too obvious you're trying to use flattery.

"Who am I? I'm the guy that does his job. You must be the other guy."
 

I highly value the people I work for and I want to work for a team that I can not learn the most from but contribute to. My current team is impressive but your firm’s team represents best in class. This is the only logical choice for me.

 

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