Question about ties Forum

[Anonymous User]

I grew up in market A, but I want to work in market B after I graduate. During some of my callback interviews, firms have questioned why I want to work in B instead of my hometown. I have plenty of ties to market B but firms still seem to question why I don't want A. The real reason I don't want A is because I don't want to live near my family (lots of drama/issues). How should I approach this in an interview? I'm afraid to say "my family's crazy and I don't want to live near them" since firms might think I'm the problem or something like that.

[Devlin]

Yeah don't bring up your family. Just say I want to work in B because A does not have [trait B has] or just transition to sport talk about B. You don't really need to go in depth on why you don't want A, just need to convey why you want B.

[pa1901]

I agree with what Devlin said. Also, I can't speak to your exact situation, but if market B is a relatively smaller market just because they're asking "why not market A" doesn't necessarily mean anything bad. I was in a similar situation where I grew up in Market A, but was interviewing in the smaller market B, to which I also had solid ties to. Almost my entire resume screamed "Market B," yet I still got questioned on why I didn't want to return to Market A. It's just normal for firms in smaller markets to question those kind of things to attempt to get a sense of if you really want Market B, or if you're just interviewing there as a back up or whatever.

Extremely anecdotal and my markets could be different from yours, but for what it's worth the firm that kind of drilled me the most on why I didn't want to go back to where I grew up ended up giving me an offer. So don't sweat it too much when the question comes up. Just have a brief answer (not including the family situation) about why market B is better for you on a personal and professional level. Even if the family issue is the driving force just focus on your ties to market B, i.e. "my close friends/professional network is here; I just enjoy living here much better;" etc.

[2014]

Just tell them your family doesn't live in A anymore - it's barely any different than them living there and you not wanting to live near them.