The Exit Interview
Launch library · evergreen read
The exit interview sits at an unusual moment: someone is leaving a role or an organisation and has, at least in theory, less to lose by speaking candidly than they did while still inside it. That freedom makes the format valuable, though it also invites its own particular caution. That freedom is genuine, though it invites its own particular caution from an attentive interviewer.
Departing subjects sometimes use the moment to settle a score rather than to offer a balanced account, and a skilled interviewer learns to separate genuine insight from simple grievance without dismissing either outright. Both can be present in the same answer, and both can be worth recording. Both grievance and insight can sit inside the very same answer, and neither should be dismissed outright.
The format works best when the subject trusts that candour will not follow them afterward. Confidentiality, whether formal or simply understood, tends to determine how much real material an exit interview actually yields, far more than the specific questions asked within it. Confidentiality, whether formally promised or simply understood, tends to shape the material far more than any single question.