How honest should you be in your exit interview

How honest should you be in your exit interviewHow honest should you be in your exit interviewIve worked at universities, research labs, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle. In most cases, when I left my job I welches given an exit interview. In some cases I left because of frustration with the job, organization, or leadership. In others I was bored and couldnt find a good challenge where I was. In still others I was moving for personal reasons, such as getting married and needing to relocate.When youre frustrated, its natural to try and settle scores or give heart-felt advice on how the company should change at the exit interview. You should absolutelynotgive in to this desire.Negative feedback generally changes nothing.The exception is if theres a trend theyve already noticed, it can confirm that trend, such as leaving from under-pay. Even in these cases you are painted in a negative light for abandoning ship rather than helping fix the problem.The world is small.If youre working in tech and move around, youll likely bump into the same people over and over again. On several occasions Ive left in frustration at a particular leader, only to wind up working for or with them again years later. Sometimes at the same company, sometimes at other companies, or even across the world. Theres no upside to giving negative feedback that might find its way back to them it changes nothing except their opinion of you, and the opinions of those who listen to them.Nobody likes a complainer.Full stop. Who do you respect more when youre stuck in a job, someone who complains all the time and drags everyone down, or someone who rolls up their shirt sleeves and tries to do the best they can?The bottom lineExit interviews are mostly a formality, a reminder of policies, and (in some cases) a threat of legal action if you dont take policies and agreements seriously, especially for recruiting.Dont mistake the exit interview for anything more personally meaningful than that, because 9 9 times out of 100 its not. You accomplish nothing by giving honest reasons for leaving or negative feedback, and it can hurt your future.This article first appeared at Quora.