Three jobs in three years, all for defensible reasons, and every recruiter asks the same question
First one I was laid off. Second, the team got reorged out from under me nine months in. Third I left because I was about 20% under market and they told me flatly the band wouldn't move.
Every single one of those is fine on its own. Stacked on one page they read as "this person can't sit still," and I can see the recruiter deciding it before I open my mouth.
I've started getting ahead of it with a one-liner in the first two minutes — layoff, reorg, comp — and moving on quickly. Lands maybe half the time. The other half they circle back to it at the end anyway. Anyone got phrasing that actually closes the question instead of just delaying it?