If a job candidate told me their previous team had a closed-culture and was unappreciative of their talents I would think it was the candidate who was difficult and thought too highly of himself.<p>I would simply stick the lines of &quot;The work they had me doing wasn&#x27;t where my strengths really were. I think there was some miscommunication during the hiring process as to what the job really entailed&quot;. All of which is true in OP&#x27;s case - it wasn&#x27;t communicated to him how incompatible he would be with his team and he&#x27;s not going to perform his best work there. This method doesn&#x27;t place blame on anyone (important) and doesn&#x27;t make you sound difficult or overly particular.