“What were the reasons for your leaving the last job?”- If this simple interviewer’s question makes you shudder, that means that your parting with the former employer wasn’t a pleasant one. Most applicants are afraid of this question just because they were fired and now consider the dismissal a huge dark stain on the professional reputation. What should a candidate do when asked to name the reasons for being fired? Should an applicant keep silence or is it better to reveal the awful truth?
During the interview applicants are supposed to answer all the questions dealing with their professional life. And a tricky point of discharge from the previous job can’t be omitted or left unanswered. Don’t respond aggressively to the question why you left your last job. Answers like: “It’s not your business!” or a milder variant “I’d rather not answer this question” will only rouse interviewer’s interest and suspicions. The correct strategy includes the way your answer the annoying question. Practice putting the situation of your dismissal at a favorable angle before the actual interview. Find the most negative moment of the discharge and omit them or alter the mood of the story. Hiring managers don’t like wet-blankets who whine about being underestimated or not appreciated. You were fired because of some disagreements with superior staff members? Then avoid calling them ‘unprofessional bloodsuckers who always found fault with’ you. Don’t enumerate all the punishments and penalties you had. When disappointed, people tend to pity themselves and exaggerate the troubles. Stay calm and distract the mind from negative attitude towards your ex-boss\colleagues. Stormy professional relations may sign to the hiring manager that you are too emotional and the story of incompatibility may repeat in the prospect company-employer. Mention that with the appearance of the new staff\manager\boss you tried to meet his\her expectation and demands but it turned out that your views were too different. Say how hard it was to leave the company where you’ve successfully worked for a number of years. Even if the reason of your being fired was envy from the side of a less qualified senior staff, don’t turn your story into a Shakespeare’s tragedy with you as a humiliated, wrongly-accused character. Just say that you’ve overgrown the company as you may never know how the hiring manager would treat the clever rival in his mother company.
Being fired because of a cut-down is also not an issue to be afraid of addressing. In all the above mentioned cases reasons for dismissal are not extremely serious. But what should an applicant do if he\she was fired because of rules violation? All the companies have a written and an unwritten codex of rules. If you violated a rule because you had never heard of its existence, the situation can be clarified during the interview. Some violations can be treated as minor ones. For example, you used company’s card to make a discount for your friends. Suchlike faults can happen in professional life. Describe the situation to the hiring manager and stress that you have realized your fault and it will never happen again. When more serious violations are involved, each situation must be treated differently and separately. The common tip may sound as stay calm and tell the interviewer not only about your drawback but also the way you tried to handle the problem. You have forgotten to send to the clients extremely important documents? Tell the hiring manager what steps you undertook to correct the mistake. People who admit their mistakes, and are flexible and quick-minded enough to improve the situation- make the best employees. Having made some mistakes in past you will be more careful in future. Only don’t try to be over-frank putting the reasons for the dismissal on the resume. Such carelessness is sure to keep the employers from appointing the interview, and you won’t have a chance to tell the hiring manager the justification details of your being fired.
The worst situation is that where the affair came to the court. If you have sued the previous employer notwithstanding whether your protected your honor or points of view, the most unsuitable thing to do during the interview is to boast the fact of your winning the case. Under such circumstances it’s better to keep part of the truth to yourself without mentioning the trial things at all (of course it’ll impossible if the case appeared in press).
To sum up all the pieces of advice it must be concluded that the best strategy answering the being-fired-question is to sweeten the existing truth concentrating not on the negative moments of your past, but on the positive future moments with the new employer.
