Getting a Full Time Job After Getting Fired

I didn’t mean to wreck the company car–that squirrel came out of nowhere!”

“But the boss’s wife really did look like my old girlfriend at that party.”

“OK, I made a few personal, long distance calls. Everyone else does it, right?”

Maybe “everyone else” does do it, but everyone else didn’t get caught–you did. Now you’ve been fired, and despite your explanations, it’s totally your fault. How can you convince potential employers that you are worthy of hiring?

1. Evaluate the circumstances under which you had to leave.

If you are fired from a job, you must first be brutally honest with yourself about what really happened.

You must take responsibility and not blame others for the problem, since it was your fault. Honestly evaluate what happened and how you could have acted differently.

2. Address the problem with your potential employer…honestly.

Be open about being fired. However, you must be careful not to overly castigate yourself, especially to a potential employer. A simple statement about the problem will suffice.

Don’t lie, but don’t volunteer the information. You don’t need to refer to it on your resume, and you don’t need to preface an interview by disclosing the details prematurely. Save it for when (or if) the interviewer asks why you left your last job.

3. Accentuate the positive.

A person who enters an interview looking defeated won’t get the job, no matter what’s happened in the past.

Present what you learned from your experience and how it will help you be a better employee. Also explain why it won’t happen again. Emphasize your positive attributes and contributions to your previous job. Show confidence and even some humor.

Being fired for missing one big deadline doesn’t make you a deadbeat, and an open-minded interviewer knows that. Accidents happen. We all say dumb things, make mistakes or cut some corners now and then. The trick is showing how you can make lemonade out of your lemon.

So put the past behind you and focus on the future. It’s your attitude now that counts.