Every employer is eventually going to have to fire one of his or her employees, and if it happens to be you, it’s just one more thing you’ll have to overcome in your career. The fastest way to put it behind you, of course, is to get another job. But during the job interview, you may be faced with the dreadful question, ''Why were you fired?'' Sometimes interviewers put this question out there to gauge your reaction and see how you maintain grace under fire.
So what’s the best way to answer this question? Simply put, try to be as truthful as possible. If you have a circumstantial story explaining the reason that you got fired, try to be as objective as you can. Tell your interviewer that you have genuinely learned from whatever situation you experienced, and that you are ready to move on. If faced with the perilous question, here are some things to keep in mind when answering:
- Don’t bad-mouth your former employer. This only shows a negative side of you and only tells one side of the story. Your interviewer may get a bad impression of you and think of you as a complainer. He or she may get the idea that you are not a team player or may have adjustment issues.
- Don’t blame it on anyone or try to claim you were sabotaged by office politics. Office politics are a fact of life, and everyone has to face them and adjust. Even if you were a victim of dirty office politics, you should try to rise above it and find something positive about the experience.
- Stay honest and don’t hide essential information. If there is one glaring reason that got you fired, inform your interviewer about it. If you try to hide it, it’ll become the elephant in the room that torpedoes the interview. Accepting what happened at your previous job and being honest about it makes you a mature person. If there is a personal reason that you were fired, inform your interviewer that you have learned a great deal from your last experience and you are willing to move on and focus on career goals.
- Don’t blame incompatibility with your co-workers or your boss. Even if your boss was unfair and your co-workers were total creeps, as a good employee you should have found ways to befriend them as well as you could. Of course, there are some people that are just impossible to work with or for, and in that case, you were just caught in an unfortunate situation. Being as nice as you can to everyone, regardless of their office rank, can help you to handle difficult situations. Employees who get fired because of their incompatibility with the rest of the work force are oftentimes looked upon as being immature and having social issues.
- Do not lie during the interview conversation. Trying to make up a fictional account of how or why you were fired only tends to complicate matters. You have enough to worry about on an interview without being under the pressure of being caught in a lie. Most employers do background checks on their new employees, so a lie would probably turn up, forcing you to tell the truth anyway.
