Ask the Experts: Don’t Sound Angry at Your Old Employer

Question:

When an interviewer asks me why I was let go from my last job, how do I respond without sounding angry at my old employer even though I feel
that I should not have been let go?

First Answer:

This is a rather general question which is hard to answer because I don’t know the specifics of your situation. However, it is never considered appropriate to badmouth a former employer. Although in most cases, honesty is the best policy, an interview is not the time to be 100% brutally honest about negative situations that have occurred in the past! As I say in my book YOU ARE THE PRODUCT – How To Sell Yourself To Employers if you let your distress and anger about as former show, you will lose your competitive edge in the interview. All you need to say is that you left for a better opportunity or that you’ve decided to take a different career path that the former employer couldn’t satisfy. Resist the urge to tell an interviewer how unfair your boss was…how you had to cover up his afternoon drinking binges or how he had to fire you because his new love (your former secretary) wanted your job! The only one who will look bad when you denigrate your former employer is you!

When I counsel my private, online clients I try to help them resolve their emotional distress about previous experiences. Life isn’t always fair, but in the end, the ability to rise above a situation and win by succeeding, is the sweetest feeling of all.

— Alison Blackman Dunham, life & career expert, columnist, personal public relations consultant, half of THE ADVICE SISTERS®, and the author of the ASK ALISON career advice column

Second Answer:

First, try to get the negative feelings being fired completely out of your system. Even if you don’t say the wrong thing in the interview, you’ll still communicate anger about the situation, which will be a red flag to the prospective employer.

Second, I find the best answer for difficult questions is always as honest and as brief as possible. While I don’t know the exact reason you were given about your termination, if it was performance-related you could tell the interviewer that you were not clear on expectations and therefore were not able to consistently please your manager. Take 100% responsibility and tell the prospective employer how you plan to prevent this in the future.

— Tracy Laswell Williams, certified job and career transition coach, accredited resume writer and founder of CAREER-Magic.com

Third Answer:

My advice is to respond carefully and professionally. Regardless of the circumstances you want to be very careful that YOU DO NOT come across as angry or unhappy. Saying bad things about a former employer will hurt you in the intervew process. Try to stay as honest and as positive as possible. What you say would depend on the circumstances under which you left your last job. Some examples might be “The company recently had a change in management and the way we conducted business changed dramatically. I felt like it was an good time for me to explore other options. After doing some research, I found that your company holds to the same high standards of customer service that I believe is vital to a business’ success.” Your response will, of course, depend on your circumstances. I would advise spending some time coming up with an answer that you feel comfortable with before you go to the interview.

— Linda Wyatt, Career Center Director, Kansas City Kansas Community College

Fourth Answer:

It sounds as if you were asked to leave (fired?) from your last job. This happens to many people who are otherwise good employees and who make a
strong contribution to their employers and it happens for many reasons;
personality conflicts, politics, management replacement, skills upgrades, etc.

You will need to be prepared to convince your next potential employer that you are good at your job and that you made a strong contribution
at your last place of employment. Here are some things you need to
do:

1. Deal with your feelings before you go to the interview. Bringing “baggage” into the interview is not a good idea. You may give your feelings away through your
   body language or lack of eye contact.

2. Find great references from that job who can speak to your strengths and performance.

3. Turn your experience into a positive or at least a lesson learned. For instance, if there was a personality conflict and there often are,
   explain how you’ve learned to put personal feelings aside and act like a
   professional regardless of the situation. And, if you can’t then know when to
   leave before it is too late.

   Or, if you were let go because of a work performance issue, turn that into a lesson learned and that you don’t intend to make the same
   mistake twice.

4. Prepare your story and practice it.

The important thing is to emphasize your qualities and what you can do for this company, trying to minimize the negative.

Be enthusiastic about the possibility of a new opportunity.

— Carole Martin, The Interview Coach

Fifth Answer:

Yes, it is definitely difficult to talk about being involuntarily released from a former employer, no matter what the circumstances. Still, whatever you say to a potential new employer, references, friends, acquaintances, and family will reflect on your character and have a definite impact on your future opportunities.

The best thing to do is be diplomatic. Can you think of a positive way to talk about the separation? Perhaps say “I gained a great deal of personal growth from this situation that I can take with me to any new situation. After evaluating our working styles, we found that this was not the best match.”

Actually, I’ve discussed this very sensitive topic once before in “What to Say: Last Job. You may want to consider the broader analysis in that article.

May all your Entrances be through the doors of success!

— Yvonne LaRose, career and professional development coach, Career and Executive Recruiting Advice

Sixth Answer:

Answering difficult interview questions is always a challenge. That’s why it is important to prepare effectively. Anticipating questions based on the position, industry and field is always a good idea. Once you have created a list of questions, create an outline structure to answer each one. While you certainly don’t want to memorize a scripted answer, you do want to ensure your answer has a introduction, main point and conclusion, much like a research paper.

One good method to use is SOAR. This stands for Situation, Opportunity, Action, Result and can be used to answer almost any question. In this case you might want to focus on a structure such as:

S: As the economy changed, our industry was facing new demands from customers concerning rising product prices and challenges based on a falling stock price.

O: In order to effectively combat these challenges, the company went through a swift yet streamlined reorganization. Having always worked in a somewhat stable industry, this gave me the opportunity to learn how a reorganization works and how individual cost cutting measures can directly impact bottom line results.

A: However, as part of the reorganization, the company decided to eliminate the specific product line I worked on citing a weak market. While this led directly to my own layoff, I was able to understand the economics of the organization and spend some time focusing on my next best direction.

R: As a result, I was able to take stock of the specific skills I attained while working at the company and focus on where my strengths would be a best fit for an organization looking to gain from my industry knowledge. This is one of the main reasons why I am so keenly interested in your organization based on how I can add value from my previous experiences.

Whether you use the SOAR method or a simple outline, regardless of the format or structure you use, be sure that your answers are always succinct, honest and powerful. You want the recruiter, hiring manager or organization leader to be able to easily understand your main points, and feel like the question was answered directly and thoroughly.

—Susan Strayer, Assistant Director, Career Services, School of Professional Studies in Business and Education at the Johns Hopkins University and founder and President of University and Career Decisions

Originally posted by alwin