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When you apply for a new job, you want to demonstrate you can handle the daily requirements of the role, but you also want to prove you\u2019re a relatable and trustworthy person.<\/p>\n
Most of us already know trust arises from a candidate\u2019s friendliness, kindness, sense of humor and communication skill. But here\u2019s another fact about trust: We tend to trust people who are interesting. Being a grounded, well-rounded person with the calm that comes from life experience can help you gain trust and convince employers to bring you on board. And much of this quality comes from an ironic source: the setbacks and failures you\u2019ve encountered in the past and how you\u2019ve dealt with them.<\/p>\n
Put another way, interesting people are those who have struggled, aimed too high, failed, been fired, faced obstacles and grown as individuals. If you\u2019ve been terminated from a job, use that experience to showcase your ability to handle the challenges of life and the professional workplace. Here\u2019s how.<\/p>\n
You can choose not to mention it until the subject comes up, which is fine. But when it DOES come up, don\u2019t make the slightest attempt to hide the truth or spin the story. Don\u2019t make excuses (It wasn\u2019t my fault, my team let me down, my boss was a jerk, etc.). And don\u2019t frame the incident as a layoff or restructuring decision that had nothing to do with your performance (unless it was). Simply be upfront and explain the job wasn\u2019t a fit.<\/p>\n
While you should always speak the truth without spin or embellishment, the story is yours to tell. If there are details you care not to share, it\u2019s your right to keep them to yourself. Your story can be exactly as long or short as you choose \u2026 so keep it short. Explain enough to answer your employer\u2019s questions, and then move forward.<\/p>\n
As soon as you\u2019re finished talking about what happened surrounding the events of your termination, move on to describe what the incident taught you. If you gained any technical knowledge, start with that. Then discuss what you learned about broader topics, like the nature of work, how to achieve success in this industry (and how not to), and how to contend with difficult situations or people. If you\u2019ve become a stronger, smarter or more effective employee as a result of the termination, now is the time to share this fact and explain.<\/p>\n
People love good stories, and employers are no exception. When you\u2019re terminated from a job, you\u2019re given a kind of gift: an interesting story about your own personal setback, how you overcame it and how you became a stronger candidate as a result. For more on how to share your story and use it to your advantage, turn to the job search team at Extension<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When you apply for a new job, you want to demonstrate you can handle the daily requirements of the role, but you also want to prove you\u2019re a relatable and trustworthy person. Most of us already know trust arises from a candidate\u2019s friendliness, kindness, sense of humor and communication skill. But here\u2019s another fact about…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":734,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-blogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.extensionrecruiting.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.extensionrecruiting.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.extensionrecruiting.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.extensionrecruiting.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.extensionrecruiting.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.extensionrecruiting.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":756,"href":"https:\/\/www.extensionrecruiting.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions\/756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.extensionrecruiting.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.extensionrecruiting.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.extensionrecruiting.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.extensionrecruiting.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}