Interview Tip: How To Answer Why You Were Fired From Your Last Job

There are tons of interview questions that are difficult to answer. There’s the “what’s your biggest weakness” question, or the “where do you see yourself in 5 years”. You always want to turn the biggest weakness question into a positive, and you always want to convey to your potential employer that you see yourself growing with the company in the next 5 years. I think the MOST difficult question asked in an interview may be why you left your last position – if you were fired. Are you suppose to lie and say the company vanished into thin air? Are you suppose to make up an excuse that isn’t anywhere close to the truth? Here are some examples of what you could say:

 

Sometimes, things just don’t work out

Even with the best intentions, job opportunities sometimes just don’t work out. You may have done your due diligence, really liked the manager, really liked the culture, but in the end, it just didn’t work out. It may just be that the hiring manager and yourself made bad decisions. The job didn’t put you into a situation that allowed you to succeed.

Be completely honest

You may feel the need to be completely honest in this situation. You don’t want a black cloud hanging over your head because you had to lie in your interview. Tell your potential employer what happened, and see how they take it. If it was performance related, tell them. Say you came in with certain expectations, and though you may have exceeded your own expectations, it wasn’t enough for your employer. In the trading business, there is a record of your performance, so lying is out of the question in that industry.

The environment wasn’t what I expected

You may be met with the question,” well didn’t you ask the right questions, didn’t you do your research”? Yes, you did all the research and asked all the right questions, but after a few months or year, the environment wasn’t what you expected. You can say there was a mutual split, having your employer and yourself agree that the environment just wasn’t a fit. Be prepared to answer further questions about what exactly the environment was like.

 

If you are fired within a short time period, it may be best to just leave the past position off your resume. This way, you avoid the hard questions of “why’d you leave your last position”?

Have more tips on how to answer this tough question? Let us know in the comments section below.