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So What if They Were Fired?
You’ve got a hole in the team
and need the right person to fill it. What happens if someone applies
for it and you find that they were fired or laid off from their last
position? They might be just right in every other way but this one fact
has understandably made you a bit nervous.
This is an area that requires you to ask the right kind of questions to
get to the truth. It’s important to probe carefully and to discover not
only why it happened but also what effects it had on your candidate.
You need to know that the conditions leading up to the dismissal won’t
be replicated in your office. You also need to be sure that this person
can put it all behind them and get on with their career.
Some sample interview questions are below, together with some factors
for you to use when you evaluate their answer. Start with a positive
expectation that the candidate can handle the situation and will give
you honest answers, and be alert to everything from their tone of voice
to their body language. Make notes of their answers for later reference.
1. Why were you fired?
You’re looking for an honest and straightforward answer. You want to see
eye contact and no masking of the face or looking away. What you should
hear is the leadup to the firing and how it was done.
A candidate that can answer this question honestly and confidently
without being hostile toward the previous employer is demonstrating a
fair amount of character strength which bodes well for their future.
2. Were you given any warnings before you were fired? What kind were
they?
There is usually at least one warning given to an employee who’s about
to be fired – most firms place a value on their human capital and try to
avoid replacing team members if at all possible. This is a question that
will tell you if the candidate was unable to make a behavioral change to
save their job.
If there was a series of warnings over a protracted period of time it’s
an indication that the candidate was an habitual poor performer and
couldn’t lift their game when it was called for.
3. Where do you think you failed in your last job?
Obviously, if they were fired they must have failed somewhere. You’re
looking for an ability to objectively assess what went wrong as well as
a following suggestion of how they could have performed better. They
must have learned something from the experience.
4. Is there anything you could have done differently that would have
prevented your termination?
The candidate was fired but you want to see if they’ve learned something
from the experience. Can they focus on a personal weakness or a failure
in judgment that caused their downfall? Have they used what was
essentially a negative situation to come out ahead?
5. Why do you think you were laid off when your company downsized?
The company’s still there and obviously others weren’t laid off. Why was
this person shown the door? You want to see if the candidate can give
you an honest evaluation of why their former employer let them go.
You’re looking for an unemotional, factual answer that you can believe.
6. You've been out of work for quite a long time. Why do you think
you haven’t found a job and what have you been doing in the meantime?
This is truly a double-barrelled question. You want to hear that the
candidate hasn’t been beaten down by the experience and is doing all
they can to regain employment. You also want to know if they’re
defeating themselves and it’s their attitude that’s caused the long-term
unemployment they’ve experienced.
They’ve been doing something while out of work and whatever it is should
indicate a desire to keep constructively occupied and mentally
exercised.
Being fired or laid-off is often something that is beyond the control of
an employee. A surprising number of CEOs have been fired at some time in
their lives and it hasn’t meant an end to their careers.
You want to be assured that whatever caused the termination won’t happen
in your office, and to know that the candidate learned something from
the experience that has led to personal growth. You need to see optimism
and not the face of defeat in their attitude and the answers they give
you.
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