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-barreled 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.

---

Copyright 2004, RAN ONE Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from www.ranone.com,