How To Answer: ‘Why Were You Fired From Your Last Job?’

If you were fired from a recent job you are probably dreading the question why did you leave your last job? arising in an interview.

Just remember this that honesty is the best policy. Trying to lie about it may get you caught out if the hiring manager reaches out to an employer ( although they cannot supply a bad reference they can refuse to give one, which may arouse suspicion).

Get straight to the point

Going in with a long-winded story explaining who was right and who was wrong isn’t the right way to go about this. Let the hiring manager know the reason why you were fired it could be because you couldn’t meet deadlines or the job just wasn’t right and that both you and your employer agreed you should be let go.

Remember your hiring manager is human and we all make mistakes.

Explain what you learned from your mistakes

This allows you to show errors in your ways and that you are willing to learn from your mistakes. Saying something like ‘We lost an account due to an error that I made. I didn’t pay attention to detail and forgot to call the customer back they ended up signing a contract with a competitor. I have learned from this mistake and attention to detail will remain a priority for me moving forward.

Never Ever Bad Mouth Anybody

Answering this question with who was right and who was wrong isn’t going to get you anywhere and badmouthing ex-colleagues or bosses in the process will set off alarms for any hiring manager.

Remember many people get fired. Use it to your advantage in an interview if a hiring manager can see how you approach the situation and how you have learned from it, it shouldn’t be a problem in future interviews. So hold your head high!