In recent months, and especially given the state of the economy, we’ve addressed the nuances of job-searching following a reduction in force (i.e. you were terminated as a result of a company re-organization and not due to individual performance). The reality is that people lose their jobs for a number of reasons, including misconduct, not meeting goals, critical skill gaps, or violating employer policies. I’ve had brilliant, dear friends lose jobs because it was a bad fit from the beginning, or because there was a significant misalignment in their values and those of their employers. They went on to do great work elsewhere. You can too.
So, the first question: Should you disclose that you’ve been terminated due to performance/misconduct/etc in a job-search?
In my opinion, yes. Potential employers may learn about your termination during a background or reference check, or even a quick google search. By disclosing your termination during a process, you have a chance to get in front of the story, shape the narrative, and demonstrate a high degree of professionalism.
The second question: When/How should you disclose your termination?
I’ve seen some recruiters recommend including “contract terminated” or “reduction-in-force” on a resume, but I only recommend this strategy if your tenure was short (i.e. just a few months) AND you lost your role due to down-sizing, not performance. In my opinion, a later-in-the-process interview is the best time to disclose a performance-related termination. Or, if your termination is public knowledge (which is the case with some of my senior-level clients whose terminations happened during public board meetings and received news coverage), you may choose to discuss your termination early on with the recruiter.
During a preliminary interview, you may be asked why you left your last role.This is the most natural time to disclose your termination. My advice: keep your answer concise, positive, and high-level: “I had a great run at [insert employer name], but the role was not a great fit for me in the long-term and we parted ways (“When I was hired, I was brought on to repair and strengthen relationships with existing clients, but within a few months the needs shifted to new business development and revenue generation which was outside of my previous experience.”). Then, connect back to why you’re incredibly excited about this new opportunity and where you see alignment of your skills, interests, and their needs. You can also share a lesson learned or how you’ve upskilled since your termination.
If you don’t get a question related to why you left your last role AND you fear that the discovery of a performance-related termination could impact your candidacy, there are a few ways to proceed. You could bring it up at the end of the interview by saying, “Thank you again for this opportunity to interview with your team. It didn’t come up during this conversation, so I wanted to be proactive in sharing some more context regarding my separation from [last employer]...”. If there isn’t a natural way to share this during your interview (I would recommend the Q&A time, when possible), follow-up separately with the recruiter to ask if they are able to hop on the phone to briefly discuss something you didn’t get a chance to share during your previous call. I had a client do this with great success before a final interview, and the recruiter was very appreciative about the client’s transparency and professionalism. Their termination didn’t come up again. My client went into their final interview confident that they were able to contextualize their experience (especially since their termination was public given their level of seniority), and that there wouldn't be a “gotcha” moment that could catch them off-guard during the high-stakes interviewing process.
Lastly, avoid bad-mouthing your former employer (even if they truly were the worst!). My recruiter colleagues have interviewed candidates who said things like: "my boss was a psycho", "the place was a sh*t-show", "they were so disorganized and I was set up to fail”. I get it, they were trying to steer clear of the blame! While all those statements could be true, it looks so bad in an interview and makes hiring managers wonder, "what will they say about me?"
A termination does not have to be a career killer. Learning how to talk about these experiences will set you up for job-searching success.
