Briefly, here’s my situation. At my last job, I’d gotten pretty burned out and it kind of showed (which was a mistake I’ve learned from), but I didn’t let it affect my performance one iota.
Before this, I had already made plans to leave a few months down the road to pursue some extended travel. The management was aware of my intentions and had started looking for my replacement. They found a candidate they liked, and decided it would be better to have him under their employ instead of me, Mr. Burnout Who’s Leaving Soon Anyway. So one day my boss and his boss called me in and fired me on the absolute flimsiest of pretenses.
I filed for unemployment, and the company tried to invent some claims of malfeasance on my part in order to avoid having to pay it. They were essentially laughed out of court - the judge’s decision said that they had no basis to support their claims, and that my termination had not been the result of any misconduct on my part. Additionally, several other supervisors who I’d worked with were so incensed by the whole thing that they volunteered to a positive reference for me, so I’ve got that.
But the fact remains that I was fired from my most recent job, no matter what a crock it may have been, and I feel like it’s a big scarlet F on my sleeve whenever I’m sending out an application. I have glowing references and every other one I’ve held, but many of these applications require me to fill out forms granting them access to my old personnel records. I’m sure that as soon as these places see I was canned, they head for the hills. And even for the ones that don’t require this, all it takes one call to my old company’s HR to find out I’m not eligible for re-hire, which is also going to set off warning alarms.
So how do I handle this? It seems like if I tell potential employers that I was fired, they’re not even going to care what my explanation is, they’re just going to shuffle my application to the circular file. Especially in this tight job market. But on the other hand, if I don’t tell them and they find out on their own, then they’re definitely going to trash my app.
Save that information for the interview. If it comes up, relate what happened in unemotional and objective terms, remain professional and let the interviewer know that they are welcome to contact any other of your former employers who will give you glowing recommendations. I just hired a new Admin Assisstant who was fired from her last job. I thought she was honest with me and that she had gotten a raw deal. She’s doing just fine in her present position.
Employers understand circumstance. If you don’t have a long history of being fired and you have excellent references from other employers, one bad shouldn’t do you in.
What your story seems to be, in one sentence, is “I was planning to leave, and they hired a replacement earlier than planned, so they let me go. Some people disagreed with this decision, but that’s what it boils down to.”
Sure there was some drama around it, but most people get into trouble when they try to over-explain things. The simplest explanation doesn’t hide anything, but it doesn’t tell too much.
Agree with what Daniel says; Keep your responses professional and simple regarding this. Practice your response to make sure that you don’t sound defensive or antagonistic.
I was let go from my previous employer for a flimsy excuse as well, and I really had to practice to get the bitterness out of my voice.
First off, you’ve got a judge and those other supervisors to back up you statement that you were fired in spite of being a good worker and straight-up guy. Also, the law limits the bad things that your former employers can say about you. Just tell the truth (with a little self-serving spin) and provide contact info on one of those sympathetic ex-supervisors.
[hijack]
I once had a help desk job, and the company was hiring a supervisor to watch over us help desk drones. One applicant, who had been fired from his previous place of employment, had an interesting approach to this subject (I swear this is true):
Mr. So-and-so, why did you leave your last place of employment?
Well, I was driving one of the company vans and I got in a little accident. The next day they made me take a drug test, which if I had known that was coming I wouldn’t have smoked that fatty to calm down after trashin’ the van. But you guys know what I’m talkin’ ‘bout, right? C’mon, I know at least a couple of you know what I’m talkin’ 'bout.