Interview Chatter

How to Explain An Unjust Termination Part 2

by Darlene McDaniel on September 10th, 2007

Part 1: How To Explain An Unjust Termination

One of my favorite things about blogging is receiving comments from my readers. Today I got a comment, and it made me pause. Here is Part 2

Here is the comment I received:

How do you explain to an employer that you were unjustly terminated–meaning your termination involved retaliation, sex discrimination, race discrimination, etc.? On the one hand, it seems to raise a red flag to the employer. With the interviewer probably thinking, “Hmm…if I hire this person, is he/she going to sue me for the same thing?” But on the other hand, if your termination really did involve actionable discrimination, what are you supposed to say?

What are you suppose to say if your termination involved actionable discrimination?

When they ask, “Have you ever been terminated from a job?” If the answer is “YES”, than be honest, tell the truth - “Yes, my employment has been terminated.” Don’t leave that statement dangling out there.

Follow it up with something like “Unfortunately I was wrongfully terminated from my last position. As a result I filed a claim for wrongful termination and the case was successfully dispositioned in my favor.”

Things to remember: Do not go through all of the details of the incident. You do not need to tell all of the gory details and most hiring managers are not going to want to hear about all of the details. As I stated in a previous post, So You’ve Been Fired, they are more interested in determining whether you have grown from your experience or whether you are going to bring mess into their organization. It doesn’t matter who did what or who said what to whom.

Give a quick summary of what happened and the lessons you learned. It is your responsibility to communicate what you have learned and to give them peace of mind about successfully assimilating to their organization.

Going back to the comment of my reader:
If you practice how you will communicate to a hiring manager about this situation, using my recommendations above, you will be fine. Don’t try to figure out what they are thinking. Focus on what you communicate and how you communicate about this situation. The K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple) priniciple will keep you out of hot water and eliminate negative perceptions by hiring managers. Don’t go into the interview worried about how you will be perceived. Go into the interview with confidence about your skills and abilities, and about the value you will bring to the organization. Speak from the confidence, and be prepared to speak about this sitiuation.

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POSTED IN: Coach's Cornor, Q & A, Tough Questions