Aside from the questions regarding your skills and past accomplishments, employers invariably want to know about your current status and why you are interested in the role for which you’ve applied.
If you aren’t working, whether by your choice or not, this can be a tricky minefield to traverse successfully. Here are some common scenarios and how to approach them.
There is no shame if you were a part of a significant company restructuring.
If your layoff had nothing to do with your own performance, this should be relatively easy to explain. The more massive the dismissal, the less complicated it is for a potential employer to understand you may merely have had the right job at the wrong time. There is no fault to be explained away, and you can just say something like, “For business reasons, it became necessary to lay off X people in my department. I was last in, so I understand that, unfortunately, I was the first to go.”
[See: 16 Low-Stress Jobs.]
If you left your last job voluntarily, you need to explain something about the circumstances.
It’s common for people to take a leave of absence from the workforce to care for an ailing family member, to move to a new location with a spouse or partner or for other perfectly legitimate and understandable reasons.
It is essential, however, that you explain what has changed. Why can an employer trust that you will stick with a new position now, or not be torn away for a similar reason again? In short, demonstrate your capacity to exhibit loyalty if given a new opportunity.
Perhaps the most challenging thing to have to explain is having been fired for cause.
When you say outright that you were let go, it raises all kinds of questions in an interviewer’s mind:
— Is this person competent at his or her job?
— Do they follow orders or fail to comply with company policies, industry standards or the law?
— Do they play well in the sandbox with others or fail to pull their weight as part of a team?
— Have they harassed, badgered or in some other way contributed to an unsafe or hostile work environment for others?
— Have they been too hard to manage or otherwise made life difficult for the boss?
[Read: Job Interview Mistakes to Avoid.]
No matter how unfair you may believe your termination was, you should never say anything negative about your former boss, co-workers or company. Putting a prospective employer into the role of judge and jury over your behavior or treatment from your last employer is an altogether losing proposition!
At the same time, failing to disclose the fact of your firing can also come back to bite you. Threading that needle can often be done successfully, but it takes careful thought in advance. Here’s how:
Stay positive.
You can suggest that while your boss made the decision, you recognize why he or she did so. Go on to say that even though it was painful to experience, it was best both for the organization and for yourself insofar as you are now free to find a place where your talents will be a much stronger fit.
[See: 9 Common First-Job Mistakes.]
Talk about lessons learned.
For example, you can suggest that you weren’t as clear about the nature of the job when you went into it as you should have been, and got in over your head. Continue by explaining that now you understand how vital it is not just to get any job, but rather the position that can best match your abilities for success. Then, quickly pivot back to the positive attributes about yourself that make you an ideal candidate for this particular role.
Whatever your particular circumstance might be, when you provide an understandable context for your current unemployment and lower the red flags the employer might fear, you’ll raise your chances of job search success.
Happy hunting!
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How to Explain Your Unemployment in a Job Interview originally appeared on usnews.com
