Getting fired

So I was fired today. I had worked in the private sector for almost 2 years before landing a position with the DoD. All I'll say is it is the last time I ever try to go out of my way to do more work than what was expected of me.

I was hoping others could share their experiences on getting a new job and what you did if an interviewer asks if you've been fired and why. I'm not sure what to tell potential employers if this comes up.

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scaredoftests

You can say your contract was not renewed. Why were you fired? it stinks and I am sorry. I was 'fired'/laid off when the contract was modified or when budget cuts occurred.

shochan

Go have a drink or three...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBnSWJHawQQ

Then cruz on over to the unemployment office & get that rolling.

Go revise your resume/dust it off, then start applying tomorrow...With your certs, I am sure you can land something pretty quick.

Cheers & hi5!

DatabaseHead

johndabomb44 wrote: »

So I was fired today. I had worked in the private sector for almost 2 years before landing a position with the DoD. All I'll say is it is the last time I ever try to go out of my way to do more work than what was expected of me.

I was hoping others could share their experiences on getting a new job and what you did if an interviewer asks if you've been fired and why. I'm not sure what to tell potential employers if this comes up.

You were terminated from a DOD position? May I ask why?

I ask because I found the DOD to be very process oriented and very task specific. You have these 3 levers your pull daily and they better be pulled in the right order and at the exact same time, but that was it. Anything above and beyond was actually frowned upon. This was with the USDA, DOD and US Army - Joint Command. All very similar.

johndabomb44

Is flat out lying really the best way? I know employers will actually reach out to prior employers regardless and ask questions.

I don't want to reveal why I was fired.

cyberguypr

Not telling? Where's the fun in that?

scaredoftests

Why did you get fired? You can request not to have people reach out OR don't list it on your resume.

johndabomb44

It was not a GS position.

"You have these 3 levers your pull daily and they better be pulled in the right order and at the exact same time, but that was it. Anything above and beyond was actually frowned upon."

"Anything above and beyond was actually frowned upon."

^ I just learned that the hard way.

scaredoftests

GS?
No warnings? Write-up or anything?

johndabomb44

scaredoftests wrote: »

Why did you get fired? You can request not to have people reach out OR don't list it on your resume.

Yeah, they're not SUPPOSED to reach out but It's happened to me so I don't believe or trust that for a second.

paul78

johndabomb44 wrote: »

Is flat out lying really the best way? I know employers will actually reach out to prior employers regardless and ask questions.

Many employers will not disclose the reason why an employee was separated. It's fairly common to just confirm dates of employment, title, and salary. But that said, depending on the prospective employer, it may also be common to do informal reference checks. So basically, lying is always a bad idea because that information will eventually come out and it may be grounds for termination.

johndabomb44 wrote: »

I don't want to reveal why I was fired.

Do you mean that you don't want to tell a bunch of random people on the Internet or to a prospective employer?

johndabomb44

scaredoftests wrote: »

GS?
No warnings? Write-up or anything?

GS are the "civilian" government employees. Basically, if you can land a GS position, you can go to work and, sit in a seat, and breathe and not be fired. I was not a GS.

No warnings or write ups for the reason I was being fired. I was written up a month ago for a different reason but that wasn't at all why they fired me.

scaredoftests

I have never had that happen to me. Is there a person that can vouch for you that you worked with there? If you feel that way, don't list it on your resume.

johndabomb44

paul78 wrote: »

Most employers will not disclose the reason why an employee was separated. It's fairly common to just confirm dates of employment, title, and salary. But that said, depending on the prospective employer, it may also be common to do informal reference checks. So basically, lying is always a bad idea because that information will eventually come out and it may be grounds for termination.

Do you mean that you don't want to tell a bunch of random people on the Internet or to a prospective employer?

I don't want to tell a bunch of random people. Sorry.

johndabomb44

scaredoftests wrote: »

I have never had that happen to me. Is there a person that can vouch for you that you worked with there? If you feel that way, don't list it on your resume.

Yeah, there are a few people there now who could vouch for me.

LordQarlyn

I understand you want to keep it to yourself. It is hard to offer advice because how you approach it for job interviews depends on why you were fired. Somebody fired for sexual harassment or drug/alcohol abuse will have a different road to navigate than someone fired for a workplace mistake that was serious enough. And if it was a security clearance issue, that will require yet another approach.

Just be honest but don't volunteer anything. If it was something you did that was your fault, try to spin it as "yeah I goofed but I learned from my mistake". If it was friction or a hostile/toxic workplace and you pissed off management, say that but be very delicate about it, don't trash your former boss even if he was a psychopath who kicks his dog around the block when he can find time from beating his kids. I don't have any experience being fired, was only laid off once. When I got asked, I just explained I used the time in the gap to prepare, train, and pass five IT exams.

Databasehead is right, there are some DoD contract positions that put you in a box and god help you if you step out of that box. I was at NETCOM and it was like that. It didn't matter if there was an emergency outage, even if you invented the system that was broken, you absolutely were forbidden to do anything outside your PWS.

nisti2

Really sorry to read that, have a whisky or hang out with some friends.
Good luck in your search!

JoJoCal19

You don't have to create an entire falsehood of what happened, but before my IT career, I was fired from a customer service job as I was out of PTO and my then g/f had to have surgery and I opted to be there. Whatever. Whenever I was asked or had to list it on my applications I just simply stated it wasn't working out and I needed to move on.

NetworkNewb

johndabomb44 wrote: »

I was written up a month ago for a different reason but that wasn't at all why they fired me.

This is the equivalent of holding a piece of cake in front of a 5 year old and telling them they can never touch it!

johndabomb44

LordQarlyn wrote: »

I understand you want to keep it to yourself. It is hard to offer advice because how you approach it for job interviews depends on why you were fired. Somebody fired for sexual harassment or drug/alcohol abuse will have a different road to navigate than someone fired for a workplace mistake that was serious enough. And if it was a security clearance issue, that will require yet another approach.

Just be honest but don't volunteer anything. If it was something you did that was your fault, try to spin it as "yeah I goofed but I learned from my mistake". If it was friction or a hostile/toxic workplace and you pissed off management, say that but be very delicate about it, don't trash your former boss even if he was a psychopath who kicks his dog around the block when he can find time from beating his kids. I don't have any experience being fired, was only laid off once. When I got asked, I just explained I used the time in the gap to prepare, train, and pass five IT exams.

Databasehead is right, there are some DoD contract positions that put you in a box and god help you if you step out of that box. I was at NETCOM and it was like that. It didn't matter if there was an emergency outage, even if you invented the system that was broken, you absolutely were forbidden to do anything outside your PWS.

Thank you for your post, that was helpful

I will say this if this helps you make a better response:

I was fired for one of these things: (being late, asking for too big of a raise, telling people to do their job when they weren't actually doing their job)

paul78

johndabomb44 wrote: »

I don't want to tell a bunch of random people. Sorry.

Fair enough. But I would caution you that you don't lie to a prospective employer. You can always soften the reason for the separation - for example - if it was a performance related issue, you could indicate that the job requirements were not a good for your current skills and you were terminated. If you were released because you violated a policy, it depends on what you did.

Bear in mind that even if your previous employer doesn't disclose the reason for a separation, there are carefully worded questions which are often used - for example "Is John Doe eligible for re-hire?" - many companies will answer that. And if you employer will not answer it, that's sometimes interpreted as an implicit "no".

Also - don't under-estimate the nature of back-channel references. I've worked at many companies where back-channel references are the norm.

scaredoftests

Just list your reference. Being fired/laid off stinks. Ask a lot of questions on upcoming interviews.

NotHackingYou

Being fired isn't always a total black mark. Mistakes happen - it's how we react to them that is important. I would hire someone who was reasonably fired from their last position if they could articulate what they learned and how they plan to not make the same mistake again. Of course, this depends on the mistake but it would have to be really bad to be a non-starter. Example "I was fired for x because I did y. I plan to z in order to ensure y doesn't happen again by doing q". If a company isn't reasonable about mistakes then you probably don't want to work there.

DatabaseHead

johndabomb44 wrote: »

It was not a GS position.

"You have these 3 levers your pull daily and they better be pulled in the right order and at the exact same time, but that was it. Anything above and beyond was actually frowned upon."

"Anything above and beyond was actually frowned upon."

^ I just learned that the hard way.

Dood you worked a government job/contract and went above and beyond the call of duty? Dem der are heroics, I thought everyone knew that was a HUGE no-no. That's like G'ment work 101.

supasecuritybro

Coming out of DoD was the best thing I could do. They do have a process and rather do the dance than resolve things. DoD has a revolving door trying to keep people since they lose talent for better pay and also better treatment. As a contractor (which I was), you get treated as hired help, because you are, but when you work alongside people who are civilians who do not do much bc they are asked not to due to contract requirements it gets hard to not feel like its unbalanced. You either deal with it or get out. Thankfully all my civilian counterparts were really nice and we had a good relationship. Government work is not the best and not for everyone. I would just stay out of gov't if I were you.

Anonymouse

I've been fired once. I don't want to go into details but it was a lot of office politics and I slipped up once which led upper management to can me. I was great at what I did and a didn't burn any bridges with my direct management so they were able to vouch for me as professional references. In this case they had no say in my termination other than to try and reason with upper management to keep me. I read somewhere on here to be honest about why I was fired so that's what I did in interviews. I remained professional and didn't put all the blame on the upper management for their dumb office politics and admitted my own screw up. The post I read said something like know why you were fired and be able to show you learned from it so that's what I did. Unfortunately I don't remember who posted it or what thread because it was so long ago. So just make sure that when it comes up that you were fired you tell them why and show them what you learned from it and have moved on to improve yourself.

MalwareMike

scaredoftests wrote: »

You can say your contract was not renewed. Why were you fired? it stinks and I am sorry. I was 'fired'/laid off when the contract was modified or when budget cuts occurred.

I personally would go with scaredoftests advice. With contracts, I do not see them trying to dig up with the contract was renewed or terminated. If HR calls a company, its usually to ask "did Mr X work for you?". Most former companies will not give more then is asked because people are sue crazy and one wrong word could be a lawsuit.

UnixGuy

JoJoCal19 wrote: »

You don't have to create an entire falsehood of what happened, but before my IT career, I was fired from a customer service job as I was out of PTO and my then g/f had to have surgery and I opted to be there. Whatever. Whenever I was asked or had to list it on my applications I just simply stated it wasn't working out and I needed to move on.

+1 What JoJoCal said is a good suggestion

you can always say that you found that the DoD environment wasn't a good fit for you as you like to be challenged and maybe laugh it off and say that private sector is better

a lot of employers don't really care, just say it didn't work out or that the environment was very quiet with not much to do.