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Handling Interviews After Being a Fall Guy?
bheer asks: "Salon's Since You Asked column is carrying an interesting question right now — what do you say in interviews after getting fired as a fall guy at your last job? Cary Tennis, who writes the column, admits he may not be the best person for this sort of question. So I thought I'd ask others what they thought about this. Software developers are sometimes able to get away blaming the business requirements/analysis process, but anyone with any experience in this business probably has had nightmares about being the fall guy and may even have a strategy or two up their sleeve. How would deal with being in such a crummy position?"
what do you say in interviews after getting fired as a fall guy at your last job?
I dunno, writing a book seems to have worked out for George Tenet.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
a) Don't bad-mouth the old company.
b) If they ask be vague but not misleading, tell them you had a disagreement with Management.
c) Always keep in mind that the old company can't tell them much (if anything) about why you left the company.
I don't know what else to say than ... "do your best" ... OK, get ALL the evidence in your favor...you have to black mail them.....I don't recommend it ..but...this is corporate...horseshit....I'm insane...don't listen to me...son't sue me...pleeeeese....yah! I can't spell either....
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
Just say this:
"While in my previous job I might have fallen from a tall building, or I might have rolled a brand new car. But it was because I was the unknown stuntman that made Redford such a star."
Leave it at that. And call Lee Majors for a reference.
my sig is an honor student
That's how things are done. It was just business. Or more accurately, "Projects you were working on failed, and you were the junior member. So you were let go."
Just try to explain the machinations of the world without being overly emotional, blaming your former colleagues, or talking bad about your former employer. Don't seem like somebody whose got a chip on their shoulder and the whole world's against them.
We all want our lives to be meaningful and make sense. We all want justice in the cosmic sense, rather than witnessing scapegoating. However, for most people, the workplace is not the place to find meaning or justice. In an interview, you have to pass yourself off as someone who isn't emotionally attached to their work. Someone who could be layed off without erasing the HR database. Someone who could fire other people and not lose sleep. Someone who just comes in reliably, gets their shit done, and doesn't engage in politics. Just do what you need to do to get through the interview, and don't worry about afterwards right now. The best way to find another job is to have a job in the first place.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
I figured out years ago that if you talk shit about your old girlfriend to your new one, then your new one will wonder what you will say about her. Your new company probably doesn't want to hear any bitching.
If you were the fall guy then something obviously went wrong at your last company. Coming up with some *generalized* insight about the failures in *processes* @ the last company you worked for without attributing blame (use non-accusatory language) or personalizing the situation will let your potential employer see you as a bigger picture type candidate.
Use your experience @ your last company as a platform from which to inquire into practices at the new employer. You have a very real interest in not ending up in a situation like your prior one, and *quality* employers appreciate candidates with insightful and even difficult questions about company standards and practices.
Corporations use rebranding all the time. Rebrand 'fall guy' before you go much further in the process even when thinking things over inside your own head. How you approach the issue internally will subtley change the way other people approach the issue.
Regards.
I didn't get fired -- I had enough information that I knew my time was coming quickly. The boss had been reporting to the board that all of the company's failures were my fault. Plus, I caught the boss fixing the elections for board members (which resulted in the winner of that particular seat not being appointed).
I secretly reported the boss to the board while starting my job search. As several projects were coming to a close anyway, I used that as my major "talking point" for leaving: development on major projects is coming to an end and things will go into a "maintenance phase" for the forseeable future; I'm ready for a new challenge; I'll continue to assist my current employer as a contract employee until they are up to speed on things; etc.
With additional pressure on the boss because of a fixed election, more blame was heaped on me (not regarding the election, but still...), until I found my job posted on CareerBuilder with nary a mention of my performance or the boss' displeasure with me.
I began interviewing regularly and didn't lie. The fact is that when I told my former employer that I was moving on because of the perceived problems, I agreed to be available to assist with the transition. When I went into interviews, I kept things positive and mentioned that I might need some flex time in the first week or so of employment in the event that my former employer needed help. The fact that I was up front about things, while keeping the whole whistle-blower/fall-guy thing out of it made me more attractive to folks. In the end I had multiple job offers and was able to take my pick without having a single day of unemployment. And I got out before the former employer really made things bad for me.
I realize that an after-the-fact interview will be different, but it bears repeating that you should say the nicest things you can about your former employer no matter how you feel about them. Hell, I lied and said I was sorry to go, but by projecting that positive attitude I think it really helped me make a smoother transition and has gotten me in with a place that seems to genuinely care about its employees. *crossed fingers*
I've been fired (or asked to leave) more than once in my career. The way that I've always handled it is to simply not lie, but I would strongly recommend not wearing a sign on your back that says "Hey, I was fired from my last job! Yay!", either. Usually when the question comes up, I simply say that I left because of a disagreement with the employer or something equally non-committal and non-antagonistic (to your old employer).
I've never gotten in a situation where I've had to flat out admit being fired.
Another thing to keep in mind, which has already been pointed out, is that legally, most companies won't admit anything other than employment. The last one I got walked from wouldn't say anything to prospective employers about me other than "He worked here from Aug 2001 to April of 2003."
They are scared of lawsuits, especially since they cannot verify who is asking, truly. For all they know, you have a friend in a company who is trolling. As unlikely as that may be, it generally works in your favor.
Part of my company now specialized in staffing and head-hunting. One of the many lessons I've learned about that is that generally (at least for the hundreds of positions I've seen filled in the last three years) prospective employers are far mor interested in references rather than previous employer statements. Which strikes me as odd, simply because I've never given a reference that I hadn't pre-qualified and generally only gave friends. The biggest complaint I've received on my references was that they "weren't high enough" in the org chart, which was from a Senior VP at Symantec, so take that with a grain of salt. Make a few manager/director/VP friends that you can count on, and references are a slam dunk. I've interviewed lots of people, been witness to hundreds, if not thousands of others, and I've yet to hear a bad reference call.
For the life of me I can't remember where I read it, although I think it was a link on careerbuilder.com, that talked about this subject, finding a new job after getting canned. One of the things that interested me the most was a statistic that around 70% of all firings have nothing to do with performance. (Disclaimer, I can't remember the exact figure, but it was around 70%, okay?). And that's my experience, as well. Both as a boss and as an employee. I've been fired for doing my job (2 times, when the employer was hoping that either the project I was working on would fail, or when my employer set me up to fail), but it has never been my ability. I've also fired people, but it was purely about non-ability issues (abusing company resources, etc.)
I think that my experience has been that when you can't manage your manager (work together with them, put up with them personally, etc.) its past time to get out. For better or worse, if your manager dislikes or hates you, or acts in ways you can't stomach, its time to polish off the resume and start again. The sooner the better.
Bill
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I was trained to interview and hire by a guy with 15+ years of experience. He taught me that questioning the reason for leaving a prior employer is one of the fastest ways to separate candidates.
The more detailed and impersonal explanations about shortcomings or roadblocks to advancement that existed in a previous workplace typically pointed to a better candidate. Why? Analysing frustrations or failures without integrating personal emotions exhibits political IQ... hugely important in mid to large size companies. Being able to provide detailed explanations about the causes of frustrations or failures demonstrates scope of vision... a massive indicator of an employee's ability to deal with compromise/problem solving in the workplace through an understanding of the pressures and demands that shape production across multiple interrelated divisions.
You might be amazed at the number of job candidates who look great on paper but boil their lack of advancement or success at a prior job down to interpersonal conflicts with management etc... I know I was amazed.
The more wholistic awareness a candidate displays in answering this question, the more secure a prospective employer can be in the candidate's ability to preserve and improve the corporate culture.
Regards.
This can bite you in one of two ways:
All this poor sod knows is that he didn't get an interview. But really, he is now never welcome to work at my wife's firm, and "the grapevine" now knows what he is doing, so he will probably have difficulties finding work elsewhere. It's a small world out there.
The correct strategy is to take a cold, hard assessment of what happened. Be objective and dispassionate. List out the mistakes you made and what you've learned from them and how you won't repeat them in the future. List out what you feel you did right as well.
Distill all that into a concise story. We're talking about 30 seconds to a minute. Be honest, but put a dispassionate spin on it and keep your sense of humor.
Recite it in front of a mirror a few times and then test it on a friend. Ask him if he'd honestly hire you after hearing that, or if not, why not.
Keep revising until you've got a story that is truthful, but paints you in the best possible light. In terms of learning from your mistakes, accepting your former employer's mistakes and realizing that it was just business, and keeping your confidence about you.
Everyone is human, and we all eff up from time to time. How you pick yourself back up again says volumes about your character. Honest self-assessment and attempts at self improvement are good. Lying, blame shifting, and deceiving are bad.
They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
(I recently completed a project, well, about 99%, and the customer pulled the plug for reasons unrelated to the performance of my team - they ran out of money)
#1: If you're uncomfortable with lying - DON'T.
#2: If you were in charge; don't DENY that it was your fault. Take responsibility for what is your responsibility. Show that if mistakes were made, you have learned and moved on. It's better to show that you were in charge of a project, than to pretend you were a junior member. Taking responsibility for failures shows maturity.
#3: Don't take responsibility for things that were not your responsibility. Lots of people get put "in charge" of things; when, in reality, someone higher up in the chain can sandbag you.
#4: No project fails completely. Accentuate the positives. Highlight what you DID accomplish. Show that; despite project constraints, you came up with innovative approaches to solving issues. Be positive, and try not to make yourself look like a victim. Everyone in this industry for more than a year or two knows that projects fail from time to time. But a project is more than just "Failed" or "Succeeded". Whether you get paid may hinge on that dichotomy. But whether you did good work certainly does not.
#5: Unless you're just out of college, you've got other successes in your work history that you can talk about instead. Your last job is the most relevant. But it's not the ONLY relevant item.
Hope that helps.
I wasn't really made the scapegoat in my case. But it still sucks that I can't say that my project was a complete success, and got used, and worst of all, I have no use-case metrics to prove that my approach improved anything. But when I explained it in interviews, it was apparent that I was on the right track, and was just unlucky.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.