Without being too verbose, I' ll give some background about what happened. The short of it was that I was fired for not being a good fit after one year of employment.

Just over a year ago, I went through a jobless period. An old and close friend was the ops. manager (now COO) at a small local company, and offered to hire me for their customer service position. The pay was ok, and the position would be benefits-eligible after 90 days. He said the position was at-will and I could leave any time and there would be no hard feelings as long as I turned in a two week notice.

A couple of weeks after my hiring, I met my boss. He had been out of town on business at the time I was hired. I' m somewhat outgoing and try to make a good first impression, and I could tell the boss was a little bit irritated that I was there, but not to the point that he would fire me yet.

After six months, he called me into his office and said that he didn' t think I was meeting his expectations, but that he would give me a chance to turn that around. Trouble is, he didn' t tell me just what he wanted. Other members of his staff were also starting to use me as the person to do the tasks that no one else wanted or felt they had time to do. So much for dedicated customer service. He also interacted differently with me than he did the others. He was jocular with most people, but was patronizing and gruff with me.

In the meantime, I was enjoying being with my friend. We' d go out to lunch a couple of times a week, and talk about pretty much everything. I brought up my concerns about the boss, and he said he was probably trying to fit me into whatever mold he envisioned for the job. If not for my friend being there, I would have left not long after the boss came back. But I stayed because I enjoyed having him around, felt I owed him some loyalty, and hoped to gain some credibility.

After nine months, he called me in to his office to say that he had seen some improvement, but he still thought I needed to "shift up to the next gear."

After about 11 months, I got called back into the office and told that he had received a few complaints about me from customers he met at a convention. He wouldn' t give much detail, but I decided to improve my system of organization to make sure I wasn' t failing to call people back. I also started grad school part-time.

This Friday, after just over a year on the job, my friend was out of town for a commitment, and I was called into the boss' s office again. This time he told me he' d given me several chances to "step up to the plate" and provide superior job performance, and that I had not taken them. As such, he felt I was no longer a good fit with the company and was to be let go. I opted not to call my friend yet, but will probably do so Monday morning. I want to ask for a reference, and make sure the company won' t fight me if I file for unemployment. I believe we' ll still be friends, but this is something I never would have expected.

How do I handle this situation in an interview? I can' t say that it was a personality conflict with the boss. I tried my best to make the job work, and felt like I was doing a good job, especially for someone who had never done inbound customer service before.

Any advice would be appreciated. I don' t want to sit idle for too long, but don' t want to take the first thing that comes along either.