RE: past firing without causeAbout a year and a half ago I was fired from my job as a legal assistant. To give you some background, I had held this job for going on three years when my boss told me that due to a "lack of business (which I could believe since my boss only worked about one day a week)," my hours were going to be cut from 40 a week down to 15. During this discussion, my boss gave me the option of either staying on or just leaving and taking unemployment. I wanted to be a good employee so I said that I would stay as a part timer and go back to college to get my Accounting degree. About three months after this discussion, my boss upped and fired me without any kind of warning. I was pretty upset as I was a very good employee (and had gotten a great performance review a month before my firing) but was hopeful that I would be eligible for unemployment. After discussing the situation with Unemployment (and after they spoke with my former boss), they not only found that I was fired without cause but that I was also eligible for unemployment.
My question is, I am about to graduate from college with a degree in Accounting and I am nervous about putting this job on my resume. I don' t want to ignore a position that took up three and a half years of my life and also gave me many different office skills, but I also don' t want to put it on my resume if doing so will hurt me when it comes to getting an accounting position. How would you guys handle this predicament? Also, if I should put this job on my resume, how should I handle what happened if this job is brought up in a future interview? When you are in the interview, sometimes they ask if they can call your former employers. I also think that since you have the Unemployment place telling you that you were fired without cause, you could use that as your defense as well. You don't want to be dishonest in an interview because if they do hire you and found out you lied in the interview, they could fire you for that. This is the kind of case where you can easily say that your job was eliminated. First it was cut back to part-time and then it was phased out. Unless there' s something else going on or the person you were working for will say something different, this should be fine and no reflection on you.
I would have no problems with being honest about the situation during an interview, I just hope that it won't reflect badly on me, even though the firing wasn't my fault. I think I will print out the letter from the Unemployment office stating I was fired without cause-it wouldn't hurt to have a copy.
IF I were you, and if you have any honorable contacts within that company, contact that person to be your reference, that you worked for that person, who will provide a glowing reference. NEVER bring up ANY negatives about previous jobs in ANY interview, ever. Don' t even explain what happened. You left to pursue another opportunity, OR if you were still in school, you had to leave to concentrate on your work. Printing a letter from the DOL is a BIG NO NO, it' s NOBODY' S BUSINESS, plus... If I were interviewing you and you waved that thing in my face as a pre-emptive strike against a job that I MAY VERY WELL NOT CHECK INTO ANYWAY, I' d honestly toss your resume in the "special candidate" or "Poop" file, in the bottom drawer of the back of my dead-zone file cabinet.
You're too worked up about this--there's no need to leave this job off your resume and no need to take along with you a letter from the UE office. What Tess said is exactly right, and I assume it is the truth, since you were fired without cause. It could be that your boss just didn't want to continue paying you due to his lack of business. Instead of bringing a letter from the UE office, bring your last performance review with you--that is far more pertinent than the other. And far more positive! | |
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