I was fired from my position as the first hire for a marketing agency.

Anonymous

December 8,2022 at 3:06PM UTC

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I was fired from my position as the first hire for a marketing agency.

Originally, I was brought on to lead account strategy for our clients, but my role had morphed into that + account management, hiring and interviewing, building the business, etc. with more of the expectations of a cofounder. While this was exciting for me as a 30 y/o who had previously done more individual contributor work, I admit I was in over my head.

The last 2 months were not good. I went on vacation, came back with a 1 week overlap before my boss’s 3 week vacation started, and my husband’s cousin tragically died in a car accident that Monday, shortening our overlap to 3 days which didn’t give us much time at all to plan for running the agency while he was away.

During the firing, my boss said he felt like he couldn’t “get out of the weeds”, said he felt bad for yelling at me in our latest meetings (sort of inadvertently blaming me for his reaction and candor), and admitted he didn’t set me up for success.

How should I explain this whenever I start interviewing? I know I need to keep it simple, but wanted to give full context here in the post. In a time where so many are being laid off, frankly I’m embarrassed to say I was fired because I couldn’t live up to expectations.

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Lesa Edwards, Career Coach & Master Resume WriterDecember 8,2022 at 5:33PM UTC
My advice is always: "Tell the truth. Just not the whole truth."
In your case, something like "My boss admitted that he didn't set me up for success, and because of that, I wasn't successful. From this experience, I learned..."
AnonymousDecember 13,2022 at 1:25PM UTC
I love this. I might just say "my boss *acknowledged* that he didn't set me up for success" to get across the same message but lessen the probability of being heard as accusatory or defensive
AnonymousDecember 10,2022 at 11:22PM UTC
Hiring professionals advise against saying anything negative about your past employers. Why would you say you were fired as opposed to laid off? You don’t need to explain everything that transpired. There were extenuating circumstances.
Maria Paula CalvoJanuary 4,2023 at 6:55PM UTC
I believe in "always telling the truth" but you know for sure that there are many ways to do so. Invest a little bit of time in finding the right words that will make you feel confident when talking about this to anyone and then practice, since you know it is really likely questions on past experiences will arise. And keep in mind that when interviewing you must try to pick the most relevant experiences related to the position you are applying to , so unless you want to highlight some very special skill you learned from this job, you may want not to focus any conversation on it.
Jessica WeaverJanuary 5,2023 at 2:19AM UTC
I had the same thing happen to me. I was overwhelmed and not set up for success. You don't have to say you were fired, but you can explain why you weren't set up for success. Exactly what you described is a totally untenable situation, way more than the job was initially presented to you, and you were completely left on your own and without managerial support. That both accurately describes the situation AND gives you an opportunity to see how they respond. If they say "well, we would expect you to thrive in a similar environment" then great, you know those assholes aren't for you. It's a way to set expectations and make sure you and the potential employer are aligned in terms of a healthy workplace.
Kristy BusijaJanuary 9,2023 at 8:47PM UTC
Definitely keep it neutral and avoid saying anything negative about previous employers or managers. When hiring managers hear anything that sounds "blaming," even if it is true, they wonder how you will speak about them and their company. Something simple like, "The role was not a good fit" will suffice, which allows you to speak about what you are comfortable doing and qualified to do.