Wording For Being Fired
What is the proper wording to put on your resume or in your cover letter for being fired?
There is none.
It’s not that you can’t share what you believe to be the real reasons you got fired, or you can’t write in your cover letter exactly what your former boss said was the reason you got fired. It’s that you shouldn’t. That’s right. You should NOT include any wording ANYWHERE on your resume or in your cover letter that you got FIRED.
The purpose of a cover letter and a resume is to get a positive response; that is, to get a phone call, an email, or a letter snail mailed to you regarding the potential company’s interest in meeting with you. Your goal is to secure a phone interview and/or an in-person interview. That is why you send out your resume. You don’t send it out to tell the world every little detail about where you’ve been and what’s happened to you on your life’s path. You don’t even send out your resume to get the particular job initially; you first want and need to speak with a representative from the potential company! (After you explore the working conditions, the job responsibilities, or the salary, you may not want the job after all!) So your goal in sending out your professional profile ought to be to secure a phone and/or in person interview.
You certainly don’t want to include in the very first thing you put in front of someone (who knows nothing about you) that you got fired from your most recent job!
So how do you present yourself in your resume if you were fired?
Well, it depends on several things.
If you only worked for a few months or less at the job from where you got fired AND if that particular job has nothing to do with what it is you really want to do with your life, then don’t include it on the resume. If, on the other hand, you worked for AT LEAST 90 days at the job where you just got fired AND it IS in the field you long to pursue and build a career in, then include it on your resume. However, write the dates of your employment for that job AS IF you wrote the resume during the first week of your employment (vs. now since you have been fired.) So your resume should read (2010-present) for that job; then proceed to write that job description and your accomplishments at it in PRESENT tense.
The cover letter requires much more tact and skill. Because a cover letter is typically composed the day you send out the resume, you must be careful how you word what you include. There are ways to present yourself in your cover letter that are still HONEST, yet not all-telling.
Again, the sole and single purpose of sending out your resume and cover letter is to get a chance at an interview – not to explain why you quit (or got fired from) your last job – save that info for the interview (if you are asked).
For help writing your cover letter and designing your resume or if you need advice on what to SAY in a phone interview or in-person interview regarding your release from your most recent job ~ contact us at (216) 475-2963. We offer consulting services at a fee if you would like to talk with us and then write the project yourself, or we can completely eliminate that stress and challenge from your list and design your resume package for you from scratch. If you hire us to write your resume package for you, you receive unlimited consulting services from us (before, during, and after your all your interviews) for free!
***4th of July Weekend Special***: We will interview you via phone and then write and design a jaw-dropping, goosebump-inflicting resume for you, from scratch (no old resume needed) for just $74.11 (regular fee: $299).
If you are unhappily employed, unhappily unemployed, retired, or a college senior/grad, now is the time to get your resume done from America’s oldest and best professional and creative writing service!
Make your payment via the paypal button below before midnight on July 4th, 2011 to receive this offer. Then, email us at writers with spark @ aol. com so we can schedule the phone interview! Seventy-four bucks and eleven cents – this investment in yourself will profoundly change your life.
