Down but Not Out

OK, so you've been fired. Maybe you did something wrong. Maybe you had a personality conflict with your boss. Maybe the new management's vision didn't include you.You may not believe it now, but the blow could turn out to be a blessing. "We've gotten thank-you notes saying, 'If you hadn't kicked me out the door, I'd probably be miserable, and I'm happy now,' " says Joy Matheny, director of human resources at GSD&M in Austin, Texas. Long before the happy ending, however, there's the process of starting over. It need not be as uncomfortable as you may think—recruiters and agency execs say a good candidate can overcome any stigma attached to a termination.Robert Rota, president of Dallas-based staffing shop Executive Staffers, says the first step is to fully come to terms with the situation. "You need to process your termination emotionally and psychologically and mentally, and articulate why it happened and put a positive spin on it," he says. "The people who are able to manage that transition and communicate it effectively are going to be the ones who are rehired."He tells candidates to be honest, accepting at least some blame for the problem. "When you are vague about your reasons for leaving an employment situation, it raises more questions than it has to," he says. "In many cases, the lack of information ... may be the reason you're not hired."Cathy Coraci McCann, human resources director at Young & Rubicam in Dearborn, Mich., agrees that ambiguity is not the answer. "It's your opportunity to tell your potential employer the story you'd like them to have," she says. "I tell people, 'You don't have to volunteer it, but if someone asks, I would not lie.' "After Jonathan Schoenberg was fired from a Colorado shop six years ago, he was upfront about his past when he applied for a freelance post at Boulder shop TDA Advertising & Design. At the end of the interview, he had a staff job. "It was a rebellious place, so it wasn't an issue," says Schoenberg, who told his future boss there had been a culture clash with his ex-employer. Some find the truth is less convenient than masquerading as one of the downsized, especially since a former employer cannot reveal details on why a staffer left. "It's gotten easier for anyone who's been let go to say, 'I'm a victim of the economy,' " says Fifi Jacobs, vp at recruiting firm Jacobs Kozuck in New York. "It becomes a little more hairy if someone's let go from an agency that's doing well." And, she warns, "When people are let go for something bad, people do find out about it."Matheny says having been fired is not a deal breaker. "We would consider what the circumstances were and ask, 'Is it something we could get around? Was it just a matter of circumstances at that particular time?' " she says. "But we would also look at employment history to see if there might be a pattern." McCann also tries to ascertain how much the candidate has overcome the setback. "I have to make sure you haven't lost your passion, that you got back on the horse and said, 'I still like this business, and I want to do great work despite what happened previously,' " she says.David Smith, a cd at The Republik in Durham, N.C., who was once fired himself, wants to know what a person learned from the job where he or she was terminated—the good and the bad. "As long as I can hear about the experiences in an objective way, not a personality-bashing way, I'm open to it," he says.Bad-mouthing a former boss is never a good idea. "That's more telling about the [candidate] than anything someone could know about the employer," Jacobs says.The ideal route to a new job, of course, is to bypass official channels. Smith, who says he was fired in 2001 from J. Walter Thompson in New York because of "political undercurrents" that arrived with new management, found his next big gig through personal ties. For a year he lived with his Czech girlfriend (now his wife) in Prague, keeping in touch with friend Robert Shaw West, who had just launched The Republik. When he returned home, the shop had a job for him. "Try your very best to establish your networks," he says. "That junior account exec that you're condescending to may end up owning an agency one day, so be nice."Schoenberg has learned from experience that a slightly checkered past can be a good thing. "If they were laid off, that means they were expendable," he says. "It's sexy to get fired, because that means you're more of a force that needs to be reckoned with."

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Down but Not Out

Mindy Charski

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Mindy Charski