No one enjoys getting the news: Your services are no longer required here. Whether you're fired from an employer or a client, being let go makes us feel we failed. Not a great feeling.
Unlike in the military, being dismissed sometimes comes with little to no warning. A company restructuring, poor performance, lack of funding or myriad other reasons can lead to your being shown the door and scrambling to figure out what to do next.
Before you jump on the online job boards and start flooding the market with your resume, here are some questions to ask and consider:
1. Ask Your Employer
Ask your employer to clarify what's leading to this dismissal. Is it poor performance, unmet expectations or something else you didn't do right?
If yes:
- Ask yourself whether you were clear about what the job required. Did you understand how you'd be measured and what it would take to be "successful" on the job? Did you have the right skills and experience to do the job well?
- Were there warning signs you ignored? If your boss sat you down on many occasions indicating your performance was lacking, did you dismiss their feedback?
- Did you have a mentor or other support system in place to keep yourself focused on growing your career and skills?
If no:
- What was the reason you're being fired? Ask them to be specific, and if they're willing, try to understand if there was anything you could have done differently to save your job.
- Are there companies that are hiring that your employer knows of? Would they be willing to put in a good word for you and give you a recommendation or introduction?
- How should you communicate to the market why you were dismissed? If a company is in financial trouble, and reducing workforce as a result, they might appreciate you being sensitive to how that news is shared in the community.
2. Ask Yourself
When you're calm and relaxed, ask yourself whether there were warning signs you missed, opportunities you ignored or relationships you took for granted.
If yes:
- If you weren't paying attention to red flags, were they truly obvious or did you not see them because you didn't know to watch for them? Transitioning from a military-to-civilian career is not just about knowing how to do the job, but also about how to navigate the unknown. Where were the blind spots?
- Did you ignore the warning signs because you didn't think they applied to you or because you knew better? That could be an opportunity to check your goals and strategies to ensure you're operating from the right playbook and not working off false assumptions.
- If it's because you resisted opportunities or key relationships, consider why that might be. Are you reluctant to stretch past your comfort zone? Do you bring a growth mindset to work? Or are you staying isolated and insulated from growth opportunities, leading your employer to believe you don't want to be in the job long term?
If no:
- Where do you go from here? What can you take from this job as a learning experience?
- Will you stay in the same industry and do the same job? Maybe this experience showed you that this kind of work, for this kind of company, is not aligned with your values and professional goals.
- How can you be ready for the next opportunity? While you shouldn't be afraid to try again, and pursue work, it can make you hesitant to repeat a mistake. Avoid this by learning what went wrong and correcting it for the next opportunity.
3. Ask Your Mentor
Enlist the insight of your mentor to help you identify what your employer may not be telling you, and which you might not see yourself.
- What are they seeing that you're possibly missing or ignoring? Trust your mentor to give you the truth, because they're invested in your career success.
- Did you sell yourself short? For example, do they believe you failed to assert yourself during the interview process when red flags appeared? Did you oversell yourself (or your skills) into the job?
- What advice do they have for where you go from here? Do they think you should pivot your career, get back into the job search today, take some time off or upskill? Your mentor has a broad perspective and can often see into opportunities you might not find visible yet.
There's a shock phase of being fired that may last a few hours or a few weeks. Depending on your situation, you may have the time to reflect and regroup, or you may have urgent demands that require you to ask fast. As you navigate through these questions, you'll learn what you could have done differently (if anything) and how to potentially avoid painful career experiences such as this in the future.
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