How To Explain Your Layoff in a Job Interview

Job Search

Jun 4, 2024

Episode 457 | Author: Emilie Aries

Don’t let a layoff in your past detract from highlighting your strengths in the future.

For many industries, 2024 has been a year of job market flux. In the tech industry alone, more than 80,000 employees have been laid off this year, on top of over 260,000 in 2023. These statistics can feel a bit confounding when the same companies are releasing numerous job postings at the same time.

This volatility is affecting hundreds of thousands of people, and it’s why I’ve released a number of job search-related episodes lately. If you’re currently on the hunt, check out episode 455, How to Create a Sustainable Job Search Schedule When You’re Unemployed, where I share some tips on job searching full-time, and episode 453, Prioritizing your Job Search While Holding Down a Full-Time Job.

Today, I offer up three takeaways for managing an interview question that will inevitably surface if you were unceremoniously let go in the past: “Tell us about why you were laid off.”

#1: Be honest and clear

First of all, avoid the temptation to pretend it didn’t happen. Layoffs happen. The talent acquisition team conducting your interview knows the current landscape and how it’s affecting people. Own up to the fact that you “lost your position as part of broader layoffs happening at the time,” and don’t be ashamed about it! Layoffs are a normal occurrence in the workforce, so state it as a simple fact and trust that your interviewer sees it as such, too.

#2: Normalize, but don’t personalize

Your layoff wasn’t a result of your personal performance, so don’t treat it like it was. If you know the broader context of why your position was cut, share that with your interviewer; maybe they hired too many folks back in 2020 or are drastically pivoting their business focus. If you don’t know the specifics, present that simple statement—“I lost my position as part of broader layoffs happening at the time”—and leave it at that. In other words, limit your explanation to a macro-level overview and avoid the temptation to get into the weeds of “why me” specifically.

#3: Move past the past

A victim mentality, resentment, anger, shock…these are all completely legitimate feelings to have around your layoff. The thing is, voicing them won’t serve you in your interview.

Rather than dwell on what happened, mention it and move straight into how your response to this unexpected derailment highlights some of your best skills. This is an excellent chance to show off your optimism and willingness to shift tracks in the face of change or the practicality that fueled your structured job search approach and ultimately led to the wonderful opportunity you’re currently discussing.

As you navigate the rocky, lengthy, time-consuming adventure that is the modern job search, remember: how you frame your reaction to what happened has a much stronger effect on how the interviewer perceives you than the fact that it happened. Center your strengths, focus your story on its connection to your core values, and use your experience to drive home what makes you a great candidate for the role.

If you’re in the thick of the job search and need more tips and strategies for navigating the modern interview process, including scripts and interview prep questions, be sure to check out my job search accelerator, HIRED.

And, if you have stories and learnings to share from your experience, join the Courage Community on Facebook or our group on LinkedIn and connect with our like-minded, supportive community.

Related Links From Today’s Episode:

Navigate the modern job search, step by step:

[INTRO MUSIC IN]
EMILIE: Hey, and welcome to the Bossed Up podcast, episode 457. I'm your host, Emilie Aries, the founder and CEO of Bossed Up. Today we're talking about how to explain a layoff when you're interviewing for your next position.
[INTRO MUSIC ENDS]
The first thing I should say here is that the 2024 job market has been characterized by both continued growth in hiring, like better than expected hiring, and on the other hand, robust layoffs, which can feel a little dizzying. But there's been a lot of churn, a lot of change. And that leaves so many job seekers, particularly in industries who've been disproportionately impacted by layoffs like tech in the past year and a half now. It can leave so many of us feeling like our heads are just spinning.
So you might see monthly job reports that look good or better than expected, and yet you see wild numbers of layoffs being reported in the thousands, particularly in industries like tech, which have been having a lot of layoffs both in 2023 and continuing into 2024, according to the latest research and data available from layoffs.fyi, job cuts have continued to plague the tech industry, with over 81,000 employees laid off in 2024 already. And that adds to the 2,000 tech companies that had significant layoffs in 2023, resulting in over 260,000 tech workers out of the job by last December. That is wild. So those numbers are pretty daunting. And yet, I know folks in the tech sector who are applying to jobs at companies who are posting jobs while still laying thousands of employees off at the same time.
So this massive change and volatility in the job market can be very disorienting, which is probably why the last two Bossed Up episodes are of particular relevance to you. So I highly recommend scrolling back and checking out the archives. But my main takeaway, the main point here for how to talk about this is you've got to get your head on straight. You've got to get your story straight, your inner narrative straight, in order to have a clear narrative in the interview process.
So my top three takeaways for you are as follows. One, be honest and clear. Don't beat around the bush. Be clear that you were laid off. I lost my position at my last company as part of broader layoffs that were happening at the time. You can keep it that short and sweet, but be honest, be clear. Don't be ashamed of this either, because layoffs happen and people in talent acquisition totally understand that. There should be no hint of shame or regret in your voice. Please feel free to just talk about layoffs as a normal and regular thing.
That brings me to point number two here. I want you to normalize, but not personalize getting laid off. Here's what I mean. Layoffs happen, and they don't have anything to do with you or your personal performance. I want you to explain the broader context. Like, you could talk about the broader economic scene that these things are happening. You could talk about the sector, you could talk about the organization, you know, as a result of perhaps too much growth in the few years prior, this is what happened as a result.
Or just talk about the statistics in your industry. Talk about the company. Make it about a macro level reality and be clear, you know, I lost my position not because of anything having to do with my personal performance, but rather because of broader layoffs that happened at the time due to, and then if you have a, honest reason to share, like, you know, we grew too fast in 2020, feel free to say that. Or if you don't know, you can just leave it at. We had a broader round of layoffs during the time. The end, full stop.
And that brings me to point number three. Don't dwell on the past. Don't bring a victim mentality to this. Don't bring resentment, anger, frustration, shock, and surprise to your narrative. You have every right to feel all of those feelings, to be clear, you might very well feel resentful and angry and frustrated and shocked and surprised and victimized by a layoff. And that is totally valid, and it's not helping you in the interview.
So, to get your narrative straight, I want you to focus on how you respond to uncertain things happening. How do you, as a human being, react when bad things happen? When the things that you planned don't come to fruition? This is inherently more about your values. You know, I'm a very optimistic person at my core. So when one door closes, I know another door opens, and I'm excited to find that next opportunity that's right for me. Or you might say something like, you know, I'm a really practical person. I like having a plan. And so when things like my job situation don't go according to plan, that's hard for me. But what I've done is I've approached my job search with a really structured, planned out approach, and that's why I'm so excited to be having this conversation with you. This feels like the perfect opportunity that really aligns with who I am and the values and skills that I bring to the table.
Talk about your values. Talk about your personality. Talk about your approach to life. Talk about how you have actively responded to what happened to you, not just dwelling on what happened to you as the end all, be all of your life and your career story. Really, what I'm challenging you to do here is lean into that hero's journey narrative, or heroine's journey narrative, right? The journey of any protagonist in any story is about how they respond to challenge, not avoid it altogether. So normalize, don't personalize. Be honest and clear, but also focus the point of this story that you're telling on who you are at your core, what you've learned from this experience, and how it's informed your job search moving forward. Better yet, explain why it tees you up to be the perfect candidate for the perfect role that you're applying for right now, and why you're so excited to be having that conversation with them.
Now for lots more tips and strategies for navigating the modern interview process, including scripts and interview prep questions that can help make you feel prepared going into the interview and really ready to stick your landing and have a clear, concise, and compelling career narrative that helps you land the next job that you want most. Check out my job search course called HIRED, which is available on demand.
[OUTRO MUSIC IN]
It's a video course that walks you through navigating the modern job search in a step by step, structured way. That's at bossedup.org/gethired. Until next time, keep bossin’ in pursuit of your purpose, and together, let's lift as we climb.
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