How To Explain Your Layoff in a Job Interview

Bossed Up

How should you address a layoff in a job interview? This year of job market flux has seen more than 80,000 layoffs in the tech industry alone, on top of 250,000+ in 2023. These statistics highlight just how normal and not-at-all-shameful layoffs are, but that doesn’t mean living through them is easy.

In today’s episode, I have three takeaways for managing the interview question that will inevitably come up if you’re one of the hundreds of thousands of people who were unceremoniously let go in the past year and a half.

These tips serve as a reminder that the question “Tell us about why you were laid off” is a chance to focus your story on your values and use your experiences to drive home what makes you a great candidate for the opportunity before you.

Tune in to learn how to explain your layoff with pride and power:

• Why you shouldn’t skirt around the truth;
• How to normalize your experience without making it personal;
• Where to take the story so it highlights your best traits and skills.

Related Links:

• HIRED: my Job Search Accelerator - https://www.bossedup.org/gethired
• Episode 455 - How to Create a Sustainable Job Search Schedule when You’re Unemployed - https://www.bossedup.org/podcast/episode455
• Episode 453 - Prioritizing your Job Search While Holding Down a Full-Time Job - https://www.bossedup.org/podcast/episode453
• From Verdict: “New year kicks off continued tech layoffs in 2024” - https://www.verdict.co.uk/new-year-kicks-off-continued-tech-layoffs-in-2024/
• From Yahoo Finance: “Five biggest tech industry layoffs of 2024, so far” - https://finance.yahoo.com/news/five-biggest-tech-industry-layoffs-151712010.html
• Tech Layoff Tracker: https://layoffs.fyi/
• Bossed Up Courage Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/927776673968737/
• Bossed Up LinkedIn Group - https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7071888/