How to Answer Questions About a Layoff While Job Searching

By Brandi Fowler

Layoffs and furloughs are followed by a wave of emotions. One of those is often anxiety about employers viewing you differently for being let go. The good news is that this is a needless worry for most job seekers.

Most job seekers can simply add their job's end date on their resume and LinkedIn profile without doing much else, said Twanna Carter, who is a career coach. She added that you can mention it briefly in your cover letter or outreach if you feel like it's worth mentioning.?

“Keep it brief and shift to what makes you a great candidate for the role,” Carter told LinkedIn News. “Your purpose in mentioning the layoff in the cover letter is to communicate that it was a layoff, so no one thinks you were fired.? And, of course, to sell them on what an excellent candidate you are for the role.”

Prepare for Interview Questions

You will want to prepare for possible questions about your last job before interviews with potential employers, however.

“Let's say that you were in talent acquisition, and you were only there for four months, and your resume says from ‘October 2022 to January 2023,’” said Wonsulting's Jonathan Javier. “You just have to be able to explain it during your interview. That is going to be the most important part because they are probably going to ask, ‘why were you only there for three months?’"

The reality is that companies — especially now —?are often laying people off or putting them on furloughs, added Javier. A layoff really shouldn't be a red flag for employers.

“All you have to do in the interview is describe what happened," he said. "Say, ‘Unfortunately things happened that were not in my control.’ Because a lot of layoffs that I'm seeing right now aren't based on performance.”

Skip ranting about your layoff to the interviewer, Javier said. Instead, keep your response simple and to the point.

Keep Yourself in the Spotlight

Be honest and focus on the positive during interviews, Carter said. Talk about what you learned from the experience, how it made you stronger, and how you can provide value to your prospective employer.

“Make sure that you keep your tone and all comments about your previous employer neutral and professional,” Carter said. “Your prospective employer doesn’t really care about how the layoff was handled. They just want to know how you will affect their bottom line.”

Carter also suggested using this formula and interview response to help talk about a layoff in a positive way:?

• I was part of the company XYZ layoff that was announced via the media. My department/section/team was eliminated.
• I learned [Thing 1] from my previous position. Or, I experienced [Thing 2] and I’ve used this unexpected time to do [Thing 3].?
• I believe these are valuable skills to this position because [A and B].?

The main point is to keep guiding your conversation with a potential employer back to the fact that you're an excellent fit for the open role.

Carter offered the following example:?

"I was part of the company XYZ layoff that was announced in the news. My team was eliminated. It was surprising, but I worked with a phenomenal team, and built customer relationships that resulted in 23% and 26% reduction in overhead costs over the last two years. I am really excited that I was able to use this unexpected time to complete a certification in process improvement and a course in risk mitigation. I think this is the type of experience and knowledge you are looking to bring on board for your team, right?”

Don't Get Discouraged

Rejection is a common part of the job search process for the vast majority of people. Few people get the first job they apply for during their search. The key is to keep going since companies are still hiring a large number of workers.

In spite of businesses making cuts and initiating hiring freezes, the U.S. economy “obliterated forecasts by adding more than 500,000 jobs in January”, according to LinkedIn News. The unemployment rate is still 3.4%, meaning jobs are still up for grabs.

You have a good chance to land a job if you were recently laid off as long as you have a solid job search strategy.

Al Dea, who is the founder of Betterwork Labs, joined me for the latest episode of my Get Hired podcast. We talked all about how you can use your soft skills — like interpersonal communication and time management —?to land your next job. Those human skills are going to grow in importance as automation and artificial intelligence work their way into an increasing number of professions.?

You can read a transcript of the conversation by clicking here. You can listen to the episode of Apple Podcasts by clicking here.

BONUS: Al will also join me live on Wednesday, February 22, at noon ET to answer your questions about the topic on #GetHired Live. You can RSVP for that conversation by clicking the image below or by clicking here.

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There are many different note-taking strategies. My technique has always been to write down as much as possible as quickly as possible; my training as a journalist demanded it. Capturing full conversations is not a great use of time, though. I've been trying to get better by focusing on what really matters during conversations. Fortunately, there are also helpful guides like this LinkedIn Learning course to help. You can watch the course below or by clicking here.