1. A shot guide for the modern day worker
You are Fired.!
BY
Kiran Nair, PMP®
( EMAIIL : kiran_knair@yahoo.com )

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
What it means to you - 3
Intuition can be your best friend - 5
What if it is definitely a go - 6
It is a beginning to and end, not an end in itself - 10
One step at a time.. - 12
Its not just marketing, It's finding the market to market
yourself - 16
Sustaining jobs - secret 'mantra‘ - 20
2
Copyright Notice:
The material contained in this publication is intended for educational purpose
only. You do not have rights to resell, copy, edit, forward or transfer any part of
the document in electronic or printed form. The author should be consulted for
any commercial use.

3. What it means to you!
•You are getting fired?
•You are already fired ?
•You would think you will never be fired!
Rest of pages are written just for you. So,
please read on and feel confident that it will prove
useful for yourself or a best friend of yours
or someone in your family or a loved one.
And no matter what type of work you do, you
may come across serious job security related
threats unless you are self employed. Things can
go wrong due to several factors including but not
limited to off-shoring, downsizing, layoff, leaning
processes and automation.
One's own personal woes can pose a job
security risk like health problems, family issues
like divorce or just interpersonal issues and office
politics. With more and more youngsters entering
the job market, any one inherits the job risk due to
their own age.
3

4. Work is a prayer. And I start
off every morning dedicating
it to our Creator.
-- Joseph MurrayJoseph Murray
“
“
4

5. Intuition can be your best friend.
What is your mind talk - you can get a sense of it
being around. Believe it or not most of the time your
mind is right and it is the most trust worthy source that
can never lie to you. It is essential for every employee or
worker to keep a tab on what goes on in his or her work
environment, industry and in general.
How to avoid getting fired (detailed towards end of
this article ) is quintessential but sometimes we as plain
simple humans are helpless. If you hear it from the
grapevine, the best thing would be for you to have an
open dialogue with your supervisor. Don't be blunt. Ask
for feedback, areas where you can improve, things
that you may accommodate in addition to your current
work load. Your positive approach might help you
survive. But the best thing you can do it to prepare for the
worst.
5

6. What if it is definitely a go..
As discussed earlier, an option dialogue with your
employer could help but it not a guarantee. Simply
for the reason you cannot count everyone by their
words.
It is time to document stuff. Do not succumb to
pressure. Always ask for time to think and get back
to them, even it is the President or Director who is
asking you to resign. Unless you are facing a severe
disciplinary action as a result or fraud, cheating etc.
you should be allowed time to think.
 Make the best use of time and find out if the
decision from management is anyway
discriminatory, or unlawful. Seek for legal assistance
from an experienced legal professional, staff/trade
union representative, the workforce
commission/labor officer as the case may be.
6

7.  Negotiate for a good severance package, and
work on getting good employment references.
You should reach an agreement on what will be
shared with potential future employers. The best
way is to get HR to respond to future
employment references so that your prior People
manager is out of the equation. If your leaving
will solve their problem, they need to be flexible
enough to work these reasonable
requests. Always remember that simply because
your current employer doesn't want you is no
way a reason for them to stop others from
hiring you.
 Leave a window open for you to peek in and
ask in case you need their help. In most of the
case it is who you need their help and to them.
So let us spare that channel between you and
them.
Continued..
7

8.  Never burn the bridge : You might
be terribly frustrated, fed up, felt ditched
and thrown into a garbage bin. Last but not
the least is the imminent financial burden on
supporting yourself and family with no
income. But you know what, it is not the
situation that matters most but mostly
the way you react to it.
 Do not go overboard and post nasty things
about your current employer or management
on the internet or social networking sites.
Think of it is a closed chapter. Settle your
financial dealings, tax or retirement account
matters and any pending expense / salary
reimbursements. Apply for unemployment
benefits if are applicable for you.
8

9. “ Working hard is very
important. You're not going
to get anywhere without
working extremely hard.”
- George Lucas
9

10. It is a beginning to and end,
not an end in itself
Loosing a job and hunting for a new one is
not as complex as giving birth to a baby or
sending an interplanetary space expedition.
You are not being targeted, you care the least
even if you are. Let me tell you the reason. You
were fired just because another individual
though you should be. It was a combined
decision, yet one person that one person hit the
button. It is in no way an indication of you are
not good for nothing. It just meant you were
not fitting there or some reason weird or silly it
could be. Calm yourself down. "Why me" is a
killer syndrome and it is not going to help you
or anyone around you.
10

11. “If you believe in yourself and
have dedication and pride -
and never quit, you'll be a
winner. The price of victory is
high but so are the rewards.”
- Paul Bryant
11

12. One step at a time..
Research and analyze
Several things come into play when you prepare for
the new job interview. Do your own SWOT (
Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats)
Analysis. Based on the self evaluation make changes
to your resume. Be honest to yourself. More that
what you put on your resume, interviewer is going to
look at what value addition you can bring to their
organization.
 Re-organize and re-possess
Read a lot, keep track of your notes. Get training
online, classroom from any other sources affordable
for you. Most of the cases interviewers respect your
holistic knowledge of your industry/area. If possible,
look at volunteering opportunities in your area to
keep you busy and engaged. Prepare a schedule of
activities, the books you can read or the online
materials relevant to you. Take each job posting as a
potential opportunity. Please exclusively for each
job. Do not mass float your resume.
Continued.. 12

13.  Re-hearse ad repackage
•Your resume should speak for who you are, what
you did and how someone else can get value hiring
you.
•Be concise on your cover letter, resume and while
during the interview. If possible get mock interviews
done by your close friends or family members. Get
their open feedback and rework on your skills.
•For almost any job, potential interview questions
can be found online. They may not give you the
actual questions that can come up during your
interview but you definitely can use them as a
skeleton to model your mock interview and
boost preparation.
Continued..
13

14. Putting your best :
•Identify even minor things related to team work,
leadership and strategy.
•Just for an example, if you organized birthday parties at
work, published newsletters or weekly activity emails or
even a simple charity fundraising it speaks a lot about your
abilities to blend with a workforce and be create
•Bottom line is you need to re-organize yourself. Take a
tab of your activities, compile and put them in a neat
presentable format not just on your resume but on top of
your head.
Re-hearse and re-brand :
•We all need money to survive and it is a hard fact. But
keep those discussions to later part of your job interview or
for a discussion with HR. Never bring money into your
discussion unless explicitly asked for.
•Your aim is to make a difference, positive changes and
progress in your life, family, society and your workplace is
simply an extension of that.
14

15. “Far and away the best prize
that life has to offer is the
chance to work hard at work
worth doing”
- Theodore Roosevelt
15

16. Its not just marketing, It's finding the market to
market yourself
No matter whatever reason your past employer
gave you for firing, you should venture and do a
honest and sincere self retrospective. May be your
most trusted colleague or friend at work can help
you in understanding sensible reasons behind your
hiring.
The best outcome of a retrospective is to
understand any gaps you might have with regards to
competency, skills or behavioral attributes. You can
be rest assured that if you really wish, you can
definitely cover these gaps by training or mentoring.
No one is born with so called "skills". It is all trained
transferred or taught. You can definitely master
anything. It is just the focus and mindset you need at
this time to get you back on track.
Continued..
16

17. Believe in yourself and learn to ascertain what you
think is what you are. Think of yourself as a changed
person, looking for a new opportunity to contribute
and serve a new organization with your experience,
abilities and skills.
Identifying unique opportunities - Do your best,
expect the best but don't allow the hurt feeling to
overtake you and let you down. You new job could
be just a few days or months away. But the key is to
remain persistent, prepare and maintain
the momentum at a stable level. Every job seeker is a
salesperson. Success is just a finger tip away and
reaching that should be your old mantra. Try to
connect with likeminded professional and make use
of linked in and professional job search sites
like media and real life networking
enablers like meet up sites.
17

18.  Once a very experienced manager told his team
members - "if you ask me to take three super talented
people or ten average workers with good attitude, I
would rather opt for the latter". It is obvious
technical or functional knowledge is inevitable based
on the nature of the job but the right attitude can
make a big difference. If you lack something build it.
If humanity can build whatever you see on
this planet, why can't you fix yourself and gaps in
your competency. Decide for yourself, keep
motivated until you reach the goal.
18

19. “What you are will show in
what you do”
- Thomas A. Edison
19

20. Sustaining jobs - secret 'mantra'
Invest more time, energy or whatever you can so that
you take as little time as possible to ascertain your
strengths and make confidence built within your new
organization.
Getting the right job or losing it both are equally
difficult in this ever changing job market. It becomes
the primary responsibility of every job holder to protect
it unless they have something promising and available
for them to latch on. It is quite inevitable for them
to influence or adapt to their new situation or changed
circumstances and make things move in their favor.
Do not exist in your workforce of your employer or
corporation. You should be perceived as a value adding
asset than a liability. The small things you do differently
can be the deciding factor between a successful career
or a heartbreaking exit.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
20