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What’s It Like To Be Fired?

I got fired many years ago while working as a web developer. I won’t go into who or where. This is just a description of what it’s like to be fired and how to cope afterwards.

I am hoping this will help some folks out there for when this tech bubble bursts and more firings occur.

When I got fired many years ago in the 90s, it was a surprise to me. My boss the previous week had told me what a great coder I was. The CFO and CTO met with me in a room. They told me the cause for my termination and then said, “Because of that, we have to terminate your employment.”

They gave me 2 papers to sign. One was the grounds under which I would receive severance (i.e. do not mention that we fired you for 7 years), and the other mentioned that I had to exercise my stock options in 1 month or forfeit them. I signed both papers with tears almost ready to start running down my face while the CTO said, “I had nothing to do with this.”

If you get fired, 3 awful things happen if you are a coder:

1. In the startup, tech community, if you get fired, you become a persona non grata. That means all the social circles I had booted me out. I literally had to start from zero.

2. You cannot use the employer who fired you as a reference.

3. I know there’s no techie blacklist but the only 2 jobs I could find were as a spam engineer or in a totally different industry. I chose the latter.

I don’t regret getting fired. I became a wandering gypsy coder for a few years and saw different parts of the world. It takes awhile until you get enough experience so that gap of where you got fired is in the deep past. Also getting fired is something that shouldn’t come as a surprise. I’ve learned how to spot when a firing will happen. Here are some major signs:

1. You are scapegoated. Or have insurmountable personal difficulties that just can’t be ameliorated. If this is you, it’s best to just get out of Dodge. Develop more social skills.

2. You failed to deliver on a big project. There are two solutions: immediately work on a project that is in trouble. This is rough but if you make it succeed, then folks will forget the failure. The other solution is just leave.

3. Your skills don’t really match your job. This is the main reason for most firings, but is the easiest to fix. Get more training!

6 replies on “What’s It Like To Be Fired?”

Getting fired is painful. But it make you a smarter developer. Or more specifically, it makes you a smarter employee. You know what not to repeat. And you know how to spot the signs.

Why would you become a persona non grata in the tech community? Can you elaborate?

From an outsider’s perspective, this seems a little strange and surprising.

In several other industries, this is definitely not the case.

I totally agree – I also see great developers get fired for no reason. The other side of this is the ass holes that then turn around and interview people that clearly know nothing about what they are talking about. As recruiters and companies try to steal me away from my current gig, I am ever reminded that 1.) the opportunity is not as a great as you say it is 2.) If the person doing the hiring asks you to model “milk being poured into a cereal bowl” as a test, but then wants you to know the ins-and-outs or building international apps (but does not test you on this), run like hell. True story.

Having been fired from a job I hated it would strongly suggest looking up the rights of workers in the state or province in which you work. In hindsight I was far to quick to sign the paperwork put in front of me and I missed out on the opportunity for lots of cash/options. While it may not be the case in some regions, often times the rights of workers are protected to an extent that is abused by companies assuming ignorance in workers. I fell prey to this and wouldn’t wish it on anyone else. I did however learn a lot about the disparity between PR and practice which was my personal silver lining.

After spending an intense six months cramming a new set of skills around a new-to-me industry, the Co president informed my sales manager that the project had failed and to let us go. I felt so ripped off. The VP took me aside, reminded me that it wasn’t my fault, and told me, “I’ve never gotten fired when it didn’t turn out to be the best possible thing that could have happened.” Which turned out to be right on for me and almost every fired person I’ve spoken with.

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