Reference no: EM133090875

Anyone can be laid off or fired. It's important to understand how that feels and how people recover from it.

Interview with someone who has been downsized or fired. They are NOT the same.

Fired means the person was removed from the job for some negative behavior of theirs.

Downsized/laid off means the person was the removed because their job itself was eliminated.

1. Was the interviewee downsized or fired? What type of job was the interviewee doing at time of downsizing or firing?

2. If downsized or fired, what type of organization (profit, non-profit) and how long had the interviewee worked at that job? How old is the interviewee?

3. How did the interviewee feel about it? Fairness of it? How it was handled? How did they feel about themselves after it happened (e.g. loss of self-esteem)?

4. Why did it happen? What was the organization's given reason for the layoffs or firing and did the person think there were other reasons, too? If so, what were they?

5. Did the interviewee lose any social contacts that were in the organization after the person downsized or laid off? (e.g. provided information about stuff going on in organization, could help the interviewee get a promotion, a raise, a transfer, access to specialized training, or were friends to the interviewee etc.)?

6. How did the interviewee find another job (If the person has not found another job yet, tell how they are looking for a job)? Did they use the Internet (e.g. Monster.com), apply for jobs in the newspaper, go to career fairs, and/or get help from friends/family/acquaintances with finding another job? How did the friends/family/acquaintance help with finding another job (e.g. did they tell the interviewee where to apply, recommended them for hire, could hire them directly?)

7. Is the interviewee on LinkedIn? If not, why not? If so, has it helped them with their job search? (If they have not heard of LinkedIn, ask them to look at the website as you are interviewing them)

8. In the interviewee's opinion, how can he/she improve their interviewing skills? What is one thing they can do better during a job interview?

9. How would the interviewee have handled the downsizing/firing differently than how their organization handled it? Why?