How do I get rehired if my contract was terminated because of breach of confidentiality

Question

Hi I'm 20 year old uni student and have been working as a receptionist at a student accommodation for about 2 years. This week, I was immediately fired from my job as they've said I have breach of confidentiality. I understand I was in the wrong as I spoke to a previous tenant and a classmate called Max, about a police investigation about a current tenant. Max swore secrecy with me but I was unaware that max was friends with some of the current tenants and deliberately proceed to tell them about the police investigation.

The tenant got arrested yesterday and everyone in the accommodation was speaking about it whilst I was not at work.

When management asked the tenants who they heard it from they said it was me.

I've also slipped up and told the date they were planning to arrest the suspect to the suspect as they've questioned me as if they've already knew what was happening.

I am still on friendly terms with everyone that I've worked with including my manager as it was my General manager that ultimately decided on the decision.

My issue is that this is a child company of a company that I was planning to apply for after university but what I didn't know was that HR of the main company will be handling the case.

I still haven't received a letter of termination from HR and I'm contemplating if I should just resign

How do I speak about getting fired in my interviews?

Answer 1

Honestly this is a tough one. You should avoid discussing getting fired at all - there's no real good way to spin this. If I were you I would probably just list the dates you worked this job without mentioning you got fired, in my experience prospective employers don't usually question the circumstances of why you left for previous roles like this one. When I hear "worked X university job while studying there for 2 years," I don't think why not 3??

The only problem with this is if they want to contact this job as a reference. For this, I would see if there is anyone from this job who would be a positive reference for you while also agreeing not to let slip that you were fired - again, prospective employers probably won't ask after that to a reference. If you can't find that person, than you'll probably have to accept that any job asking for a reference is a no-go.

Now, all this is only relevant until your first real job out of school. After that, you can take this job off your resume entirely, or keep it with the knowledge that interviewers will spend very little time on it.

Answer 2

Given a choice, never resign until you have the next job lined up. Until they fire you, you are still getting paid. It's a lot less stressful to job-hunt when you don't have to worry about how you're going to pay your bills.

It's possible they will reconsider, if you clearly just made a mistake and have learned from it.

It's also possible that they will decide you are more trouble than you are worth and fire you. They certainly have justification for doing so, if you are in a place where justification is needed. If that happens, they are unlikely to want to re-hire you; start a general job search now so you are prepared for that possibility.