Rewrite Your Story: Confident Interview Scripts to Explain Gaps, Layoffs, and Job Hops

If you've ever panicked in an interview when somebody said, so why did you leave that role? Or can you walk me through this gap in your resume? This episode is for you. Here's what happens. Candidates just get nervous. They start over explaining. They might get defensive or apologetic or way too detailed and suddenly a simple question turns into this long, uncomfortable story. The interviewer might even think that where there's smoke, there's fire. And when you ramble or sound uncomfortable explaining a career change or gap, interviewers pick up on that nervousness even when there's nothing actually wrong. Because changing jobs is normal and even having some roles that don't work out is normal. So today I'm going to walk you through some really quick narratives for some of the most common uncomfortable situations candidates might need to explain during these interviews. I'm going to share the exact frameworks I use during my one on one coaching sessions with candidates to explain things like layoffs, bad fits, resume gaps, and difficult situations quickly, confidently and most importantly, without dwelling on it. In this episode, we are going to cover how to own it, how to say it concisely, and how to move on without making it a whole thing. I'm Karina Klingman, scientist turned CEO of a talent strategy consulting firm.

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In the right place. All right, I've prepared six different scenarios, although a few are related, so you're going to see some themes here. Scenario number one is one that a lot of folks are asking about right now, which are layoffs or riffs, reductions in force. And here is the trap that candidates get into. They start over explaining things like company financials or listing everyone or every group that was also let go. And they might get a little emotional or defensive, which is understandable because you probably didn't want to part with that company. You probably liked your job and it sucks to get laid off and it is emotional. You feel invested in the company and it didn't work out. So we are going to work through a formula for specifically these layoffs and riffs. That's going to help you to articulate this without dwelling on it. So the formula looks like this. First, you're going to start positively and you're going to draw a parallel between the company that let you go and the company you're interviewing for. Next, you're going to say what happened completely unemotionally. And I just take that out. It's going to be one quick sentence, cut and dry, and then you're going to finish by stating your goals and again drawing a parallel to what the company you're interviewing with is looking for. So here are some real world examples. I like this example a lot. I loved working with Company X because I got to wear a lot of hats and learn twice as much as I would have in a larger company. The company unfortunately went through a restructure and my role was eliminated. I'm now looking for a position where I can apply my assay development skills in another high growth startup environment. So let's break that down according to my formula here. We're going to start positively and we're going to draw a parallel between the company that you were let go from and the company you're interviewing with. So I loved working with Company X because I got to wear a lot of hats and learn twice as much as I would have with a larger company. So the parallel I'm drawing there, I'm imagining these two companies, right? I'm imagining a real world example I recently helped a candidate articulate. They had been let go from a startup and they were interviewing for another startup. And one of the things that we know about startups is you wear lots of hats and you learn a lot. So she's articulating right away that that was something she valued from her previous role. And she's subtly cluing in the interviewer that that is a parallel, that that's going to make her a good fit for this new role. Second sentence. The company unfortunately went through a restructure and my role was eliminated. That is it. That's all we're saying about it. It's very cut and dry, it's not emotional. And then she closes with, now I'm looking for a position where I can apply my assay development skills in another high growth startup environment. So again, we're drawing the parallel between this small startup that she was let go from and this company that she's interviewing with and she's snuck right in there. The most important part of the role, which is assay development. So that was three sentences. This candidate was really positive. She worked through how the two companies were similar and that they're both startups that are high growth and subtly worked in there, that she loves high growth environments, that she likes wearing lots of hats, that she's going to be a cultural fit for that and that assay development is her bread and butter. All right, let's do another example. This candidate is interviewing for a flow cytometry position. So here's what I helped him come up with. Working at Company X was such a fun experience because I became the go to flow cytometry person. My position was part of a reduction in force after the company shifted strategy away from discovery. I'm excited to bring my flow cytometry expertise to a pre clinical team that's scaling. So again, let's break this down. I love breaking things down. The formula we're going to stay positive and draw a parallel between the two companies. So working at Company X was such a fun experience. Positive because I became the go to flow cytometry person. This is a flow cytometry role. So subtly getting in there that yep, that's me. I'm a flow cytometrist. Then cut and dry. My position was part of a reduction in force after the company shifted strategy away from discovery. So small deviation from my formula. But we added that in there because this position is in a discovery team that is growing. So we're showing this new potential employer that this person likes discovery and that the reason for the reduction for us meant that it was clear that he was going to get laid off because he is a discovery person. So it sort of sets the stage for this layoff. Wasn't my fault. Without getting defensive or over explaining and bringing into context that the position we're interviewing for is a discovery position and he's well suited for that. Then the last sentence here. I'm excited to bring my flow cytometry expertise to a pre clinical team that's scaling. So again drawing out that the role is ideal for him in a couple of different ways, the flow and the discovery. So the keys here are to state things really neutrally. You really just can't get emotional or try and over explain. Don't linger and make sure you're transitioning to your goals and that they're aligned with the company's goals. So short and sweet. Both of those were three sentences long. That's it. You move on. Scenario number two can be a little more emotional which is that the role wasn't a fit. Sometimes you enter A position, and it becomes clear that it wasn't really what you were hoping for. And it happens. It happens to a lot of people. The trap here, though, is badmouthing the company or the team or getting really vague and just saying things like, oh, it just didn't work out. Like, that's a bit of a flag to me. Why didn't it work out? And also, we have candidates who sound like they just kind of gave up or quit without a plan. And that's also a flag. So those are the traps you want to avoid when you're answering questions like this. The formula, though, is largely the same as a reduction in force or a layoff. We're going to just tweak it slightly. So we're going to start with positivity and we're going to draw parallels between the two companies, then again, say what happened unemotionally in one sentence, and then we're going to again state the goals and draw parallels between the two companies. But we're going to do it subtly in a way that makes it clear that the role we're interviewing for is going to be a great fit, whereas the other one wasn't quite the right fit. So here is an example to make this a little bit more clear. So this candidate was interviewing for an analytical development role. And here's what I helped craft for his interview. Working at Company X was a great experience because I got to learn how analytical development and process development go hand in hand. I realized the role was more process development than analytical development. And my passion is in analytical. So I'm now focused on opportunities where I can focus on analytical, while of course supporting PD quality, regulatory and other functions. So in this example here, we're starting off with the positive. We're basically framing the negative as a positive. So they're saying, wow, I got to learn so much about process development. That said, I'm not a process development person. So transitioning then to realizing the role was more process development than analytical development, framing the passion as analytical and remember, or applying for an analytical development role. So that is going to resonate for this recruiter or for this hiring manager. And so that is how I would reframe that. The backstory there is that they basically hired him as an analytical development scientist and immediately threw him into process development. And he was working with external vendors and all kinds of things and not really doing any of the things that he had signed up to do. So that does happen sometimes. And the company's priorities changed. They tried to make it work, but it really just wasn't a fit. So this is how he reframed that and I think that went really well. The next candidate is a preclinical scientist who specializes in animal models. And what happened with this person is that they got into a role where over time the role just kept morphing because they did less and less animal work and they were trying to evolve her away from preclinical development. So here's what we crafted for her. I learned so much about the full drug development life cycle at Company X. Over time, the scope evolved away from preclinical development. And I'm looking for a role that's aligned with my passion for preclinical animal model development. So really brief, just two sentences. Positive, right? Started out saying, wow, this was great because I learned about the full drug life cycle. That said, I'm a preclinical scientist and I want to stay there. That was sort of the subtext again, aligning themselves really well with the role. And you've done your homework, you've done your research. You know that this company wants somebody in pre clinical and they want animal models. So this is going to resonate with that recruiting team. The key is to frame it as a mismatch, not a failure. So show some self awareness, but show some growth. Show that really we always learn, right? We win or we learn. You learned, in this case, you learned what you didn't want to do, for instance, or you learned that there's a whole bunch of stuff in biotech and you love or are passionate about this over here. So there's a lot of ways we can learn and we just want to articulate that positively. Scenario number three is related to the first two in that we're going to talk about companies that went through chaos. So sometimes that can be framed as, you know, chaos before a layoff or chaos before a role didn't feel right anymore. But often in companies, we have a merger, we have a pivot, we have a leadership change, and that can end up being really uncomfortable for the people in the company. So the trap here is getting into the drama of it all, or sounding bitter or jaded, or making it all about what happened to you as opposed to what happened to the company. So those are the things we want to avoid. In the answers here. The actual framework is really similar. So I'm just going to jump right into some of the examples here. In this first example I just took the example I just gave you about the preclinical animal model development, which I can tell you the shift was chaotic for that person. So she had articulated at first that basically she got a new manager and all kinds of things happened. So here's how I would change that just slightly if I wanted to highlight that there was a big change in the company. So again, this will sound familiar. I learned so much about the full drug development life cycle at Company X. The company went through a merger and priorities shifted away from preclinical development. And I'm looking for a role that's aligned with my passion for preclinical animal model development. So again, almost the same answer. We're just going to highlight that there was a merger and that the priorities shifted as a result. And in the second example, I also pulled something from our previous examples. So our flow cytometry person, for example. This was what really happened and led to the reduction in force. Working at Company X was such a fun experience because I became the go to flow cytometry person after a leadership change. The roadmap pivoted away from discovery. I'm excited to bring my flow cytometry expertise into a pre clinical team that's scaling. So again, almost the same answer. But here I've just tweaked it slightly to highlight the leadership change and the pivot that the company went through. In that case, they actually did get laid off. So really, I would probably go with that first example. It's a little more crisp. But if you are looking to leave a company because of chaos and you're worried about explaining that, that's how I would do it. So the key here is to acknowledge the change. Don't editorialize it, just move on. Right. Sometimes chaos happens and still you win or you learn. What did you learn? How did you actually grow from that experience? And how did that make you realize or bring you to the conclusion that this role is a great fit for you? Okay. Scenario number four is a tough one. Sometimes we don't get along with every manager that we have ever had. And if that is you, you are not alone. So the trap here is saying things that were negative about the manager, hinting at conflict or personality issues, or making it sound like you're a difficult person. We really have to tread a fine line here. So the formula here again is to start with positivity, draw parallels, and then share something that differs from the job that you're considering versus your old job as a compliment. So here's how this is done. It's very delicate. This person here is. And I changed the therapeutic indication here. But this person was actually let go because of a management mismatch from a company and they're applying to a company in the same therapeutics specific space, just at an earlier stage. So here it is. Company X was so exciting because I truly believe that RNA Therapeutics is the future. Unfortunately, I found the work environment to be somewhat siloed, which is what drew me to this role. From the description, it sounds like an incredibly collaborative, mission driven team. So you may get some follow up questions here, but you have highlighted that there was a problem and you've now highlighted that problem as a compliment to the company, saying essentially that place over there was siloed. This place seems totally different, mission driven, collaborative, whatever. So you're just kind of drawing that distinction without sounding difficult, without throwing shade. Right. The next example here is somebody who also got fired from their position. So let's just jump into this. I loved working with Company X because the Discovery team was world class. Last year, the team structure shifted and I realized I thrive under leaders who are scientifically exceptional, which is exactly what draws me to this team. So again, we're complimenting heavily the new company that we're interviewing for and essentially hinting at a little bit that the leadership change was not favorable. And you may get follow ups and if you do, you do need to be upfront that you were let go from the position. This is a nice way to just highlight that you want to work with amazing leaders, great scientists, and you're aware you've done your homework. You know, this company has those people on its leadership team. You never want to name the manager. You want to keep it about work style, not personality. You can talk about therapeutic indications, you can talk about shifts in company dynamics, those things you can talk about, but you never want to make it personal about the manager. All right, that one's probably the hardest. The last two examples I want to talk about are the age old resume gaps. Yes, they exist. Right. I'm going to talk first about personal life situations and then I'll talk about gaps due to a job search. Life happens. I just want to normalize that. Life happens. Right? There's health issues, there's family, there's relocation, caregiving, illness, burnout. So many reasons that you might need to take a career break. And it's okay. Here's what we're going to avoid talking about. You don't want to share a ton of personal detail. You also don't want to make it sound like the situation could happen again. That might be going through their head. Right. Oh, they took a break once, why wouldn't they do it again? And you also don't want to share so much detail, especially about personal things, that you make the interviewer uncomfortable. But you do want to be human because we are all human so far, and we want to make sure that we are highlighting that humanness to, to normalize that the reason you took a break is legitimate and it's okay. So the formula is we're going to use the word sabbatical. It's an important word. Sabbaticals have a connotation of you're learning something, you're growing, you are doing something outside of the normal work, but it's still going to be beneficial to your work. And I truly believe that breaks for any of these reasons can be formative for you and can help you in your career. And as I said, we're going to share something human. So we're going to take a very human approach to this. I have three examples here. Number one, I took a sabbatical to spend time caring for an ailing family member. I'm so glad I did, because you can never get that time back. Now I'm ready to jump back into my career full force, very short, very sweet. It's human. You're never going to get that time back. Any interviewer who's ever lost somebody is going to go, yeah, you're never gonna get that time back. And you're not going into detail. You're not saying somebody passed away. You're not really resolving it. They might ask, say, oh, I hope everything's okay now. And then you can say, well, unfortunately, they passed, or, yes, they recovered. It's such a relief, whatever that is. But you have made it really human and it's really relatable. The next example here, I was privileged to be in a financial situation that allowed me to take a sabbatical, to focus on a relocation and then starting a family. It was amazing, and I'm ready to return full time to the bench. So again, it's really human, right? You're highlighting a little bit without going into crazy detail, that you realize that was a privilege and you're so glad you did. It was amazing, and I love the word and. And I'm ready to return full time to the bench. So you're really highlighting that not only are you ready to return full time, you're not asking for remote or hybrid, like, you're ready to be back at the bench. Now, if that's not your situation, you would modify it, right? You'd ready to return full time to the workforce or whatever. The last example is also a real example, and it's one that I wish I had done and I didn't and I can't get that time back. Here's the example. I took a sabbatical to travel, which was such a fantastic experience. Now I'm excited to jump back into biotech. Short and sweet. Who doesn't want to travel? And once you get far into your career or you have a family and kids and house and a mortgage, it's harder and harder to travel. Right. If you do that right after you finish your degree, like, what a great time to do it. And there are people who are going to either resonate with that because they did it or be like me and say, yeah, I wish I did that. That sounds great, and just move on with the interview. All right. The key here is to acknowledge it, briefly emphasize that it's resolved, like you're not going to take more time to travel. The way we phrase those, it doesn't sound like you're going to go do it all again. Right? And then just don't elaborate. Short and sweet. It feels good, it rolls off the tongue and you move on. The last one is probably the most common though, which is a resume gap due to a long job search. And that is happening right now a lot. So the trap here is apologizing for the gap or getting defensive. Look, you were in the same boat with so many candidates. It is a really, really hard job market. It remains a hard job market. So I've just prepared one example here. You can go back to all the other examples and kind of modify for your use case, but here it goes. The job market has been tough and I've been selective during my search because I want to find the right fit in a small growing biotech where I can have a big impact through my assay development expertise. This role seems to be exactly what I'm looking for. Short and sweet. You've highlighted what you want. You have snuck in there. The assay development piece, which in my imaginary world is the role that they're interviewing for. And you just close it out by saying, this is what I'm looking for. And look, we know it's a hard job market. It is what it is and everybody who's interviewing people knows that and has seen that. I would just get out ahead of it quickly by owning the gap, no apologies, and moving right along. All right, let's wrap up with some delivery tips. Here's how to say these things. Honestly, you have to practice out loud. We all fall into the trap of practicing in our head for difficult conversations, and that is a mistake because things never come out of your mouth the way they sound in your head. So maybe grab a free screen recorder, set up a fake little zoom, call for yourself and record yourself saying these things. Say them a bunch of times, make them roll off the tongue. You don't want it sound rehearsed. It should sound natural. Obviously, I was reading my examples. I didn't memorize all these examples for you, so some of them probably sounded a little more rehearsed or not natural when I said them. But that doesn't have to be you. You can say them a number of times until it really just rolls off your tongue. And that is really important. You want to keep your tone really neutral and confident, never defensive. You also want to pause after your narrative and then move on, right? Silence is your friend. In this case, you don't need to fill it, so you drop it out there and you wait for the next question. Lob the ball right back into the interviewer's court. If they ask for a follow up, then you can answer briefly and again redirect it right back to the rule. Try and bring your answers always back to the rule. That takes some practice. Again, that's why you practice out loud and kind of interview yourself in these practices. Get mean with yourself, be the mean interviewer, write the bad cop and try and get under your own skin so that you get really comfortable answering briefly, throwing the ball back in their court, and then staying silent for a minute. The things you want to avoid are rambling over, explaining, getting negative about people or companies or roles, or thinking about it in terms of victim framing. Like, they did this to me. Woe is me. And don't apologize. Life happens, things happen. Roles are not the right fit. Companies fold, companies get acquired or merge. Like all of these things are beyond your control and you know that you did the best you could as an employee. So you're just going to own it and you're going to move on from there. I hope this was really helpful. I love sharing little scripts like this and we have them in our free community. If you're not in our free school community, get over there. It's really fun and I'm in there. I answer questions weekly in a live Q and A and I just provide little resources like this all the time. So I know the podcast exists. But there is more. You have more access to me if you want it. I really wish you the best of luck in your interviews and I hope you can grab one of these scripts, make it your own, and feel more confident in your next interview. Bye for now. Thanks so much for listening to the.

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