I got fired. When my new firm called and asked if I was eligible for rehire, my former firm said no. I almost lost my offer

I am sorry to hear that and I am glad the offer didn't get revoked! Consulting can be an incredibly tough enterprise in terms of building a career and you're not the only one facing these issues. 

As for your specific situation, perhaps you could help us better understand what exactly happened. From my perspective, there's two alternatives:

• Counseled to leave (performance issues): You didn't get “fired” in the traditional sense but were strongly encouraged to leave because of persistent performance issues. This is usually how consulting careers end and more norm than exception. My suggestion is for you to find someone in your previous firm who is willing to provide strength based feedback, ideally at Partner level. Whether or not you're eligible for rehire goes to far in my estimation. This information should neither be requester nor provided. I would have a friendly call with HR from your previous firm and discuss this.
• Actually fired (non-performance issues): This would be more problematic and apply in case of gross misconduct, breach of contract, etc. In this case, you may have to prepare a good explanation for your new firm and you will likely have to be a bit more upfront i.e. let them have your version of the story first before they're reaching out.

Feel free to elaborate so we can dig a little deeper and come up with a more solid course of action.

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about your situation.

Unfortunately the decision is ultimately to be taken by your new employer, so there is not much you can do directly. However if they ask you for feedback on what happened you can:

• Explain which was the issue without being defensive, taking responsibility for what you could have done differently
• Explain what you are doing to improve on the possible areas you identified where you could have done better

It is important that you keep neutral towards your previous employer. Even if they have done something you feel was bad, it would be counterproductive to mention that and blame them for what happened.

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Hi there,

I'm sorry to hear about this. If you're comfortable with sharing, could you give us a bit of high-level background as to why you were fired?

Given that your former firm said “no” it sounds like this was due to something you did on your end, as opposed to restructuring?

If so, there's not much you can do. If your new firm asks you to explain the situation you need to do so very very carefully. I highly recommend you craft your answer, practice answering, and make sure you're as neutral as possible.

Honestly, it wouldn't hurt to get a coach to help “pressure test” you and roleplay out the call with HR.