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Assess the legitimacy of your termination. Seek legal counsel if necessary. Revise your resume or vitae. Reach out to your previous employer to determine if rehiring is a possibility. Resolve any issue that may have caused your termination. Prepare for questions regarding your departure and time away. Submit a new application for employment.

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Why were you fired in the first place? Did you do something you were not supposed to do? Was it something avoidable? Did your boss or another employee have it out for you and set you up to be fired? There are a number of ways your termination could have been the appropriate response to bad behavior. It could also have been caused by an inappropriate reaction. If you know that there have been negative rumors spread about you in the office regarding protected statuses (e.g., religion, sexual orientation, or age) this is a good place to start. You may want to find out of others like yourself have lost their jobs too. If there's a pattern of discrimination, you may have a good case to get your job back. If your employer fired you for an illegitimate reason--even if legitimate reasons were part of the termination--you may want to consult a lawyer. You may be able to show your termination was not justified. This may effectively void your termination. If you are in a union or are under contract, you may need to do this immediately so that your lawyer(s) can negotiate your rehire. Update your resume or vitae with your most recent job. Highlight the valuable contributions you made to the company before your termination. This helps show you were a valuable member of the team before you were fired. Take time to polish up the wording to make yourself look as good as possible without overdoing it. You want to remind them of the work you did and why they hired you in the first place. This can be tricky depending on the circumstances of your termination. If you are eligible for rehire they may give you a list of requirements you must meet to get your job back. If they give you a list, do it. Even if they say you cannot have your job back, you may ask to take a reduction in pay or a lesser job in hopes of reattaining your former status over time. If they flat out refuse to allow you back, do not take this as fact just yet. One way to do this is to have lunch or dinner with an old co-worker in your office. Your old boss works too if you left on good terms. You may be able to discuss open positions at the company. They may be able to tell you if the climate is good for you to re-apply. If you have any personal issues, especially if they were explicit causes for your termination, work on them now. You need to have these resolved before you ask for your job back. Furthermore, you have plenty of time to resolve these issues while you are unemployed. If you were let go because of your behavior, seek counseling. You may have an unknown condition that needs to be medicated. If you know you have some disorder and are avoiding treatment, get treatment now. If your bad behavior is the only issue, try to work through it with a counselor. Have responses in place to likely questions such as "Why should we take you back?", "Why do you want to work here again?", and "How would you feel about doing a different/lower level position from before?". Be humble in your responses. You want to show them whatever issues existed in the past are no longer an issue. Emphasize that your experience at the job make you a good candidate for rehire. Experience and know-how are valuable qualities no matter what other factors are in play. Even if your performance was poor at the end, highlight the work you did when they appreciated your skills. If the conditions under which you left were circumstantial, for instance a problem in your personal life, it is appropriate to mention that. A change in those circumstances would partially explain the value of your returning to the company. Avoid being defensive regarding the cause of your termination. You are not there to re-litigate the past. Try to shift conversations about the past into a discussion about how you can help the company in the future. Even if they are not explicitly hiring, go ahead and submit a new application. Include your revised resume or vitae. This way they have the application on file if they need it or chose to disregard you. If you want your job back you must reapply or your old employer could refuse to hire you simply because you didn't apply.