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Below is an excerpt from a letter I recently received:

I’m a person who lies about my last employer because I was wrongfully terminated by a moron on a power trip. After firing me and several other employees, he was proven wrong in his actions and was transferred to another store in Anchorage. Meanwhile, what can those of us stuck with such negativity do? When I apply for a job, should I say I was terminated and spend several hours explaining what happened to no avail? Don’t I have to lie about my reason for leaving? What would you do in my predicament?

There’s no ideal answer to this. When you apply for a job, employers generally want to know why you left your previous position. You’ll be asked to address this either in your job application or during your interview. One of your choices is to lie. I don’t recommend this, though. If you have nothing to hide, then hide nothing.

Is there a chance that if you tell the truth you’ll be passed over for an applicant with a spotless work history? Sure. But if you lie to get the job, there’s also a good chance your employer will find out, and this is reason enough for them to fire you. If you think it will be tough explaining why you were fired once, try explaining why it happened twice.

On the job application, you can write, “Will gladly discuss during interview” when asked why you left your previous job. If you’re asked during the interview, briefly, and I mean briefly, address what happened and what you learned from the experience.

Telling the truth about getting fired is like ripping off a Band-Aid. Do it quickly and move on. For example, you could say “I’ve always received great performance reviews in all of my previous positions. I thought I was also doing a great job for my previous boss and was blindsided when he fired me. Looking back, I could have checked in with him to make sure I was on the right track instead of assuming I was.”

Interviewers will realize that it’s a supervisor’s job to touch base consistently with employees to give them feedback on job performance, and they might appreciate your willingness to take responsibility for what happened.

You also could say, “I’ve never had a negative relationship with a former supervisor, so it was a very difficult experience when I was terminated. I tried not to take it too personally because he also fired several other employees at the same time. Shortly after this, he was transferred to Anchorage. My co-workers thought I should have complained to his supervisor, but that seemed underhanded.” Getting fired might have been a horrible experience, but it will speak volumes about you that you are above disparaging a former boss.

This approach could be tough if you feel bitter toward your former employer. You might feel you need to explain every detail about what happened. But if you want to land a new job, keep your explanation as short, simple and constructive as possible.

I once interviewed a woman who went on for more than 20 minutes about how terrible her previous supervisor was. She took the liberty of describing all of his bad habits, including how he scratched himself in public, picked his teeth, passed gas, etc. Ten minutes into it, I wanted to tell her, “I get it. He was a miserable person. Let’s move on.” After 15 minutes, I found myself wanting to defend the guy because he wasn’t there to defend himself. After 20 minutes, I realized she had issues that required the attention of a licensed therapist and finally cut her off.

So, did she get the job? Of course not. She had gone on for so long about her former boss that she didn’t have time left in her interview to tell me about her skills, experience or why she would be wonderful to work with.

Most likely, she felt defensive about getting fired and wanted to explain in detail what happened. By talking so badly about her former employer, she only made herself look bad. She made someone I had never met become the focus of her interview. She would have done better to remember it was just one piece of her work history.

A friend of mine also left her last job on bad terms. When she applied for a new job, my friend warned interviewers that her former supervisor was “a bit of a nut case” and would try to discredit her. She assured them her other references would offer an honest evaluation of her solid work ethic and experience. When she got the job, my friend said she was glad she “exposed” her former boss during the interview. She was stunned, however, when she found out her former boss had given her a good reference. Apparently, the only concern her new boss had about offering her the position was the “nut case” comment she made during her interview.

If you’re worried about what former employers will say about you, call and ask. It might not be as bad as you think. It’s possible they have cooled off and have no intention of disparaging you. Then again, they might have it out for you. Either way, at least you’ll know exactly what you’re dealing with.

To the woman who wrote me the letter, it is awful you were unjustly fired. Although it might be no consolation to you, it happens to some of the best people. About 250,000 employees are unfairly terminated each year. Like so many, you were an “employee at will” who could be terminated for almost any reason as long as state and federal protections were not violated. Your boss has wasted far too much of your time. Don’t waste any more on him by dwelling on what he did. Put the experience behind you and have faith that most employers will give you the benefit of the doubt. You might feel all employers pigeonhole everyone who has been fired as failures, but I assure you most managers are not so simple-minded. For those who are, you don’t want to work for them anyway.

Melissa Brown is an associate professor of applied business at the University of Alaska Tanana Valley Campus. She can be reached at ffmcb@uaf.edu. This column is provided as a public service by the TVC Applied Business Department.