> 3. At the time that I was fired some time ago, in my internal circles I was completely open about it, and most of the folks were super supportive. For new job opportunities, I would never place this reason because companies have this kind of stigma and consider you as "undesirable" or "leftover".
I interview people who were laid off all the time. I don't care at all about why they left their last job as long as it wasn't for being a creep or an asshole.
Maybe I am quite used to doing interviews as a candidate, but when I decide to not open some specifics around being dismissed is to avoid some downstream questions that can place me in an uncomfortable position of not having leverage and most important raise some yellow lights in the interviewer to get something out of this.
Ex: _You worked here for 1 and half years. Why did you leave?_
In this case, if I get evasive and put some personal circumstance around it as relocation, new moment of life, etc.; the interviewer will try to wrap it die to the fact that this does not bring any potential signal for the position.
However, saying that I was laid off, at least will raise some downstream questions like "Why have you been dismissed?", "Tell me about the relationship with the team?", "What's the feedback that your boss gave to you?"; and the sad thing is that some of those questions are not specifically to understand circumstances and have a clear picture, a bit at least will serve as a signal and in a worst-case as an eliminatory.
I think that's a solid strategy. You may have some luck being more open, depending on the company. A company that had recent layoffs might be more understanding of a layoff, and that layoffs have nothing to do with your own abilities.
Better to just not bring it up! I was laid off a few jobs ago, and I experimented in my most recent job search with explaining the business impact, how I missed on the signals, and what I did to avoid being in that situation again. It went OK, probably didn't hurt or help.
I interview people who were laid off all the time. I don't care at all about why they left their last job as long as it wasn't for being a creep or an asshole.