Got fired from a big ortho company early in my career for lack of integrity. Now they’re recruiting me. Do I pursue it?
When I first graduated college, I landed a job with one of the big orthopedic companies. Didn’t last three months. I got fired because my dumb young self lied about my ETA to a hospital. Termination reason: violation of conduct / lack of integrity.
Embarrassing to admit, but I was naive and treated it like any regular job where you could cut corners. I learned fast that wasn’t the case.
Right after, I picked up a role with a competitor in a different state and have been grinding ever since. That firing genuinely changed me. Integrity became the foundation of how I operate now. Years later, I’m in a solid position and doing well.
Here’s where it gets interesting.
That same company, the one that let me go, is now actively recruiting me in the state I’m currently in. They reach out almost every other week. They clearly don’t know the history, and as far as I know, nobody in my current market does either. Med device is a small world, but this one seems to have stayed buried.
So I have a few questions for the people who’ve been around:
**1. Is it even worth pursuing?** If HR runs a rehire check and I’m flagged, it could get awkward fast, especially in a market where reps talk to each other, nurses, and my own teammates.
**2. Can a regional manager override a “not eligible for rehire” flag?** Has anyone seen that actually happen, or is HR always the final word?
**3. Do I say anything proactively, or let the process play out?**
I know what I did was wrong, but that was a different version of me. Just trying to figure out if this door is worth knocking on.