Fired out of the blue and manipulated out of the severance package.

I used to work in an IT consultancy. They just scheduled a call one day and told me my performance was not to their liking. And that I had two options:

1. Resign voluntarily. I would get an experience certificate and I would't have a bad reputation for my next job.

2. Let them officially fire me. The employment letter has a severance package.

Guess which one I had to choose.

Edit: I do agree I took their bait. So it is my fault and did learn from it. But they did sell the 1st option as the best for my future and the second as possibly career ending. Fresh out of college and naive, I just took their advice.