Update to Job Situation and Request for Advice

[vegasadmin]

Good morning, everyone!  We're having beautiful weather here in Las Vegas; hope the rest of you are having some great summer weather as well.



I've finally got my resume updated.  Took a little longer that I expected because the disk that had the most recent incarnation is gone - m.i.a. - I can't find it anywhere.  I did, however, find a hard copy of that version, so I was able to recreate it and add my current position and now I'm ready to send it a few places just for practice.  I still have more reasons to stay here than to leave, but my boss keeps threatening to shut the place down.  I don't think he's serious, it's something he always says under stress, but I'd rather be prepared with an updated resume and perhaps a few leads, especially since DH works here too (in the shop, not the office).



Anyway, I still need some advice.  This is rather embarrassing - but in the past seven years, I've been fired twice and left a job once to keep from being fired.  It's not quite as bad as it sounds because I've been working for 20 years, but it's still a blotch on my record and I'm never sure how to respond when asked about those jobs.



The first was in 1994 and I was only there for 4 months, so it very rarely comes up any longer.  I took a position doing word processing for an insurance company.  The first thing I was told when coming aboard was that one of the CSRs hadn't wanted me to be hired because I'd been working for one of his clients when I applied for the job and it made him uncomfortable.  The second thing I was told was that I was the first person ever hired at that company that the president hadn't personally interviewed - they were trying to wean him away from that - so he was a little unsure about hiring me.  Almost immediately upon starting, I was made the receptionist relief and assistant to the office clerk, which meant that I worked in word processing for 6.5 hours a day at the very most, usually less.  However, almost from the beginning, my supervisor was telling me that it was a problem that I couldn't do as much work as the other two in word processing - each of whom worked in word processing for 8 hours a day.  When I'd point out the discrepancy in our hours, she'd tell me I just needed to work faster than they did.  I lasted all of four months and was happy to go when they got rid of me.  Interestingly, about a year later, I was interviewing at a temp agency and the placement person asked me what had happened at the insurance agency.  I told her and she said,"Well, that explains a lot.  We've been trying to place people there in word processing; we send them our best people and they send every one of them back, saying that they can't do the work fast enough.  We haven't been able to place anyone there."



As I said, this job is so old it's no longer on my resume and probably won't come up again, but if, by chance, it ever does, how should I handle the situation?  What should I say?  In the past, I've usually said that it wasn't a good fit so I left to find something where I would be more comfortable.  Strictly true, I suppose, but not the whole truth.  Actually, what I always want to say is, "Because they were horrible people who made a horrible situation for me and they haven't been able to keep anyone in that position since!" - but obviously I'm not going to say anything like that.  I think they call that shooting yourself in the foot.  <g>



I can see that this is probably too long, so I won't post about my other two problematic positions just yet; I'll ask about them later.  I hope nobody minds.  I've never had an opportunity before to talk specifically about these three jobs with anyone who might be helpful and I hope no one minds if I do it here.  I hope any advice y'all can give me will also help any others who have been or are in similar situations.  And of course, if I'm ever in a position to add anything helpful to posts here (though I sometimes feel I never will be) I'll be happy to do it.



Thank very much.



Colleen

[solargal]

I worked at one place for 10 1/2 years then in 1989 I was layed off so I proceeded to get another job in a different position and did not like it so after a year I resigned.  When I was interviewing for this job which I have had for 10 years, I told them I left that other job to pursue a better position.  That's only if they ask about it I don't think you should mention it if they don't.  How bad for you to be compared with the others who are doing the same job, but for 8 hours instead of 6 1/2.  Sounds like they wanted a Stepford data-processing person and not an all-around person.  That's what gets me aggrevated about some companies.  You are hired on to do certain tasks, then after you've been with them awhile they spring all these other things on you.  Good luck.  

[whitesatin]

Colleen,



Thank you for posting.  It is a good topic.  I would not even put that 4 month job on my resume.  You can just say you were temping during that period, which is really true.  Four months out of 20 years isn't even a drop in the bucket.



Work on your confidence level and try to go on as many interviews as possible to build up that confidence and find out what types of questions are being asked.  The more you interview, I think you will find, the more confident and prepared you will become.



Don't be afraid to post your questions here.  We welcome your questions as well as any input you may want to share.  That's why we're all here.  We're Admins FOR Admins.



WhiteSatin  

[winkiebear]

Wow, sounds horrible!!! I think what you're currently telling people sounds fine - you got out of a situation before it got too badly.  And most places don't ask for more than 5 years or the past 3 jobs .... that's all I ever list.



good luck,

  winkie

[countrigal]

I think you answered your own question on how to handle this job if it comes up... it's so long ago it shouldn't matter and if it does come up go with the "I was temping" idea...  I'm curious though what the other 2 times are and if they might not be more pertinent to your job search/interview worries.  Please don't stress over length... share with us and see if we can't give you a handle on it all.  Sometimes how to handle a situation changes when you view the whole picture and right now we are only seeing a corner of it.



(And never fear, you'll have input to share with us sometime too... Just have more confidence in yourself.)

[laundryhater]

Since resumes are only supposed to list your past three jobs and you stated it was such a long time ago, I don't think they would even know to ask about those companies. And if they ask you general questions about your past work experience, I would just speak based on your past three jobs. Don't volunteer information from way back when you started in the workforce. That information is just way too old to be relevant.



For instance, I don't include or volunteer information of way back when I worked part-time for McDonald's during high school because it's just so long ago it doesn't matter anymore unless I were to apply to work at another McDonald's (then I could refer to it as prior experience with that company and it would work to my advantage).



I've never interviewed with a company which expected me to list or discuss every job I've ever held because 1.) That's just way too much information for them to weed through and

2.) I think they realize that we mature and grow as we age and that the mistakes we make when we are young we have learned from and therefore we should not be hindered from something which happened early on in our careers (I'm not indicating in anyway that this is your fault - I know it's not. I'm just using this as an example of why, in general, companies don't care to know what happened "way back when" unless you commited a felony or something while employed there).



I honestly don't think it will come up or be an issue.



Good luck!



 

[execsec]

Let me jump in here too.  If you're like me and you held a few jobs for LOONNNGGG periods of time, most of the people you work with are no longer even there!  I found that out when I made my last job change.  I went to put down references and realized they had either moved on or the company was no longer in business!  Sad, but true in these volatile times.  I think you should just list that time as temping while you were "looking for the right job."  The shortest job I ever had (and I DON'T list it on my resume) was 4 days.  I went to work at a bank as a commercial loan secretary and immediately realized my mistake - it was boring and you couldn't even put personal things on your desk (like pictures of your children).  I like to be BUSY! So I told the bank president that, I had made a mistake and that it wasn't a good fit for me (I shoulda learned from the first time I worked at a bank - not the industry for me).