My former boss is a jerk - good interview answer?
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I just read that[^] thread and some people have suggested the OP to quit his job and look for a new one. I would second that. But I wonder... What if you find yourself in such a company two or three times in a row? If you quit each job after a year you will be of course asked about it on your next interview. I really really wish that being in such situation I could honestly say that the software development process and QA at my past employer SUCKED, but it's no good to badmouth your former employers, right? But... for goodness sake, they really SUCK! Do you beat about the bush? The pay was not so good, there were no possibilities for your career advancement, etc. You know it's all bullshit because your former employer simply SUCKS BIG TIME! Fortunately I took on a freelancing career for now.
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I just read that[^] thread and some people have suggested the OP to quit his job and look for a new one. I would second that. But I wonder... What if you find yourself in such a company two or three times in a row? If you quit each job after a year you will be of course asked about it on your next interview. I really really wish that being in such situation I could honestly say that the software development process and QA at my past employer SUCKED, but it's no good to badmouth your former employers, right? But... for goodness sake, they really SUCK! Do you beat about the bush? The pay was not so good, there were no possibilities for your career advancement, etc. You know it's all bullshit because your former employer simply SUCKS BIG TIME! Fortunately I took on a freelancing career for now.
Pawel Krakowiak wrote:
What if you find yourself in such a company two or three times in a row?
Then the problem is not the company, or the boss. The employee is either a loser in need of a serious attitude adjustment, or a fool that seeks unrealistic goals and falls for any con man who offers them to him. There's a lot of room for some professional counselling here, if the employee really wants to find a real career.
Pawel Krakowiak wrote:
The pay was not so good, there were no possibilities for your career advancement, etc.
What in the world attracted you to such a position? It's better to freelance and starve than work under such conditions.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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Pawel Krakowiak wrote:
What if you find yourself in such a company two or three times in a row?
Then the problem is not the company, or the boss. The employee is either a loser in need of a serious attitude adjustment, or a fool that seeks unrealistic goals and falls for any con man who offers them to him. There's a lot of room for some professional counselling here, if the employee really wants to find a real career.
Pawel Krakowiak wrote:
The pay was not so good, there were no possibilities for your career advancement, etc.
What in the world attracted you to such a position? It's better to freelance and starve than work under such conditions.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Roger Wright wrote:
It's better to freelance and starve than work under such conditions
I doubt it. :) You can't live without money (unless you move to Columbia's jungles and join the Indians). From my past, when I had an interview with a new employer what the manager depicted looked differently in reality, but you could not see it before the probation period and after that it was already too late. Now try quitting after 3 months and explaining that to another employer. :~
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I just read that[^] thread and some people have suggested the OP to quit his job and look for a new one. I would second that. But I wonder... What if you find yourself in such a company two or three times in a row? If you quit each job after a year you will be of course asked about it on your next interview. I really really wish that being in such situation I could honestly say that the software development process and QA at my past employer SUCKED, but it's no good to badmouth your former employers, right? But... for goodness sake, they really SUCK! Do you beat about the bush? The pay was not so good, there were no possibilities for your career advancement, etc. You know it's all bullshit because your former employer simply SUCKS BIG TIME! Fortunately I took on a freelancing career for now.
I heard an old Jewish (I think) story once. It goes like this: An old man would sit outside a village, and greet travelers when they came along. They would ask, "How are the people in this village?" to which he would reply "How were they in the last village?" It goes on, but you get the idea. Whether this is true or not, I don't know, but people certainly assume that it is. So no, don't say your boss was a jerk. Ever. Doesn't matter if he was. Just say there wasn't room for advancement or something - they know that's BS, but that means your vital BS skills are up to par.
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Pawel Krakowiak wrote:
What if you find yourself in such a company two or three times in a row?
Then the problem is not the company, or the boss. The employee is either a loser in need of a serious attitude adjustment, or a fool that seeks unrealistic goals and falls for any con man who offers them to him. There's a lot of room for some professional counselling here, if the employee really wants to find a real career.
Pawel Krakowiak wrote:
The pay was not so good, there were no possibilities for your career advancement, etc.
What in the world attracted you to such a position? It's better to freelance and starve than work under such conditions.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Roger Wright wrote:
Then the problem is not the company, or the boss. The employee is either a loser in need of a serious attitude adjustment, or a fool that seeks unrealistic goals and falls for any con man who offers them to him. There's a lot of room for some professional counselling here, if the employee really wants to find a real career.
See, this is the kind of attitude that keeps stymieing my application process. I don't understand why employers might think I'm a bad employee when I left a student job for decent paying corporate employment, had to leave that job right before they laid me off because the owner stopped looking for new work, left the next job after they threatened to cut my salary because they gave me too little work but wouldn't let me help out in other departments, left the next company because they didn't respect me and wrote off all of my complaints about the FEDERAL SAFETY REGULATIONS I was ordered to violate, and was laid off from the last company so they could afford to hire someone with more experience (all this in the course of six years). How do I put that on my resume and expect to even be called in to an interview?
Imagine that you are hired to build a bridge over a river which gets slightly wider every day; sometimes it shrinks but nobody can predict when. Your client provides no concrete or steel, only timber and cut stone (but they won't tell you what kind). The coefficient of gravity changes randomly from hour to hour, as does the viscosity of air. Your only tools are a hacksaw, a chainsaw, a rubber mallet, and a length of rope. Welcome to my world. -Me explaining my job to an engineer
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Roger Wright wrote:
Then the problem is not the company, or the boss. The employee is either a loser in need of a serious attitude adjustment, or a fool that seeks unrealistic goals and falls for any con man who offers them to him. There's a lot of room for some professional counselling here, if the employee really wants to find a real career.
See, this is the kind of attitude that keeps stymieing my application process. I don't understand why employers might think I'm a bad employee when I left a student job for decent paying corporate employment, had to leave that job right before they laid me off because the owner stopped looking for new work, left the next job after they threatened to cut my salary because they gave me too little work but wouldn't let me help out in other departments, left the next company because they didn't respect me and wrote off all of my complaints about the FEDERAL SAFETY REGULATIONS I was ordered to violate, and was laid off from the last company so they could afford to hire someone with more experience (all this in the course of six years). How do I put that on my resume and expect to even be called in to an interview?
Imagine that you are hired to build a bridge over a river which gets slightly wider every day; sometimes it shrinks but nobody can predict when. Your client provides no concrete or steel, only timber and cut stone (but they won't tell you what kind). The coefficient of gravity changes randomly from hour to hour, as does the viscosity of air. Your only tools are a hacksaw, a chainsaw, a rubber mallet, and a length of rope. Welcome to my world. -Me explaining my job to an engineer
You're stuck - I know. My response was from the viewpoint of a hiring manager, a spot I've been stuck with many times. I hate it. You are entirely correct, though - if you put all those things on a resume, you look like a complete jerk and a whiner, to boot. I don't know how you get out of that box, but I hope you can. My resume looks like a graveyard, as not one past employer in my profession is still in business. Yeah, Ace Hardware is still around, but that doesn't count. Still, I did manage to land the best job I've ever had after 12 years of unemployment, or near unemployment. It was a matter of being in the right place at the right time, and making the right impression during the interview. One of the most important factors in evaluating a potential employee is stability, and yours doesn't look good. It costs around $5k to $15k to bring a new employee up to speed in a new company, and that hurts; employers like to hire people with a track record of sticking to one job long enough to make that investment pay off. I think your best bet is to be honest about your experience, but focus on the great things you did, and the exciting opportunities that attracted you elsewhere. Try to present great enthusiasm about what you do, and an openness to new experiences, while downplaying the negative experiences you've had. If you can get in the door for an interview, that will be enough, and you'll have the opportunity to present things in a clear light if they care to ask you about it. Good luck... sincerely! It's tough out there, I know...
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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You're stuck - I know. My response was from the viewpoint of a hiring manager, a spot I've been stuck with many times. I hate it. You are entirely correct, though - if you put all those things on a resume, you look like a complete jerk and a whiner, to boot. I don't know how you get out of that box, but I hope you can. My resume looks like a graveyard, as not one past employer in my profession is still in business. Yeah, Ace Hardware is still around, but that doesn't count. Still, I did manage to land the best job I've ever had after 12 years of unemployment, or near unemployment. It was a matter of being in the right place at the right time, and making the right impression during the interview. One of the most important factors in evaluating a potential employee is stability, and yours doesn't look good. It costs around $5k to $15k to bring a new employee up to speed in a new company, and that hurts; employers like to hire people with a track record of sticking to one job long enough to make that investment pay off. I think your best bet is to be honest about your experience, but focus on the great things you did, and the exciting opportunities that attracted you elsewhere. Try to present great enthusiasm about what you do, and an openness to new experiences, while downplaying the negative experiences you've had. If you can get in the door for an interview, that will be enough, and you'll have the opportunity to present things in a clear light if they care to ask you about it. Good luck... sincerely! It's tough out there, I know...
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
I know you were responding as a hiring manager would; I just thought I'd try to shake things up since your previous post seemed to be pretty blase: "if you have a track record of working at bad companies, it must not be the companies that are bad". I was lucky enough in my current job to get a hiring manager who was willing to give me a chance to explain what was going on, so no sour grapes or anything. For the record, out of the six jobs on my resume, my direct supervisors at only two of them are still working at the same company; my reference list is unfortunately also full of bad names and phone numbers.
Imagine that you are hired to build a bridge over a river which gets slightly wider every day; sometimes it shrinks but nobody can predict when. Your client provides no concrete or steel, only timber and cut stone (but they won't tell you what kind). The coefficient of gravity changes randomly from hour to hour, as does the viscosity of air. Your only tools are a hacksaw, a chainsaw, a rubber mallet, and a length of rope. Welcome to my world. -Me explaining my job to an engineer