| Topic Name: |
Laid off 4 months out of college |
| Message Name: |
Some advice |
| Date Posted: |
10/19/2004 |
| In Reply To: |
I was laid off after 4 months on the job (in New York) and 4 months out of college (BA, top 5). The reasons - I spoke up against the unethical behavior of several managers who were treating junior staff badly and basically screwing our clients by taking their money and not providing a good service. Yes, I was retaliated against.
After the incident, however, whatever job interview I've gotten, they've looked at me with great suspicion and outright contempt for having been laid off right after starting the job. I delicately tried to attribute it to bad economy, not the right fit but nothing worked. It's something that I can't overcome. In spite of super great academic qualifications, a reasonable interview style, saying the right things and wearing the right clothes, it's that issue over and over again. Now that many months have passed, the clock is working against me. I'm not gaining experience and it's becoming impossible to even get an interview. Things look gloomy. Are there others with similar experience? |
| Message: |
As a person who interviews others for jobs, I would try being more "frank" when answering questions about why you were laid off. Saying it was a bad economy or not the right fit just isn't enough anymore - it indicates to potential employers that you're taking no (or almost no) responsibility for being laid off. In reality, anybody who is in a position to hire you at a corporation knows that the best people (usually) don't get laid off. If they do get laid off, the circumstances are usually obvious (i.e. your entire department got laid off or the whole company failed). Unless this is your situation, the fact that you were laid off tells any potential employer that you were not a star player at work. You need to address that perception directly in your job interviews.
I would suggest that you use some real experiences creatively here - maybe you were immature, maybe you didn't take work seriously enough, maybe you didn't have the right skills, maybe you were stressed out for some reason etc. - give a believable reason for being laid off, don't dwell on it, and focus on what you've learned and how you're moving on.
Whatever you do, don't forget that "speaking up against management" is never viewed favorably in any job interview, unless the activity that you spoke up against is actionable (i.e. you blew the whistle on something your employer could get sued for in court, like fraud). If you're looking at working in corporate America, I would also seriously reconsider what you consider to be "ethical" and more importantly, whether you are in a position to judge the ethics of others. After 4 months at a company, think about whether you have enough perspective and knowledge to make judgement calls on whether your company really does provide a useful service to its clients (trust me, if it didn't, it wouldn't have those clients or won't have them shortly). Lots of companies have managers that treat junior staff badly - the way to deal with this is to proactively not work at the company or to get high up in the company and change the culture, not by calling them out on it.
Good luck!
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