I don’t typically view myself as this kind of person, but I seem to have worked up a reputation for being blunt. My CEO once said to me, approvingly, “Spice Weasel doesn’t tolerate bullshit.” and my coworker recently said, “Spice Weasel plays no games.” I think I’ve just been doing my job and I have to be direct and conscientious to do my job. But it works! So there is definitely a place for us weirdos out there. I’ve had jobs where my style didn’t fit the culture, at all, and I was all too happy to move on. My current job I love because it fits my strengths really well and nobody has figured out my weaknesses, AFAIK. If they have, they certainly haven’t told me.
Even if you kind of like your job, sometimes you’re having a bad week, everything is going wrong (or wrong enough) and you’re overworked and tired and ready to just walk away from everything… Do not interview for another job that week.
I was having that week at work, when I scheduled an interview for an entirely different position. To me, everything was going pretty well. I had solid answers to their questions. I did a strong whiteboard exercise. I answered the stupid situational questions with situations that showed that I was able to recognize my weaknesses and turn them into assets, blah blah blah. We’re in the final 5 minutes and then someone asked something innocuous, like “what sort of leadership style do you prefer.” And all of my frustrations and anger with my current job just started coming out. And I was thinking to myself “shut the fuck up” but I couldn’t. I just kept talking and talking and talking. And I’m sure I must have sounded like an incoherent malcontent with a giant chip on her shoulder along with other less well defined attitude problems who you never want to work with. And to be fair, that hour, that’s exactly what I was. But had I had the interview a week earlier or later, I would have been a perfectly reasonable hire.
They did not offer me the job.
Ouch!
OTOH …
A gotcha I have personally experienced is that when you don’t like your job, and every day is a bad day, and the frustrations and simmering anger are boiling over, it may become too late to successfully interview for any job any week.
IOW, you’ve (actually I’ve) screwed yourself into such a foul state of mind that nobody will want you given the anger, hate waves, and depression you’re uncontrollably putting out.
I had to quit, take 2 months off to recover my equilibrium, then go job hunting again. Fortunately I could afford the 2 months although explaining why I had the gap in what was then a hot economy was … problematic.
My advice to one and all: Don’t get trapped. Bail early from crazy-making companies before they turn you too toxic to hire.