I’ve never had any real personality conflicts with co-workers up until my last position. I’m not sure if the supervisor didn’t like me or if he was simply incompetent. He would leave things out of my instructions and when I didn’t perform the task correctly he would say that he had given me the complete instructions. He was a long time supervisor and I was the new guy, so you know how that went.
I had two strikes against me and I was heading for a third which would have led to termination. Rather than be terminated for cause I quit the job and started putting my full time efforts into what had been my side business.
I was starting to have some success with the business when the economic problems happened. Since then I’ve been losing money and I’m now near the end of my resources.
Because of this, I’m once again looking for full time employment. My concern is that employers, understandably, want to know about previous employment and will often want to contact previous employers. I am good at what I do (when I’m not sabotaged, obviously) and have very good references available from my job previous to my most recent job.
I’d prefer not to have potential employers talk with my manager from my most recent employment. I’m currently filling out an employment application for a job for which I am qualified and which would be perfect for me in many ways - very short commute, etc. It’s asking for past work experience. One of the questions for each past employer is “May we contact your previous supervisor for a reference?”. It has “Yes” and “No” for the choices.
It strikes me that checking “No” for my most recent supervisor is obviously a bad idea, but checking “Yes” is also obviously a bad idea.
Any suggestions on how to handle this? I’ve been told that I should never talk bad about a previous employer or supervisor, which seems like very sensible advice. So how can I convince them to rely on my references from my next to last position? Do I check “Yes” or “No” on the question and, if I check “No” how do I explain the answer?
Were you there long? With the economy as it is, you could just leave that range of time as ‘unemployed’ or ‘doing odd jobs/volunteer work/consulting…’.
If you were there for a short period of time, I agree with Contrapuntal. Don’t list that job at all.
This situation isn’t as much of a problem as it was in the past. Most businesses won’t say anything about an ex-employee except to confirm that you worked there and to give your starting and ending dates. At my last “corporate” job, the corporate counsel told us not to answer any other questions, and to be very careful answering the stock question, “would you hire this person again?”
I went to a couple of management seminars where we were told never to even answer that question. There’s simply no upside to it. Most likely, your ex-supervisor wouldn’t talk to them anyway, and if he did (unless he’s a major dick) he wouldn’t say anything of significance.
Yea, I know. But I’ve been listing the job on my resume for quite a while now. Basically, as soon as I started my last job I added it to my resume. Then when I discovered that I was unhappy at it (but before I had any strikes against me) I started posting it, with the current job, on places like Monster, Dice, etc. and submitting it to various employment agencies. This was before I had a viable business to include on the resume.
At this point, it’s very possible that if I dropped the job from the resume, a potential employer may easily stumble across the two different versions. Like they say, once it’s on the internet, it’s nearly impossible to take it back.
In any case, while I might conceivably be able to pull off something like you suggest in the future, my immediate problem is the job I’m interviewing for tomorrow. They have a copy which list my previous employer, and interviews are few and far between these days, especially interviews for jobs that would be so perfect for me.
I guess my best bet is to check yes and hope that he abides by a no comment policy.
After reading InvisibleWombat’s post I feel pretty good about allowing them to contact him. I was with a major corporation and it’s likely they do have cya policies about not making any comments. The one caveat is that he is, in fact, a major dick - IMHO of course.
Maybe I should call him (posing as someone else) and ask about me, to see what he says.
Been there, had that previous supervisor be a complete lying dick, ADDING things to our list of mutual problems. And then when I complained to their HR, they came out accusing ME of being the liar because none of their people would EVER violate policy and do something like that! Harrumph!
If I can find the HR department’s phone number and put that instead of his (which I’m not sure I still have anyway) they might say the right things to prevent them having to disturb a busy manager.
Have a friend call and pose as a reference check. Do this with ALL your references, not just this one. I found that one of mine was attempting to make me sound good, but came across as “damning with faint praise.” You’d have to know her to understand how amazing ANY praise from her would be . . .
In my business, it’s a fairly small world, and it’s fairly easy to say “Do you know ‘Jim’? Well, please ask around before you take his comments too seriously . . .”
Always make sure your listed references know they’ve been listed, and what attributes you need them to stress for each company/position.
Although the “No bad comments” rule is a good one in general, there are times to break it. I would hire someone who gave me only the information I needed about a negative experience, especially if they talked about attempts they made to turn it around. I would not hire someone who spent the whole meeting dissing their past employer(s). It also helps to follow up with a comment about a supervisor you respected.
People who have only ever had bad bosses usually have problems of their own.
Obviously some of my past managers have been better or worse than others, but the only one I would really call “bad” is this one guy. I’m going to list HR as his number, cross my fingers, and hope that my scintillating personality will win the day.
Hell, as bad a manager as he was, maybe he’s not even there anymore. Nobody there liked working for him.
Well, I think the interview went well. It’s a very casual office and the guy who interviewed me (who would be my manager) was very easygoing.
He asked about my favorite and least favorite jobs and I said that the most recent job was my least favorite, that I didn’t care for the work or fit well into the large corporate environment, but that the job before that was my favorite, that I spent 9 years there, still keep in touch with my coworkers from there and had used 3 of them as my references. He seemed to accept that without a problem.
Unfortunately, I think I may be a little short on experience in some of the skills they’re looking for, but how much that will impact my chances depends on the other candidates. In IT it’s often difficult to find someone with everything you want, and sometimes they’re willing to accept a close match who has demonstrated the ability to pick up new skills.
Do you know when you will hear back? Glad the interview went well, sometimes the manager wants a personal fit as much as a tech fit. You sound like you hit it off with him. Sending prayers and good thoughts your way.
Yea, I think we hit it off personally, which I know from experience can be important.
He asked me what I felt was important about being part of a team, I referenced the “good job” and said that we made a great team because we all got along well and even socialized outside of work, and that I still keep in touch with a lot of them. He replied that he had noticed that my 3 references were all from that job.
So I think I hit it off well with him, showed that I’m a team player, and indirectly indicated why my previous job may not be the best place to go for a reference.
If I don’t get this job it will be most likely be because another candidate was a better match to the desired skill set, and not because of a past bad experience.
