Work worries

Mike Danger

So, I graduated in May, got hired for a pretty great tech support job (contract-to-hire) at a Big Name Tech Company in October. Everything went great, until I started to hear in performance reviews about a month and a half in that I "wasn't integrating with the engineering team" (wasn't being friendly/connected enough w/ developers). I made more of an effort to meet people and hang out with engineers, but kept hearing the same thing until I got called into a meeting in early December and was told that I wasn't being hired. (I did ask at one point while this kept coming up if there was anything else I could be doing and was told "just keep doing what you've already described", which I did.)

I've moved on a bit since then (I've heard stories from others that this is a pretty common practice at this place), but I'm worried about trying to get other jobs going forwards. What's the best way to go about describing this whole thing in job interviews (as it's pretty obvious on my resume that I was only there for a short time)?

Thanatos

Describe it as a short-term contract position.

Thundyrkatz

Don't ever insinuate on your resume or in your interview that you were not able to get along with the team and they let you go.

Like Thanatos said, describe it for what it was a short term contract position that ended.

Also, sometimes people just don't get along. If you went out of your way to try to get along then you did more then most and should feel good about that. You may not know the whole story, its possible they wanted someone else in and so you got the short end of the stick. Just chalk it up to experience and move on.

Mike Danger

Okay. What happens if later on they get in touch with the previous employer and they bring up this entire integration thing? My worry is that I'll say "it was a short-term contractual position that ended" and then the employer will say "yeah, we ended it - we had the option to hire him and didn't because of x". It seems like I am implying that the position was only for a fixed amount of time when it wasn't.

Djeet

You cannot control what your previous employer will say, but since you said it was a big company they will likely only divulge employment dates, title, and maybe salary for liability reasons.

see317

Djeet wrote: »

You cannot control what your previous employer will say, but since you said it was a big company they will likely only divulge employment dates, title, and maybe salary for liability reasons.

Pretty much this. Most companies are extremely limited as to how much information they give out. When you were hired, how much you made, maybe if you were eligible for rehire.

If you're really stressing out about this, ask a friend or family member to call them and check your work history, or do it yourself. Chances are if it's a good sized company, you'll talk to some HR person who wouldn't recognize you or your voice in a million years.

Spawnbroker

No need to stress about it, it was a contract position that didn't end up working out. There could have been any number of reasons why the company chose not to hire you that have nothing to do with you. For example, they could be having a rough year and can't afford to hire someone else. Don't sweat it, in my opinion.

Thanatos

see317 wrote: »

Djeet wrote: »

You cannot control what your previous employer will say, but since you said it was a big company they will likely only divulge employment dates, title, and maybe salary for liability reasons.

Pretty much this. Most companies are extremely limited as to how much information they give out. When you were hired, how much you made, maybe if you were eligible for rehire.

If you're really stressing out about this, ask a friend or family member to call them and check your work history, or do it yourself. Chances are if it's a good sized company, you'll talk to some HR person who wouldn't recognize you or your voice in a million years.

Yup, this, absolutely.

Also, if that is the biggest lie you're telling on your resume, you probably need to rework it.

bowen

Eh, I see that touted around a lot and that's not always the case. Someone who's working general office positions might want to lie, or rather, stretch it.

If you're highly skilled (IE, engineer) you are probably better off not lying and bullet pointing all the amazing things you've done. Probably don't even need to embellish.

zagdrob

bowen wrote: »

Eh, I see that touted around a lot and that's not always the case. Someone who's working general office positions might want to lie, or rather, stretch it.

If you're highly skilled (IE, engineer) you are probably better off not lying and bullet pointing all the amazing things you've done. Probably don't even need to embellish.

If you've got 5+ years of experience in a skilled position, especially if you've held the same title / role (but a ton of duties) for lengths of time, the hard part isn't picking what to embellish, the hard part is picking which ones to put on / leave off.

On the other had, the OP graduating in May will probably stretch a few things. He shouldn't worry too much about it, and as long as he lists this position as a short term contract position he should be fine.