21st Century Job-Hunting: How it all Starts
“You’re Fired”
That line, or any incarnation of it, instills fear and anxiety in any professional. Even if you’re in a position you want to leave, being forced out still carries the weight of uncertainty you would still rather avoid. I was always proud of the fact that I had never heard that line; proud that my career path had been MY choices to pursue stretch assignments and to grow new skill sets. I was proud — until Weds.
That’s when I heard it: “We’ve decided to terminate your employment” (This incarnation is more Arnold Schwarzenegger and less Donald Trump, and it still burns as badly).
In moments like these, everyone has the usual thoughts race through his or her head.
- What could I have done differently?
- Why is this happening to me?
- How will I provide for my family?
- Don’t they know everything I put into this position?
It is difficult to answer these questions — especially if you are blindsided by the decision. Furthermore, some of those questions may never be answered, and others can only be answered after enough time passes. However, I quickly realized that comprehending the finality of my firing wasn’t as important as answering why I was fired. The only way to prevent this from happening again is to reassess my failures, learn from them, and prevent them from happening again.
Before going on, I should be transparent: I did see it coming. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to tell when you’re getting “boxed out” of a culture; so, for me, I had time to preemptively come to terms with these questions. Maybe that head start gave me clarity, but when the axe finally fell there was a slight feeling of relief — like waiting with your head in the guillotine gallows while the blade ominously hangs above you. While still overwhelmingly disappointing, at least I was no longer my own worst anxious enemy.
You may ask how I saw it coming and couldn’t prevent it. I knew I was on a short leash because I could tell I had lost the key decision makers. Daily fires distracted me from the larger initiatives that they hired me to pursue. I worked harder to appease those I worked with more than delivering to my bosses’ expectations. I own that — that was a mistake. By the time I tried to pivot and make up for lost time, it was too late, and I knew it.
Seems simple to avoid but it can be easy to do without defining the deliverables clearly and upfront. I had left a very structured company with defined employee reviews; it was all I really knew. Coming into a young company, I took that previous structure for granted and (incorrectly) assumed that hard work would just take care of itself. This isn’t casting blame on the company or management, but it is a reality I learned the hard way. I should have been the one to insist on laying that foundation and defining what I was hired to do. Expectations, deliverables, and schedules need to be spelled out and all parties need to agree to them. Again, I own that.
Now that I am back in the job hunt, I’m faced with the reality with it is very difficult to 1.) explain why my tenure at a company was terminated rather shortly, and 2.) overcome that to instill any confidence in a hiring manager. Additionally, I have a variety of experiences, none lasting longer than 2 years. Many of those experiences were promotions within the same company, but in the black-and-white world of digital job submissions, it is difficult to tell the story well enough to make the right first impression. How do I prove that I actually CAN do the things I know? How can I assure someone that I’m looking for a stable, continual position while my history looks jumpy?
I still don’t know how to answer some of these questions — particularly about providing for my family. However, I intend to write a series of these posts, reflecting on the struggles of finding a job, handling the pressure of shrinking savings, and (hopefully) share lessons learned so that anyone in the same position can skip the hardest moments.
If you have been through a short tenure job, or have any advice for finding a new job, please write a response. Not only will I appreciate them, but there may be a few readers that appreciate them as well.
