Quit job and now in a panicLast week I quit a job I had been at for a year and a half. It wasn' t a perfect job, but I really needed the paycheck. The drawback was working for the boss' wife, who was constantly nitpicking and trying to find something wrong with my work. I believe she was trying to force me to quit . I sucked it up many times over the past year and a half, but finally just snapped. I told her I was giving her two week' s notice because I couldn' t continue to work under those conditions. She ordered me to leave right then and there. Now I realize I shouldn' t have done that, because I am stuck without a reference and will have a difficult time explaining why I left the job. I can' t not list the job on my resume, because I got valuable experience, and need to account for that time. Any suggestions on how to deal with my situation? I would simply say that you planned to leave your job to devote more time in looking for a position in which there was more opportunity and/or growth, and that when you gave your two weeks' notice, you were told to leave immediately. If this was a small, family-owned firm, which it sounds like it was, many HR people will understand this--both your wanting better opportunity and being told to leave immediately. Will your boss himself give you a good reference? Are there any coworkers that can give you one? If not, say that, under the circumstances you will probably not get a good reference from this company. Hopefully previous employers will give you good references. I think you may be panicking a bit too soon--no need to! Stay calm and focused on how good you are at your job! Think of the positives--now you have full time to look for a great opportunity, you won' t have to sneak out of work to interview and/or lie about why you need time off; you have had valuable work experience over the last year and a half, etc. Well, just because I have to get my two cents in for this one. There have been times when i helped out in the HR department when I was in a position to do so. At one point, when we were hiring new secretaries, I was asked to be on the panel as EEOC. I was also asked to contact a few of the references for one of our final candidates. I followed the questions I was given by the HR guru which were simple ones such as "How long did she work for you?" "what were her main duties?" "Did she appear to interact well with those she worked closest with?" and "Would you re-hire her?" I talked to four of the candidates references. Three of them gave me straightforward answers but one of them talked my ear off and embellished every answer. I spent most of the conversation trying hard not to laugh. Most of what she said was leaning toward the negative side of things. Well, when I asked the last question of "Would you re-hire?", the reference said "Absolutely. Without a doubt. You better believe it. So, I guess my point is that even though your bosses wife nitpicked, it could have simply been because she didn' t know how to tell you good job. Or, it could have been because the woman is a major b!otch. In which case, that will come through if she is called for a reference. When I got off the phone and went to the HR guru' s office, she asked me how it went and I said only, "Thank God I never worked for that fourth woman. I think I would have hurt someone." | |
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Career Tips
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