Just found out about an hour and a half ago that I'm being fired come Monday.

I imagine I'll be posting to this thread a lot.

Anonymous37 wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2024 8:09 pm Just found out about an hour and a half ago that I'm being fired come Monday.

I imagine I'll be posting to this thread a lot.

Sorry to hear that. Let us know what you'll be looking for, when you're ready. Maybe one of us has a lead for you.

cakes wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2024 9:03 pm

Anonymous37 wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2024 8:09 pm Just found out about an hour and a half ago that I'm being fired come Monday.

I imagine I'll be posting to this thread a lot.

Sorry to hear that. Let us know what you'll be looking for, when you're ready. Maybe one of us has a lead for you.

I appreciate that, but my work is fairly specific in tech (and I'd like to stay in the Bay Area, if at all possible), so I'm reaching out to my LinkedIn contacts.

Ugh. I had hoped that I would not have to be looking about now. My supervisor turned out to be fairly dishonest about some things, and now I have to figure out how to answer "Why did you leave (my most recent company)?" when the honest answer is "Because I was put on a performance improvement plan and my supervisor told me that I failed to meet the requirements to continue on with the company."

Anonymous37 wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2024 9:18 pm Ugh. I had hoped that I would not have to be looking about now. My supervisor turned out to be fairly dishonest about some things, and now I have to figure out how to answer "Why did you leave (my most recent company)?" when the honest answer is "Because I was put on a performance improvement plan and my supervisor told me that I failed to meet the requirements to continue on with the company."

Oh no--my sympathies. One resource that might be helpful for navigating how to frame stuff like this in interviews is Alison Green's Ask a Manager blog. Quite a wealth of good practical advice there from someone with practical experience.

Maurice wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2024 10:48 am

Anonymous37 wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2024 9:18 pm Ugh. I had hoped that I would not have to be looking about now. My supervisor turned out to be fairly dishonest about some things, and now I have to figure out how to answer "Why did you leave (my most recent company)?" when the honest answer is "Because I was put on a performance improvement plan and my supervisor told me that I failed to meet the requirements to continue on with the company."

Oh no--my sympathies. One resource that might be helpful for navigating how to frame stuff like this in interviews is Alison Green's Ask a Manager blog. Quite a wealth of good practical advice there from someone with practical experience.

I'm a regular reader already, and I'm not sure if she's answered that question, although I might write in and ask if she hasn't. Thanks.

Anonymous37 wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2024 9:18 pm

cakes wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2024 9:03 pm

Anonymous37 wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2024 8:09 pm Just found out about an hour and a half ago that I'm being fired come Monday.

I imagine I'll be posting to this thread a lot.

Sorry to hear that. Let us know what you'll be looking for, when you're ready. Maybe one of us has a lead for you.

I appreciate that, but my work is fairly specific in tech (and I'd like to stay in the Bay Area, if at all possible), so I'm reaching out to my LinkedIn contacts.

Ugh. I had hoped that I would not have to be looking about now. My supervisor turned out to be fairly dishonest about some things, and now I have to figure out how to answer "Why did you leave (my most recent company)?" when the honest answer is "Because I was put on a performance improvement plan and my supervisor told me that I failed to meet the requirements to continue on with the company."

No one is going to blame you for looking for a new job. If it comes up that you were being let go, well, things were toxic and you felt you were getting pushed out, weren't you? No one is going to ask you to go into detail. In fact, I would play it off as casual as possible. The trick is that it's never good to be negative about your last job or to dwell on it. But, if asked why you're leaving, keep it honest, short and all business.

If you don't mind me asking, what do you do in tech?

cakes wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2024 8:22 pm

Anonymous37 wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2024 9:18 pm

cakes wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2024 9:03 pm

Sorry to hear that. Let us know what you'll be looking for, when you're ready. Maybe one of us has a lead for you.

I appreciate that, but my work is fairly specific in tech (and I'd like to stay in the Bay Area, if at all possible), so I'm reaching out to my LinkedIn contacts.

Ugh. I had hoped that I would not have to be looking about now. My supervisor turned out to be fairly dishonest about some things, and now I have to figure out how to answer "Why did you leave (my most recent company)?" when the honest answer is "Because I was put on a performance improvement plan and my supervisor told me that I failed to meet the requirements to continue on with the company."

No one is going to blame you for looking for a new job. If it comes up that you were being let go, well, things were toxic and you felt you were getting pushed out, weren't you? No one is going to ask you to go into detail. In fact, I would play it off as casual as possible. The trick is that it's never good to be negative about your last job or to dwell on it. But, if asked why you're leaving, keep it honest, short and all business.

If you don't mind me asking, what do you do in tech?

If you're in the Bay Area , then you don't need to explain much of anything about why you're looking for a job. Everyone seems to understand that most of the cuts have been stupid and random and that there are lots of dysfunctional companies (including most of the big ones).

cakes wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2024 8:22 pm No one is going to blame you for looking for a new job. If it comes up that you were being let go, well, things were toxic and you felt you were getting pushed out, weren't you? No one is going to ask you to go into detail. In fact, I would play it off as casual as possible. The trick is that it's never good to be negative about your last job or to dwell on it. But, if asked why you're leaving, keep it honest, short and all business.

If you don't mind me asking, what do you do in tech?

A hardware test engineer, most recently in what's known as "photonics" (like electronics, but with light: converting electrical signals to optical signals and sending them down fiber optics). Before that I was in "MEMS" (micro electromechanical structures: small-scale devices where you have moving parts, like gyroscopic chips).

I take your point about not being blamed. The thing is, the photonics world is small enough that I need to fear someone calling up my previous supervisor and asking him off the record why I left, and him pointedly refusing to praise my work and hiring managers getting the picture.

LuciousSandwich wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2024 9:54 pm If you're in the Bay Area , then you don't need to explain much of anything about why you're looking for a job. Everyone seems to understand that most of the cuts have been stupid and random and that there are lots of dysfunctional companies (including most of the big ones).

I guess. I am thinking that my company will be doing pretty badly in upcoming months, which will make it easier to make the case because I can say, "The company's not exactly doing well."

cakes wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2024 8:22 pm The trick is that it's never good to be negative about your last job or to dwell on it. But, if asked why you're leaving, keep it honest, short and all business.

Yeah. I came out of a really bad situation with a company that has since had some public meltdowns, but even then I keep it vague like "the team was moving in a direction that wasn't aligning with my strengths, and I knew it wasn't a good position for me in the long run". That's usually enough to move along. The interviewer has a lot on their plate too so as long as they're not left to think "this person is difficult or insubordinate" they'll move along as well.

I got rejected twice this week. One, I think was a long shot, but I feel really good how I did in the technical interview and the overall interviewing process. Multiple candidates were being interviewed for one lead role. While I had the necessary experience for leading a team, what edged me out was that I was trying to pivot into a different area of development. While I feel strongly that I could have done the job given some time to learn, I totally get that they would find a more suitable candidate with similar lead experience, but more appropriate technical background. It really inspired me to take some courses to round out my skills.

The other one was for a really interesting company doing blockchain. I thought it was a long shot from the beginning, but they weren't looking for more than what I already know. In my technical interview, I didn't feel any gelling between me and the interviewer. I was able to get through the tech challenge, but I probably screwed myself by experimenting first, then finding the answer, instead of going with the answer I knew to be workable, and then experimenting with improving it. But, I wasn't getting any personal connection with anyone I was interviewing with, it all seemed very stale and distant. I understand, but it was kind of a turn off for me.

I have a final interview on Friday for this other company I've been interviewing with for about a month now. I made a pretty strong connection with everyone I've talked to so far, and I really feel confident about my chances, but I'm not entirely stoked about it. It would be a good job don't get me wrong, but there's things about it that I just not really wanting to get back into if I don't have to. For example, it's newish startup with a code base that's already legacy-era and needs to be updated for modern solutions. The team needs to double in size quickly, with a lot of structure up in the air. These aren't red flags, they are the necessary growing pains of a startup and I've been looking for more established companies. Beggars can't be choosers...

I just started interviewing for another company that I'm really excited about. There are three technical interviews. I feel that I'm up for it, I've got 2 of them scheduled tomorrow. The engineering team is really fucking solid, and the company is cool and everyone I've interviewed with there is like an old friend already. This job is really for me to lose at this point. There's 3 positions to fill, so there's not competition for a single role, but more importantly I was sought out by one of the engineers there, not by a recruiter. I am trying not to over prepare, but I really want to nail this one because it would be such a great job.

Regardless, I've yet to get any offers, so I could be back to square one by Monday. Ugh... I want this hell over with!