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What do you do when a new job, despite your doing all the right
things before you accepted the offer, isn’t anything like you
expected? First of all, don’t panic. You do have options and this
may not be as much of a crisis as you think it is.
It happened to Maureen Nelson.
She worked for Employer A, which was located across the street from
Employer B. Employer A was a contract position and Maureen needed
benefits, so she went to B. Company B had buyer’s remorse after
two months (Maureen never knew why) and was asked to resign. Maureen
called Employer A back and they said, “Great! Can you be here
tomorrow morning at 9:00?” Because they were so close
geographically, the commute was identical and her routine hardly
changed.
The story gets better though.
Maureen explains—”The best
part: A few months later, I was hired at Employer C, which paid me
30 percent more than Employer B did! I actually moved for that job.
It’s like the Chinese folktale that starts with the horse running
away—you never know, you never know—whether it’s good luck or
bad luck.” In Maureen’s case, she took a chance and made her own
new luck.
Doing all the right things
Another person I spoke to had
done everything you should do when it came to both her job search,
and to evaluating a position at one of the top employers in the
United States. She interviewed several times, researched the
company, evaluated the job offer, and talked to her future coworkers
and supervisor.
Presuming that she had made a
good decision, she packed her bags and relocated to a new city to
take what she thought was an exciting new job. Only it wasn’t. It
was nothing like anyone had described it. The only explanation she
got when she asked about the difference between the job she thought
she was hired for and what she was doing, was that she could work
her way up to more responsibility.
After the first couple of days on
the job, she knew it wasn’t going to work out, so she called her
old boss. She was lucky—the job wasn’t filled, she had resigned
gracefully and parted on excellent terms with her old employer, and
she didn’t have to start a new job search. They hired her back on
the spot.
These experiences are good
examples of how you never know what will happen in the future and
why it’s always important to follow protocol, give adequate
notice, and not say anything negative when leaving.
Starting your job search over
Unfortunately, luck doesn’t
always work in your favor. Sometimes, the employer has filled the
position or doesn’t want you back. I once received a call from an
ex-employee who decided he hated his new job on the day he started.
In this case, the employee wasn’t performing as well as we would
have liked and we looked at the resignation as an opportunity for
the company to start fresh with a new employee.
If going back to your old job
isn’t an option, do take some time to see if you were judging the
job or the company in haste. Sometimes, our first impressions
aren’t correct and the job might be a better fit than you
expected. Give it a chance and take some time to see if it’s as
bad as you first thought.
If it really is that awful, start
networking with your contacts and getting your resume back into
circulation. Be honest when you’re asked why you’re leaving a
job you just started (and you will be). Tell your contacts and the
interviewer that the job wasn’t a good fit and you decided to
pursue other options. You will probably need to provide details on
why the position didn’t work out, so think about appropriate
answers prior to interviewing. You can say there isn’t room for
growth with your current employer and you’re ready to move on to a
new challenge or that you’re looking for a bigger challenge to
grow your career, or that you were laid-off from your last position
when your department was eliminated due to corporate restructuring.
--Alison Doyle, about.com
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