Feel like I'm in the twilight zone for being fired from every job I've ever held.
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I could be bad luck but I think you need to do some self reflection. You are probably doing things that seem normal to you, but get on others nerves.
I have a friend, she is a perfectionist, and she works very slow. People have tried to tell her less perfection more production she doesn't listen or can't change. She has been let go for being too slow.
I have worked with people that can race through a project but their quality sucks different problem same outcome they were fired.
I spent several years at a non-profit. It was a culture clash. Many of the people had brought old resentments, and habits of jockeying for position. Since there was no profit motive and revenue was guaranteed, there was quite a lot of room for manipulators and their followers. Non-profits promote a different mind-set. Many people don't actually need to "do" anything: results don't matter. So, it's easy to assume a mind-set that "it's all about "me".
I knew it would not be forever, but it suited my purpose: building experience and credentials in a different field.
I brought my old habits as well. A numberz type, I am data-driven. The work place was opinion-driven. It made me uncomfortable to adjust to arguments with little evidence to back them up. It made them uncomfortable to listen to arguments that were data-driven. Questioning - a standard analysis technique -was construed as personal attack.
The culture demanded a sort of messianic fervor. Meetings began with self-congratulation. "We are the best". I feel work is an even exchange of time for money. They already knew everything there was to know. No need for policies.
If you have been fired from 5 jobs, and you mentioned sales didnt work for you either, you really need to take a good honest look at whats really going on. You know the situation more than anyone. Maybe you do need to ask someone you know if you really cant figure it out on your own, or are oblivious to a personality issue.
Its more than just lack of job skill or lack of training, etc. Maybe on one of the positions but not 5. I have worked at a couple places where I have coworkers that truly suck at the job, who are not up to par and it almost takes an act of congress for them to be let go. It has to be a personality trait or something that annoys others.
My job that I am in now has a position open and they interviewed this woman who was very qualified but they declined her after the interview because they could see there was an annoying personality trait that wouldnt fit with the office culture. It happens, and I honestly think thats what is happening here because being fired from 5 jobs is not normal unless you are completely falsifying your skills on your resume.
Been fired from 5 jobs in the last 2 years under really strange circumstances that take me totally by surprise and seem more like bull**** than reality. I am never late for work (usually arrive 15 mins early to get coffee and stuff and work past when everyone else is gone), always dress professionally (shirt and tie, khakis, leather shoes).
Job 1: Worked for the company for 8 years. A new supervisor became my boss and within 3 months I was fired for "falsifying records." His actions were illegally discriminatory and I ended up suing and getting a settlement from the company.
Job 2: Was working on a help desk for 5 months total. Before they even hired me they told me they thought I'd have a lot to learn about servers but wanted to give me a chance. Throughout the entire time I was there the boss would micromanage me daily and required me to account for every minute I was at the office in a ticketing system which captured work time real time. Any time not on a ticket was to be entered in the system as "lost time." One day boss calls me into his office and says "Sorry, I gotta let you go, it's not working out." When I asked why I was told that he was getting too many complaints from customers. When I asked for specific examples he couldn't think of any. I had never heard about one customer complaint the entire time I worked there.
Job 3: First day of work I was told to access a certain custom made Access database and update information in it based on conversations I had with people on the phone. Later that day I'm told that I corrupted the whole database by not having the correct settings in Access. NO ONE told me about any such settings, and as a matter of fact I followed a step-by-step guide to a tee on how to set Access up before doing any work. I was fired the next day.
Job 4: I did an unpaid internship with the county as a degree requirement. I followed my supervisor around, kept my mouth shut and took notes. By the end of the first day the supervisor told me she didn't know if she'd have enough hours for me to fulfill the requirements of this position and told me I should try to look for another opportunity. The next day she made a rude comment about my heritage and by the end of the week she called my faculty advisor at the school and made up insane lies about me which she used to justify my firing and which caused the school to kick me out of the degree program so I couldn't graduate with that degree and had to change majors.
Job 5: After I graduated I started to work as a software developer. Third day of work boss gave me a bug to fix. Nailed it in half a day and the team told me how impressed they were. Forth day boss gave me a really old, unstandardized set of code to work on. Apparently all the developers thought it was such a PITA that no one had touched it in 5 years. With less than a 30 minute explanation as to what the code was all about my boss sent me back to my desk to work on it. The next day I continued on it then was sent offsite for training for 2 days. When I came back my workstation had been replaced and all my settings, software, etc where gone. I spent most of the day setting all that stuff back up and didn't get much work done. When I came back in on Monday my boss wanted to talk with me. He reviewed my code and pointed out my errors. Then he told me that my skills didn't match watch he needed from a developer and fired me.
TL;DR: My question is, where am I going wrong? Does it seem like I could do something better or is this stuff really as insane as I think?
IMO:
1.Sounds legit.
2.It sounds like you have an attitude problem based on thinking that you know more than you do and don't need instruction. Also it seems like you didn't think too highly of their work procedures and the job itself. This attitude came over to the customers and influenced your help with them negatively. Just because you didn't hear about the complaints doesn't mean they didn't occur. Customers often complain to your supervisor and don't inform you. Something was amiss here.
3.It was a custom set up built to what they needed and worked with. You corrupted the whole system. You should have asked some clarifying questions instead of just assuming you could do it by using a manual.
4.Why did you keep your mouth shut? Why didn't you ask questions and engage in conversation to show you were understanding and receptive to her training? You not talking and just taking notes comes off negatively. You probably spent most of the time with your head down and your eyes on your notes. With no verbal communication as well, what do you think the supervisor thought? I think there's more to this and are you sure you didn't have any negative feelings about her gender and/or race ? Why would this escalate to the school kicking you out of the program? Insane lies? Firing? Over an unpaid internship?
5.Your supervisor was impressed by how quickly you fixed the bug so he decided to see what you would do with the old code. It was a test. Spending all that time replacing things instead of working on the code resulted in you not getting "much work done". Did you need to replace a lot of stuff to continue to work on the code? Maybe he was looking for a different level of productivity and skill and was confident he could find it elsewhere.
From time to time, despite all your best efforts, a particular career path just isn’t going to work for you. You can try and try al you like, you can work hard and harder all you like, you can go the extra mile and do 120%... But in the end, you and that career are not compatible for no other reason than "because". That is when you might want to consider a rewarding career in bus driving or an exciting challenge as a data input clerk.
I wouldn't have said it like this but he does have a point.
OP that is really tough, are you living in an area that maybe is not as "Jew friendly" as other parts of the country? Like LA or New York? My sister lives in LA and she jokes that Jews run the place
If you held a job for 8 years it would make me think it isn't just you or something. But yeah, sometimes people just aren't a good fit. I'm sorry what happened at your internship, I would have fought that to the death. I mean, forgive the stereotype but being Jewish surely there was ONE lawyer in your family?!
I spent several years at a non-profit. It was a culture clash. Many of the people had brought old resentments, and habits of jockeying for position. Since there was no profit motive and revenue was guaranteed, there was quite a lot of room for manipulators and their followers. Non-profits promote a different mind-set. Many people don't actually need to "do" anything: results don't matter. So, it's easy to assume a mind-set that "it's all about "me".
I knew it would not be forever, but it suited my purpose: building experience and credentials in a different field.
I brought my old habits as well. A numberz type, I am data-driven. The work place was opinion-driven. It made me uncomfortable to adjust to arguments with little evidence to back them up. It made them uncomfortable to listen to arguments that were data-driven. Questioning - a standard analysis technique -was construed as personal attack.
The culture demanded a sort of messianic fervor. Meetings began with self-congratulation. "We are the best". I feel work is an even exchange of time for money. They already knew everything there was to know. No need for policies.
Challenging all around.
I was in the same situation once; it was incredibly frustrating. I couldn't believe how petty and childish some of my co-workers were! Best to avoid non-profits unless you like walking on eggshells all day.
This sounds all too familiar. I've had similar things happen to me. In the last 11 years I've had it happen 6 times where I lost jobs. I spent a number of years working for several companies without a problem. One company I worked for 10 years and was let go when things got slow thanks to Sept. 11. I wasn't the only one let go.
Then I went back to school to get a degree and graduated with a 4.0 gpa.
Two of my jobs turned out to be temp jobs. Gotta love crappy economy.
One job I was let go from after a year there. The lady that ran the business was psycho. Glad to be gone.
One company I got let go from one day before my 90 days was up. They always told me that I was doing well and it was going perfect, so I have no idea why. Not enough work, maybe. There were slow times.
Last company I worked for things just got slow in our wonderful economy.
Now I work as independent contractor for a company and they love my work. That will end eventually and back to square one. I'm just enjoying it while I can.
Last edited by purple socks; 04-22-2013 at 09:42 PM..
Been fired from 5 jobs in the last 2 years under really strange circumstances that take me totally by surprise and seem more like bull**** than reality. I am never late for work (usually arrive 15 mins early to get coffee and stuff and work past when everyone else is gone), always dress professionally (shirt and tie, khakis, leather shoes).
My question is, where am I going wrong? Does it seem like I could do something better or is this stuff really as insane as I think?
It might not just be you. Remember that lots of employers right now are super picky with this economy and will let people go over the stupidest little thing. They want a robot these days, not a person. They don't need a reason to get rid of you. Sometimes you can do an awesome job, but it still doesn't matter. If you're not the supervisor's favorite, then you'll be the first to go.
Employers these days don't want to train. They want you to come in knowing everything and be able to do it in your sleep. If you can sing, dance, stand on your head, juggle and play the accordion, you're hired. It's more like a game show these days.
It's stupid to think that an employee should know everything and know it in the first week. Any job, no matter what you already know, will require some training since all companies have their own way of doing things. I see employers these days not giving anyone a chance. Just read the ridiculous job descriptions and you know what I mean. If you see the same job posted over and over again, that means there's something wrong with the company.
Another thing that you already know, there are just some really nasty people out there to work with. No matter what you do, you just can't please them. Chances are you're not the only one that has problems with the nasty person. Why companies keep problem employees like that, I'll never know.
You're not alone in this. There's lots of stories like yours out there. Just keep working on improving your skills and yourself and you'll get a decent job soon.
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Best to avoid non-profits unless you like walking on eggshells all day.
