Not sure whether I've been treated unfairly by my employer or whether I'm just crap

[Destinysdaughter]

I've been in my current post 5 weeks now and at my last supervision session I was told that they want to let me go as I'm not the right person for the role. It's a training position for a charity and after I'd been there for 3 weeks I was told to come up with a plan as to how I intended to achieve my goals for the next year as they only had funding for one year. ( which was basically selling the training to other organisations) I don't feel I've had any support or guidance and have pretty much been left to my own devices and as a result have floundered. At my supervision session I was told I wasn't ' entreprenerial' enough and that we should part ways. It was advertised as a training officer job. I've had 12 years experience as a trainer in different charities and have run training for other organisations but it was always as a request from other organisations where I've had the time to do a training needs analysis and found out what they wanted and created a course based on that.

What this organisation wants is for me to create a course and then go and promote it to other organisations. This is something I have no experience of. I've said I'm sure I could do that if I had some support and guidance especially re contacts as this is a part of the country I've recently moved to, but they've said they don't have the time to do that.

I feel so upset and disheartened as I always had excellent feedback from participants on my courses that as I was a good trainer but I feel like I've failed in my job after only 5 weeks and that I'm being asked to do things that I have no experience of and no support or time to learn how to do that.

I feel v confused as to whether I'm in the wrong or whether it's just a mismatch of skills, wanted a bit of objectivity to see what pp thought..?

There's quite a difference between a training officer and a sales person, the latter being what they seem to be looking for. They've hired wrongly for the role.

Perhaps they thought you would have contacts that would be useful to them if you had already been a trainer within the charity sector and had been requested to deliver courses to charities? Could you think about the best received and best attended courses you've designed before, and suggest them to potential clients?
I would hate a sales job and would just leave, but that's a personal thing. Do you want to do the job that you have been hired for, or is it totally out of your comfort zone? I think you could potentially try to develop the role into something that would suit you, but it would be a lot of work. Sounds like they expected you to be able to apply your previous knowledge, experience and contacts but if you can't then maybe it's not right for you.

What was in the job description?

Maybe they could/should have given you a bit more warning that things weren't working out as they had hoped. But if the post is only for a year then they probably have a lot to achieve in that time, so may not have the luxury of time.
Don't beat yourself up. Sometimes these things just don't work out. As pp said, maybe their recruitment was not up to scratch - not you!
They should give you/pay you a bit of notice though.
Good luck.

Thanks so much for your replies and input! In my previous role, which was in London, it was mainly training, trained about 500 pp a year and when we did training for other organisations they came to us rather than us having to sell what we did. I'm not in London now so have no local contacts which is why I'm struggling to find a way to sell the training. Agree training and selling are completely different skills and I've just had no experience in selling at all. I think I'm just the wrong person for the job but I feel like I've failed as although I'm a good trainer I have zero experience at selling and feel inadequate as I don't know where to start with it!

Feels humiliating to be asked to leave a job after only 5 weeks. Am dreading going into work next week. Feel I need to find a way to leave with the minimum amount of fuss. Also if I have to work a month's notice, don't know how I am going to be able to do that...

It sounds to me like the error is on their part and they have hired a trainer, when they wanted a sales person. Which is pretty poor on their part.

Chin up..get your Cv out there asap and get some interviews.
Dont take it personally. Sounds a mishire and if it's not right then best not dwell. If they want you to work your notice then they will let you go out for interviews too.

It's not you, it's them. It seems to be a common occurrence these days, with companies not really knowing what they need and hearing the word 'training' and so cobbling something together. Chalk it up to experience and make sure that in your next interview, you interview them to make sure they know what they want!

I've been in the position of trying to recruit in a company that really didn't know what they wanted, but had some vague idea and generated job descriptions 'on the hop' - it happens. Don't be disheartened; it says more about them than about you.