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bad/good references from current employer

9 replies

solanum · 08/02/2009 23:06

If you leave a job after a few months because you basically think they have not lived up to expectations/ are not the company for you/ how could it affect a reference from them? Anyone had experience of this? I am not happy with current position but know that when I go, I will still need reference for any future applications. There is no easy way to pretend either about my feelings about the job, as this is all part of why I want to leave.

OP posts:
Hassled · 09/02/2009 09:31

I don't you don't need to tell your employer that this is why you're leaving; you've just found a job that's closer to home/more challenging/whatever. And I think most references these days are pretty bland - solanum worked here for X months, took x number of sick days - that sort of thing.

AMumInScotland · 09/02/2009 09:33

If they've been happy with your work and attitude while you were there, they should give you a reference which says so. But if your negative feelings about the job are clear, then they may give you a fairly negative reference in terms of "not having the right attitude", "not a team player" etc. Hard to guess without knowing the whole situation and their personalities!

But I don't think it will look terrible on your CV to have a job which didn't work out, so long as your overall job history isn't a sequence of things like that.

You're likely to get asked in interviews about what went wrong, and they'll want to see if it was just something which didn't work out, or if you were being "difficult" in some way, because let's be honest there are some whingers out there who are never happy in their job and a potential employer wants to be sure that's not what they're getting!

Squiffy · 09/02/2009 13:00

If you have only been there a few months and think you will get a bad reference, you may want to leave the employment off your cv. Not ideal of course, but it does happen all the time. Then in an interview you can explain that yes, you did have a role in ABC orgainsation between X date and Y date, but there was a clash of cultures (or whatever) so you chose not to highlight it on your CV.

flowerybeanbag · 09/02/2009 15:17

Do you actually have any reason to think they will give you a bad reference? They are unlikely to do so simply because you are leaving after a few months - if that's the only issue they are likely to give a basic factual reference as Hassled says.

You could choose to leave the employment out altogether, assuming you will have something decent to say about why you have not been at work for x months. I wouldn't advise you to leave it off your cv and then bring it up in an interview though - either leave it off altogether or deal with it.

Sometimes it doesn't work out and there's no shame in admitting that and taking the initiative to move on to something that suits you more. Don't slag off the employer in an interview though, that makes you sound bitter and twisted and will make an interviewer wonder if it was partly your fault. Just explain in a neutral way why the job/company wasn't right for you, and how the experience has helped you clarify what you are looking for in a job/employer, and therefore has helped you identify x,y,z job/employer as somewhere you want to be.

Just to mention also, you may find it very difficult to fool a payroll department into believing that you haven't been working for months, because of tax records and suchlike. Not necessarily a problem depending on what kind/size of organisation you apply to. If it's somewhere huge and fairly anonymous it probably won't matter, but otherwise it might.

My advice would be to deal with the employment properly when it comes to potential new employers and to speak to HR where you are now about the kind of references that are normally given.

Squiffy · 09/02/2009 17:30

Hey flowery, pleased to see you keeping an eye on the threads (commenting on these boards is a bit scary without you).

solanum - flowery is right - I was being a bit flippant in my earlier comment.

flowerybeanbag · 09/02/2009 20:14

hi Squiffy

Pleased to be back!

(Did you get my emails after your CAT before Christmas?)

Squiffy · 10/02/2009 05:27

Flowery - yes, thank you. I had 3 weeks though with internet access only via work, so I went a bit radio silent and not able to thank you or continue conversations. We are in throes of whole process, coming to an end next month.

flowerybeanbag · 10/02/2009 09:44

No problem, just wanted to check -hope it's all going relatively smoothly.

solanum · 14/02/2009 13:18

One of the problems is that I have to give a long period of notice ,which means it is hard even to find a job that fits in with that. And there is no way around thatnotice period. Would not leave off the employment, as it would possibly cause a problem later on if found to have lied.

Anyway, at moment have found nothing to apply for.

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