Today in my Networking Group, "Career Connect Coffee Club", we focused on "cleaning up" past experiences from former corporate wars. I thought the topic was timely because many of the current members seemed like they were members of the "walking wounded", angry and depressed from the manner in which they were laid-off or "forced out" of their former positions.
I asked each member to identify the one issue that seemed to follow them from job to job, the themes were often similar:
Situation
"I was always left out of the information loop. It was hard to do my job because of the 'boys club' that existed"
Situation
My manager was a 'micro-manager' and no matter how much I communicated what I was doing or how hard I worked to produce perfect work, it was never enough. I constantly felt judged and on the bubble as far as he was concerned.
Sound familiar?
It's my belief that unless you process these issues first, they can follow up into an interview or you can recreate a similar situation in your next position. Here are a few more:
Situation
"My style was to be very open and direct with my boss, sharing my thoughts and attitudes about issues in the company. Her style was very closed and withholding. I think I scared her and it made her uncomfortable with me. I was strongly urged to resign. I think this was based on this relationship rather than my work."
Situation 4
I was criticized for being a poor manager and yet when I asked for training or direction on how they wanted to me to manage, I never received any support. Instead, I had to figure it out myself and discover what they wanted, by going for it and then being criticized. Today I have fear about ever being a good manager
Come to my weekly networking group at Stella's Coffee Shop, 1476 S Pearl St., Denver, every Tuesday at 9a.m. Each week we meet to issues like this and more traditional topics like interviewing, networking and resumes.
