People, Go Figure!

You would think with the market so tight for quality employees that new employers would be more careful. Here are two recent candidate horror stories.

Jay is a young go-getter and former college athlete hired for a new business development role after several rounds of interviewing.  Six weeks later he is referred by a friend and is curious about how bad it might look if he leaves his new employer so soon.  His problem started with – the first day he reported his new boss had the day off and no one seemed to know he was coming.  No big deal, everyone is entitled to a scheduling snafu!  Problem is on Day 2 his new boss was no better prepared with a plan for his onboarding and it hadn’t been any better in the weeks that followed.  Better yet he was getting funny looks from people because he “wasn’t producing.”

John met with me after a full year of bad behavior by his boss.  He was hired for his development potential and well-developed skills with various technologies, despite having had zero experience with the type of financial analysis they would be asking him to do.  Day 1 Monday – really no kidding – his boss briefly outlined the real estate investment proposal they were considering and put him to work on it with a deadline of Wednesday at noon.  John followed old write-ups to produce his analysis but when asking questions for guidance was met with “I’m too busy.”  Wednesday at 12:30 John’s boss invited him to his office and his sole piece of feedback was “this is c**p, get back to work.”  To John’s credit he is a quick study and he had become a darn good real estate analyst in the space of a year but his boss’ manner of coaching and mentoring hadn’t improved at all.  He was only too happy to take my call and meet with me.  I’m happy to report he’s enjoying the beginning of an excellent career with a client of mine!