Veronica writes:
After a month of working in what I thought was my dream job, I can honestly say this is the biggest mistake of my life. My dream job is a nightmare. Just last Friday I asked a question about why were doing something a certain way and the boss exploded! He stormed out of the room, came back in pointed his finger in my face and told me I was stupid, that he never wanted to hire me in the first place, and that he would find some way to get me fired. I was shocked and mortified, and now I am just disappointed that I didn’t listen to my gut. (I had two interviews and talked to a few staff when a red flag went up. The employees seemed miserable, but I was told they had just finished working all week on a grueling proposal.)
The fact of the matter is I took this job to get my foot in the door of my field and get experience, but that is far from what I am getting.
I am beginning my job hunt again, and I don’t know how to address this on my resume or in interviews.
The Career Doctor responds:
It’s pretty simple, really. In interviews, you can say there turned out to be a poor cultural fit, and even though you tried to carefully vet the position before taking the job, the employees were not candid with you.
Since you have been there only a month, I’d probably recommend leaving it off your resume. That IS a tad bit risky these days (because of background checks), and you WILL have to explain why you’re leaving/unemployed, but it would be riskier to have a 1-month job on your resume. Of course, if it takes you a long time to land a new job, you’ll have a different situation. If at all possible, get out of that toxic environment ASAP (it’s clear you probably won’t get a good reference from the boss), even if you have to take a temp job while you search.
