January 30, 2003 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Q: I’ve had a tough year. First, the fund-raising company I worked for closed its doors. Then I went to work for a very dysfunctional organization that fired me after only two months. (The person who fired me was also subsequently fired). Then I took another job, and was fired after one month. I had never been fired before I got mixed up with these two charities. My rsum does not reflect these last two jobs, so it appears as if I have not worked in a year. Does this hurt my chances of working in the nonprofit field again? Should I start over in a new field?
A: Unfortunately, your situation can’t be remedied by switching from the nonprofit field to another one. The essential issue here is that yearlong gap in your résumé, which will make any employer curious and concerned. The important thing is not to hide your employment history, says Larry Slesinger, a recruiter in Washington who works exclusively with nonprofit clients. Whether your string of firings was due to bad luck or bad decisions, he says, “It’s got to be acknowledged in some way.” You might consider giving that part of your history a quick gloss on your résumé (for instance, by bundling that whole string of jobs under the label “various short-term positions”), then explaining in more detail in your cover letter.
Your ability to acquit yourself effectively will depend partly on the reputation of your former employers, says Mr. Slesinger. “It’s not common,” he says, “but there are some organizations or people within organizations who are known to be difficult to work with.” However, he says, you should proceed cautiously: A job candidate should never simply bad-mouth a previous boss, for a couple of reasons. First, you don’t want to come off as a complainer, and second, Mr. Slesinger points out, the interviewer “could turn out to be your old boss’s college roommate.” It’s better to wait for some indication that your interviewer already has a sense of your previous employer’s reputation and then tactfully discuss your difficulties working with that person or charity.
The bottom line, says Mr. Slesinger and other recruiters, is honesty — not just with your prospective bosses, but with yourself. Was there anything you could have done differently to retain those jobs? If not, and the firings truly had nothing to do with your work performance, attitude, or people skills, is it possible that you leapt at those jobs without paying attention to warning signs of future problems? A bracing bit of self-reflection may help you articulate exactly what went on, in a manner that your next job interviewer can understand. You should also consider working with a recruiter, who might be able to help you over this hurdle by explaining your situation to prospective employers in a forthright but tactful manner.
