Following on from last week's discussion on our members' engineering origin stories , this week we'd like to hear about some of the more regrettable chapters of your careers. Whether it was a bad experience with an employer, a project that went badly off the rails or something your heart wasn't really in, use the comments section below to tell us about the worst working experiences of your career. How did you find yourself in the role in the first place? What made it stick out as a particularly negative or unfulfilling experience? Were you able to resolve the issues, or did you simply have to walk away? Were you able to take any positives from the experience? What would you do differently if you found yourself in a similar situation today? Now, we don't want to be responsible for any lawsuits, so be mindful to avoid "naming and shaming" if discussing a specific employer. We'll be looking for the best, funniest and most interesting answers for a future feature.

Shabaz, I read your comment about the bad interview. The interviewer was dreadful and foolish. I always tell people that the potential employer may be interviewing you, the job applicant, but YOU are interviewing the potential employer. It was a lousy company. I'm glad you turned it down. Perhaps things are different here in the U.S. than where you are, but salary negotiations often are taken up later in the hiring process. Also, what an employer says is the salary (or range) is not necessarily the "real" salary. Everything depends on their need and your competition -- supply and demand. By the way, did you ask for a sign on bonus? I once helped a young man right out of college who was on his first job search. He didn't know how to play "the game." I taught him a few of the basic tips in salary negotiations. In the end, he was handsomely paid a 6-figure salary in his first job out of college plus a sign on bonus. Two years later, he started looking again. He came back to me for help. I told him stop fooling around and ask for much more money and to play tough and ask for a bonus. Result: he got a 40% increase in salary plus a $40,000 (US) sign on bonus. Needless to say, he was very happy for my help:)

What's the worst job you've ever had?

jlucas over 9 years ago

Following on from last week's discussion on our members' engineering origin stories, this week we'd like to hear about some of the more regrettable chapters of your careers. Whether it was a bad experience with an employer, a project that went badly off the rails or something your heart wasn't really in, use the comments section below to tell us about the worst working experiences of your career.

How did you find yourself in the role in the first place?
What made it stick out as a particularly negative or unfulfilling experience?
Were you able to resolve the issues, or did you simply have to walk away?
Were you able to take any positives from the experience?
What would you do differently if you found yourself in a similar situation today?

Now, we don't want to be responsible for any lawsuits, so be mindful to avoid "naming and shaming" if discussing a specific employer. We'll be looking for the best, funniest and most interesting answers for a future feature.

Top Replies

Parents

0 mrkeiman over 8 years ago

I was employed by a major newspaper as a computer technician, back then they called us Engineers but that is another story, the day I started I discovered that nobody else in the company had any formal training or experience and they had been relying on the manufacturer to do the maintenance. Not quite what I had been lead to believe at the Interview. However I accepted it as a challenge and set about determining what needed to be done. everything was fine for a few weeks, realigning Magnetic tape reader writer heads so that they could actually read each others tapes, and similarly with the 15" cartridge disk drives, but of course making sure that the archived tapes and disks could still be read. Then came the time to shut the mini computer down to do a maintenance on it. I had observed that there was quite a buildup of dust around the filters. I was told that this would have to wait for a day or 2 as the computers was vital at that time. I was asked to help out in the packing room, the only electronic devices in the packing room were the counters which counted the papers as they raved off the presses, through the folders and onto the binding machines which bound them in bundles of 50. A few days went by and I asked what was happening. I was advised that this was my job as a major union had stepped in and declared that it's members were responsible for the computer equipment and I was not in their union (nor was anyone else in the department). I contacted my Union ( which was nationally the main union for computer support personnel) after a few more days I was told that since the other union had most of the employees in the organisation they had decided that they would be responsible for the computers. They offered to pay my membership in that union but that I still may not be able to work in the computer center as other employees (members of the other union) had seniority. They then turned around and told me I was expected to help train the people as they had NO training or knowledge of computers. I refused and handed in my notice immediately. hey even tried to tell me I had to stay as I had an employment agreement with them. I pointed out that the agreement was as a computer technician and they escorted me from the building>
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Verify Answer

Cancel

Reply

0 mrkeiman over 8 years ago

I was employed by a major newspaper as a computer technician, back then they called us Engineers but that is another story, the day I started I discovered that nobody else in the company had any formal training or experience and they had been relying on the manufacturer to do the maintenance. Not quite what I had been lead to believe at the Interview. However I accepted it as a challenge and set about determining what needed to be done. everything was fine for a few weeks, realigning Magnetic tape reader writer heads so that they could actually read each others tapes, and similarly with the 15" cartridge disk drives, but of course making sure that the archived tapes and disks could still be read. Then came the time to shut the mini computer down to do a maintenance on it. I had observed that there was quite a buildup of dust around the filters. I was told that this would have to wait for a day or 2 as the computers was vital at that time. I was asked to help out in the packing room, the only electronic devices in the packing room were the counters which counted the papers as they raved off the presses, through the folders and onto the binding machines which bound them in bundles of 50. A few days went by and I asked what was happening. I was advised that this was my job as a major union had stepped in and declared that it's members were responsible for the computer equipment and I was not in their union (nor was anyone else in the department). I contacted my Union ( which was nationally the main union for computer support personnel) after a few more days I was told that since the other union had most of the employees in the organisation they had decided that they would be responsible for the computers. They offered to pay my membership in that union but that I still may not be able to work in the computer center as other employees (members of the other union) had seniority. They then turned around and told me I was expected to help train the people as they had NO training or knowledge of computers. I refused and handed in my notice immediately. hey even tried to tell me I had to stay as I had an employment agreement with them. I pointed out that the agreement was as a computer technician and they escorted me from the building>
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Verify Answer

Cancel

Children

No Data