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BAIT AND SWITCH
What can you do when the new job isn't quite what you signed up for?
Getting a job is good news, isn't it? Usually the answer is "yes," but what if the job you get turns out to be different from the one you interviewed for?
Not completely different, of course. It would be very unusual for an employer to hire you as a marketer and put you out in the warehouse, for example. Besides, in such an oddball situation, you would know exactly what to do: complain, then quit.
More common - and more discomfiting - are the situations in which the job is nearly the same as you expected, but with enough differences that you can't quite settle in.
Maybe you were supposed to supervise several people, for example, but are given authority over only one. Or perhaps you were expecting a budget of a certain size but got only half of that amount.
Are these differences enough to quit over?
The answer to that question depends on several factors, not the least of which is how badly you need the job. Assuming that you are free to leave, if necessary, there are other questions to consider. Perhaps the most important has to do with the company's integrity.
Was this an honest mistake, made through misjudgment of some sort? Or was there an intent to deceive?
If the latter is true, the situation is unlikely to improve. Employers who intentionally mislead candidates before a hire do not suddenly gain a conscience once the worker has started the job.
Which leads one to ask: What if the misfit situation isn't about duties but about the boss' personality? There's more than one Jekyll-and-Hyde leader out there, smiling away in the interview before turning irrational once the job is filled. The key question here will always be: Can you work with this person, now that you've seen the true personality?
Your go /don't-go decision will hinge on this answer.
When the primary misalignment on the job is about duties or something else that's fixable, here are a few things to try.
First, review the interview in your mind and try to decide whether the mistake was yours. Did you simply misunderstand the interviewer? If so, you'll want to start your conversations from that basis.
When you talk with your supervisor or the person who hired you, look for ways to compromise. You want the job to be as you understood it, but they apparently need something different. See if you can add back some of the duties you were hoping to have or if some of the "lost" resources can be brought back into your position. If this isn't immediately possible, negotiate a timeline when it might happen.
However this conversation turns out, your next step is to assess whether this is a job you want to keep and whether it's a company you want to work for.
It's not a bad time to think of "silver linings." Maybe you'll learn something new or get to be a hero by filling the company's true need.
But if you can't make peace with the job as it is and if it seems unlikely to change, you should quit as early as possible to keep from getting too embroiled in the situation.
Quitting quickly also will make future interviews easier, as employers more readily will understand a hasty departure from a bad situation than they will a prolonged state of suspended animation. If the tenure is short enough - say, less than three months - consider omitting it from your work history altogether.
What will you do to reduce the risk of this happening again? Here are a few remedies to try at the interview stage of your job search:
Finally, ask yourself: Is there a pattern in my life of jobs that turn out to be different from what I expected? If the answer is yes, you still may want to apply the steps above, but, more importantly, you'll need to be honest with yourself: Why do you accept jobs that are wrong for you?
When you have that answer, you'll be better able to avoid the next bad fit at work.
- Amy Lindgren owns Prototype Career Service, a career consulting firm in St. Paul, Minn. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com or at 1071 W. Seventh St., St. Paul, MN 55102.
