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I have over 20 years of work experience in IT field. I left a job, where I was an IT senior manager for 5 years, to join a startup company. During the interview process I was given a title and promised certain roles and responsibilities. However, after taking up the position, the roles and responsibilities (even the domain) were totally different. In addition, I found out that the department that I was assigned to was using large number of unlicensed copies of commercial software. I reported it to my boss and I was asked to ignore that for the time being. Finally, I decided that it was best for me to quit that job because I discovered few more things going there what I stood against throughout my career.

All my other experiences were long-term (minimum 5 years and maximum 13 years) and had a great work history. However, my latest work experience lasted only for 8 weeks. I am not sure how to account this history in my resume and/or future job application. During my exit interview, the executive, who hired me "advised me" against showing this work experience when I seek for new jobs as it could severely impact my chances.

I am planning to show this history in my job application but not in resume as this experience was not relevant to what I was doing last 5-6 years. I also do not want to go into very details (such as unlicensed s/w, etc.) of my quitting. I would like to seek some guidelines in this regard. Thanks!

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    What is the question? I assume you want to know if you should put the job in your resume, but its not explicitly mentioned anywhere
    – Shadowzee
    Commented Aug 21, 2019 at 7:07
  • That executive may have said that out of an interest to protect the reputation of their company.
    – Michael Jaros
    Commented Aug 21, 2019 at 11:51

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Yeah, I'd put it on there. When asked about it, tell the truth. Try and do so in a positive way, without running down your employer.

"It was a mistake, I was really not a good fit for them."

It's basically a "bait and switch", and the chances are you'll be interviewed by someone who has at least heard of this practice and understands why you left.

One or two of these occasionally over your career won't hurt; it's when you have a succession of very short stints that people think "job hopper".

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  • Thanks Justin. I was also thinking about keeping it short and simple. If pressed on details, is it okay to cite the s/w issue and roles and responsibility mismatch instances?
    – Aloshi
    Commented Aug 21, 2019 at 11:42
  • is it okay to cite the... Generally you want to be honest, but brief. Going into detail about the reasons runs the risk of scaring them off. If there are specific things you didn't like about that job, and you want to be sure you're not walking into the same situation, you should ask relevant questions about this new employer when you have the chance, rather than come off as complaining about your past employer.
    – dwizum
    Commented Aug 21, 2019 at 13:20

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