FuckMaybes

Account Executive

shat the bed, what do I even put on my resume?

Well, I'm unemployed.

Truthfully, I'm relieved, it was an absolute shit show - I managed to leave on good terms and my personal life is 100x better for it. Probably should left sooner but my positive relations with my manager/co-workers made me too stubborn to quit until the straw broke the camels back.

I'm well aware that the best time to get a job is when you have a job - but I made the call to resign and I own it.

Problem is, I've never really been in this position, prior to this job I was a a top performer at every job and it's very easy to write a resume when you're killing it.

Now I'm in a position where my metrics are objectively garbage and I have no idea how to frame what is the first major failure of my career.

Where do I even start and pick up the pieces?

☁️ Software Tech

😡 rant

17 comments

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Gasty

Notable Contributor

War Room Community Manager

I've had a peek at your past posts and got this suspicion that you saw the storm clouds on the horizon, my friend.

Being in this position is more sour than a lemon, but let's make some lemonade because, hey, you're not alone in this.

Reading through your previous tales of company land, what happened might just be a disguised blessing, for all you know.

Slap an anonymous version of your CV right here and we can suggest some edits n suggestions?

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Sounds like you made the right call, @FuckMaybes. Still not fun to be in this position.
Crowdsource it and let fellow Savages help out.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

We got vodka. Let's make this a resume par-tay 🥂

Filth

Politicker

Live Filthy or Die Clean

I think sticking to your overall past work summary is fine and focus on controllable metrics you accomplished in the middle of the shit show. See if you can highlight a few key moments when you were able to single handedly save the day or get a big win.
If they ask, it's ok to say that the org/culture was not a fit and it was affecting your personal/family life. You only took action b/c it was absolutely necessary and are looking forward to putting all your energy and skills back to work at a forever home that fits.
Control the narrative, sell yourself, be honest about hardships and how you found wins anyways until it was just too much for a rational human being and how you would love to get back to winning and making a company money.

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

You're not going to "kill it" 24x7x365 at every job you ever have. If you have poor performance somewhere and it gets brought up in the interview - own it and say that is why you left. It was not the atmosphere you wanted to work in.

oldcloser

Arsonist

💀

I’ll share this because it was accepted as a reasonable fact and it came from the war room.

The product there was brilliant. The people were brilliant. But the solution itself was always in search of a problem. Now your company’s answer has a question. You’ve proven product market fit. The company’s purpose resonated with me because X.Y,Z.

The spot you’re in is more intimidating than the conversation ever has to be. If you choose to highlight the failure, you’ll get stuck in it and lose. If you highlight yourself as the solution they’re in search of, you have game.

It’s a pivot, @fuckmaybes. May I call you fuck? You’ve done this 1000 times. Just tougher when you’re the product. You got this. Now go get a job and be a happy fuck.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

Where do you fall with ranking? Instead of saying 50% of quota, maybe say 4/7 on the tea,

SalesJesus29

Tycoon

Regional Sales Director

Sorry that you're going through this, @FuckMaybes I echo @Gasty 's position. Let us help and put some things together for the resume. I also suggest throwing it into ChatGPT - really helpful to get some foundational bullet points

pirate

Big Shot

🦜☠️ Account Executive

Look if it's the first time you're unemployed, you should be alright at getting hired soon. I resigned once without having anything in place. Bridges were burned... Took a bit of time and took a slight salary hit but back where I want to be now. We believe in you.

LambyCorn

Arsonist

A mfkn E

Not an easy task, but it sounds like you know how to do your job well. Try to get in front of as manny interviews as possible (sounds obvious) - get a kick ass CV as that will only get you an interview and you can do the rest once in front - best of luck, you are not the only one looking for a gig atm!!

GroovyMonkey

Personal Narrative

Human

You don't know me (I barely post here) but having been both a sales nugget and a hirer/manager of sales nuggets, I think just own it and move on. "The job looked great on paper but was not a fit" is sometimes all you have to say. I never dinged a good player for a couple of bad at bats. (The candidates I was always leery of were the ones who limped along for 5 years at 60% of quota in the same mediocre company where no one ever gets PIP'd or fired.)
And not to sour-grape it, but if a recruiter or hiring manager gets super hung up on a single bad run among years and years of success...might not be a great place to develop your career anyway.

TheHypnotist

Executive

Sales Manager

Not saying I recommend this, but you can deliberately put the gap in your resume and when asked about it you can say "Sorry, but I had to sign an N.D.A."
Or you can face the music, learn where you went wrong, so you have a learning experience to talk about. Failure can teach you where you went wrong, but success doesn't necessarily make you good - it could have been luck ;)

ThatNewAE

Big Shot

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

If it was this bad, you made the right call. I'm on the verge of making one.
I think you can start by a change of perspective.

It's not a major failure of your career. You saved your career, own that narrative. Staying in that environment would have damaged your career and you further more.
Metrics are garbage, that's why you decided to leave. If everything was hunky dory, would you have left? NO.
So you start writing your resume with that mindset that you're trying to get back harder, stronger and smarter.

if you can post an anonymous version of your resume, that'd be great !

lilhunter

Good Citizen

independent sales consultant

sales managers hire for confidence, storytelling as much as they do for the *mostly fake* numbers that ppl put on their resumes.
be the protagonist in this story and do what you do best... Sell it. Sell what you contributed, sell what you learned, sell what you'd do differently.
DON'T go into an interview with low confidence and feeling self-defeated.

SalesMama

Executive

Senior Account Executive

What do you want to do? Go back to the grind in a similar role?

harleyfatboy

Opinionated

Sales Director

As the group mentioned dust off and clean up the resume. Put a positive light on the things you accomplished on your last job. Use your network and social media to put the word out. Also - something that I did when I was in your position years ago - put your ego away and don’t keep looking for that perfect job - if you have to take something completely out of your realm to pay the bills do it while you are still looking for the role you want. I see too many people saying they’ve been out of work for months and may have to sell their house or car to make ends meet because they want similar industry with same money. Best of luck!

ilovemondays

Executive

Senior Account Executive

What did you learn, what would you do differently?
Can you pinpoint the cause of your failures?

As a manager, if you prove your root cause and diagnosis are good, and what your new principles for decision making are, to me your last job was not a failure and you are now better than before you did take that job, so I wouldn't omit it.

Just tell the story the way you see it.

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FuckMaybes

shat the bed, what do I even put on my resume?

17 comments

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