Comments on: Why Working for a Failing Company is the Best Career Move You Could Make

By: jrandom421

jrandom421 — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 22:29:00 +0000

Situation: Friend graduated with business/marketing degree, hired as assistant marketing director. Business was a well known webcommerce business, having paid for a well known Super Bowl ad 6 years ago. Competition, overselling, and cash flow problems eat deeply into business. Friend tries to save company with innovative marketing, but the company shuts its doors and website, owing millions of dollars. The demise of the company is well known throughout the industry. Over the next four years, friend sends out resumes and applications, gets some interviews, and gets the ,” Did you know the business was in trouble, and if you did, what did you do to save it?” “Why didn’t you save it?” questions. She detailed what she did, and gets the “thank you for applying. We’ll keep your application on file”. She was so disgusted by the questions being asked, and being told that “we’ll keep your application on file.”

By: Mike Thorpe

Mike Thorpe — Sat, 12 Jul 2014 14:34:00 +0000

Hey Jrandom421,

Thanks again for the response.

Feel free to email me (mike@coffeeandcomposition.com) and maybe we can dive deeper into the situation you’re speaking about and talk about some strategies for handling it.

Cheers,

-Mike

By: jrandom421

jrandom421 — Sat, 12 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

It’s kind of hard to knock their socks off, when you did everything you could to improve things, but the company still died., and your answer to “Why didn’t you save it?” turns out to be “I didn’t, it died anyway”

By: Mike Thorpe

Mike Thorpe — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 19:23:00 +0000

Hey California Dean,

Thanks for commenting!

I hear ya and your point is a really good one. At some point, you have to know when to get out. I’m not advocating staying to the bitter end, that’s not for the faint of heart. It can be extremely difficult on the psyche.

Do you mind sharing a bit about what you learned during the process? I’d be interested to hear some of it, as I’m sure other readers would be too.

Thanks in advance,

-Mike

By: Friv 3

Friv 3 — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 08:08:00 +0000

i like it

By: CaliforniaDean

CaliforniaDean — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 00:16:00 +0000

Mike,
My last company, in its final death throes, was on the verge of missing payroll, re-routing employee 401(k) funds, missing rent and vendor payments, to name a few. While I learned a great deal as part of management during this process, the physical and mental strain, combined with daily moral and ethical dilemma, made that an experience and I do not wish to repeat.

By: Mike Thorpe

Mike Thorpe — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 21:09:00 +0000

Thanks for sharing that experience and I can see where you’re coming from.

But, I’ve got to point out that if they were asking those questions, that means she was getting interviews even though her resume probably mentioned that failing company so people were obviously giving her a chance to give some insight into that.

Do you happen to know what her response was to the question “Did you know the business was in trouble, and if you did, what did you do to save it?”

To me, that seems like a major opportunity to shine. If you could answer, yes I did know and then give concrete examples of how you managed to improve the situation in the face of adversity, I think you’d really knock their socks off.

cheers,

-Mike

By: jrandom421

jrandom421 — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 20:05:00 +0000

A friend had a similar experience. She worked as an assistant marketing director for a highly touted web ecommerce business that crashed and burned spectacularly. For the next four years, the questions were,” Did you know the business was in trouble, and if you did, what did you do to save it?” “Why didn’t you save it?” It got so bad, she went back to being a barista for awhile to make ends meet and not have to answer those questions.
She said her experiences were similar to Michael Wolff in “Burn Rate”

By: Mike Thorpe

Mike Thorpe — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 20:18:00 +0000

Hi jrandom421, thanks for the comment.

I think you bring up a good point. It’s all about framing the experience. If everyone who ever worked at a company that failed was black listed from the job market, well, things would be much more dire than they are right now. It’s unlikely that any reasonable person would would put the blame of a failing company on a junior employee.

Framing your experience in a positive way is much more likely to illicit a positive response. For example, to reduce the “stink” as you call it, your resume would focus on the tough environment and the things that you did to help the company along.

Hope that clears things up a bit!

Cheers,

-Mike

By: jrandom421

jrandom421 — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 19:58:00 +0000

So explain to me how working for a failing company is a win when the company finally files for Chapter 13, fires everyone, and totally liquidates all its assets? When the stink of the corporate death of the company permeates your applications to other places, when it becomes apparent that your actions may have contributed to the company’s demise?
How is that a win, when you get blamed for the failure, no matter what you did?