#CareerDevelopment #ITProfessionals #OvercomingChallenges
Hey everyone! 👋 Have any of you experienced getting fired in the IT industry before? I’m curious to know where you are now in your career. Let’s share our stories and inspire each other! 😊
Have you ever faced a setback in your career and wondered how to bounce back stronger than ever? Here are a few possible solutions that might help you:
– Stay positive and focused on your goals 🌟
– Take the time to reflect on what went wrong and what you can learn from the experience 🤔
– Network with other IT professionals and seek guidance from mentors in the industry 🤝
I believe that by sharing our experiences and learning from each other, we can all grow and succeed in our IT careers. So, where are you now in your journey after getting fired? Let’s chat! 💬🚀
Not my story – But a friend of mine was let go after 22 years (ish) at GM. He crashed hard! But when he picked himself up the guy had a few more hobbies and respect for his own time. Today he’s a great mentor and friend but I think it took him getting out of a really toxic work environment for so long to do so.
In this market, overcoming a *firing* is going to range from “incredibly difficult” to “not possible.” Think about it – most positions have 1000+ applicants, most of which have never been *fired*. Why would they roll the dice on you when those other applicants exist? (I added emphasis because this does not necessarily apply if you were *laid off*… there is still a strong stigma, and that will make your journey harder, but it isn’t a total show-stopper as being fired for cause is in 2024… but if you were fired for-cause you should be looking at trades/service industry as a path forward)
I was fired once. I was going through a mental health crisis at the time, on tons of medications, and had to leave about 30 minutes early every Monday to make it to my weekly doctors appointments. I also had a panic attack where I passed out at work… I deserved to be given the boot. Im all better now, and… it hasnt impacted my career at all? I simply put the time I worked at that place on my resume and who my supervisor was. If they want to call they can. In interviews I just talk about my duties while I worked there. Its not a big deal, I guess if they ask directly if Ive ever been fired I would say yes, and tell the interviewer the circumstances and how I came out the other side a stronger and better educated person with that experience and now I know how to work when the rug is pulled. You dont need to disclose that you were fired on your resume.
Site Reliability Engineer. I was fired as an entry level IT job after I asked for a day off to go to a bar Mitzvah for my cousin….this company was racist as fuck and I later found out one of the owners 5 sons was holding klan rallies in the building on the weekends.
Fired from a level 0.5 role @ an MSP after 8m/9m @ 21, was a real cowboy operation. Currently an IT tech but looks like I’m about to make the leap to Team lead
Hard work & a can-do attitude will open many doors if the leadership is right!
I was at a casino for about 4 months, I hated it. They have a lot of rules but complain about high turnover. I worked midnights, one night went out to dinner with friends before work and had 2 beers. Somebody smelled it and reported me. Security escorted me to the hospital where I had to piss in a cup. My BAC was .02, not even enough for a DUI. I wasn’t even allowed to drive my car off the premises. I had to take a cab home and then go back for my car. I was fired the next day and thought I’d never find another job. I didn’t put it on my resume and got a better job 6 months later. I was still living my parents at the time thank god.
I once found out I was being paid way, way, way below market value for my experience.
I collected my research into a nice, succinct presentation, had a meeting with my manager, and asked for a raise.
At first, they gave me the “let’s revisit in 6 months” spiel. But like, the next day, they just decided to fire me instead.
So I got a job at another place making ~50% more. 🙂
Just becuase you are fired doesn’t mean the. End of IT. Depending on the cause
One time a guy that was an ass got promoted to my manger. He was looking for a reason to fire me from the day of his promotion.
One time it was just. No business. And had to find something else
Very tough like the other comments mention there’s a time when the struggle is real. Can’t say I was able to get into a better position but it put into prospective that from now intend to look out for myself.
I got laid off from a Fortune 100 Insurance company in 2017. I now work IT at a University (non-profit) and I hope to never go back to the private sector
I was fired at my first desktop support role for not doing the work and responsibilities of managers that was being pushed down onto my team when there was a management change up. Shortly after the whole team was let go and replaced… I was let go right at the peak of Covid. I had to move back in with grandparents while I spent countless days talking to recruiters or applying to any jobs within my skillset at the time. Many times, I thought I should look at switching fields as maybe IT wasn’t for me, even after going to school for it… After 8 months of nothing I was lucky enough to land a contractor role at a fairly large company where I was able to show my skills to my new team and later be hired on full-time.
Now I am in a Senior Technologist role after 2.5 years, working directly with engineer teams, getting certs in fields I find fun (Azure and Cisco networking) leading projects and likely moving into our cloud / networking teams.
The thing that let me keep at it was finding what I enjoyed of IT, learning more about that and applying it in any way I could while working on things myself, or on a job.
Been fired multiple times. Usually contract related. Quit just as many as low cost bidder won.
Now do end point management
I was fired on the 13th of this month. They wanted me gone despite doing a good job due to a network outage that happened a year ago (the network team doesn’t understand their own network and I got blamed for not reporting they didn’t know what they were doing).
I have no money, savings had to be used to move where I am now and the unemployment is pending due to an investigation (investigations happen when you are fired regardless when you submit the claim). I don’t have people to ask for help in these times and they can only do so much before they put themselves in the red.
The only good thing is I will get snap benefits, but not until the 6th. I have a possible new job coming Monday – place I interviewed with wants me to come to the office to meet everyone, no offer letter yet.
I feel crappy even if I get another job and I shouldn’t, but I can’t help it.
I think it depends why you were fired. I kept getting into arguments with my director who was rarely even around. It eventually came to a head and one of us had to go. As management, he obviously won. They gave me 3 months severance and let me go.
This was during the 2008 Recession when getting a job was no joke. It was common to be out of work 6+ months. I took me maybe 4 months to find a job. The key for me was to stop insisting on FTE jobs only. Once I became open to contract jobs, I got something immediately. I made a little more money but my benefits were worse.
Another roadblock was I was really uncomfortable and a little embarrassed about being fired. Interviews got really awkward whenever my firing came up. Some interviewers sense something is up and keep digging. You gotta own it and speak confidently about it. Here’s what happened, here’s what I learned and now I’m ready to move on.
A contract job can be a great way to re-establish yourself after getting fired. You just need to convince the contract company you are a safe risk. In my situation, they didn’t even tell the company I had been fired. I was their employee, not the company’s.
I did the contract thing for a couple years and then jumped back into an FTE job. Most interviewers primarily care about your last job unless it was really short. Now that firing would never even come up in an interview.
Fired Before? I have 25 years in IT.
I have been Fired, RIF’d, Laid Off, Down sized.. All Pretty Names for I was Shit Canned.
You sharpen your skills and get back on the horse.
I was fired mid May, 8 months into a help desk/field services role. It was for a health dept and the turnover rate was incredibly high, so getting fired from there wasn’t a surprise. I couldn’t wait for a “proper” IT position, so I took a position at a warehouse. It pays more than my last position and it wasn’t conditional employment where they wanted me to “prove myself” by working PT hours or as a temp for [Insert undefined amount of time here]. I wouldn’t consider myself in a worse position than before but the transition really brought about change and a perspective shift in my life.
I was a deskside tech – Azure admin at a large hospital while working on my CS degree. After I got my degree I could NOT get hired on as a junior developer despite there was an opening, I did my job but no more than absolutely required, When I did get an interview with the developer team, my manager would have none of it and was furious, and I was terminated at the end of the week, The official reason was I was a contractor and this position was to be in house only role.
I landed a new gig, 4 weeks later as a junior dev another company, making twice what I was making as a desk side tech. 6 weeks after starting, I got an email from the hiring manager at the Dev team I applied for that the job I applied to was mine if I wanted it (2 months after I applied). Needless to say I didn’t reply to the hospital hiring manager.
Just went back to my last job. Sucks just as much as when I left and I’m trying to figure out how to leave the field
Continued moving up, had this one job that I got fired for not meeting the personality of the office – of course they didn’t say this but still.
An IT job that needs a certain outgoing personality, blew my mind.
I got laid off during the Great Recession from a very successful sysadmin position.
I was depressed for a year or so, working under the table IT jobs while questioning my future. My confidence was so low it’d need to increase quite a bit to be in the toilet.
The next F/T job I had, I was the sole onsite support tech for ~150 people in a satellite office. I learned a lot and became a dependable resource to both the local users and the remote IT staff at HQ. My manager appreciated my efforts, and it restored my confidence.
A decade later and I’ve been excelling ever since, now as an IT manager myself. #blessed
Shut canned a couple times. Doing about $500k/yr in big tech. You tend to make more when switching employers and that is for sure true for me
Worked in IT for 4 years at a startup. Then they decided IT wasn’t needed anymore and fired me. In about 10 seconds later they rehired me as an operation manager with a huge pay bump. This was possible because company foundational IT structure will spread into each department. I was able to learn how the structure of the company worked so it was better fit for me to be transitioned to operation. Do I love it? Hell no, I hate it, rather be coding and doing technical work, but hey the money is great and life doesn’t always give you what you want so…….Yea there that..
Fired 4 times. First time was at an MSP, fired after 6 weeks for not learning fast enough. Second was from an MSP from blowing through too much PTO too quickly due to health issues. Third was manager said I had communication skills issues. Fourth was 3 weeks at a software company that works with tax collectors, saying I wasn’t a good fit for the company.
Still doing it.
Back at help desk.