I thought I didn't burn any bridges when I left. I gave my two week's notice and made sure I helped my team in any way I could to make my leaving as painless as possible. That was five years ago. I had to leave my job for personal reasons and I've been applying for jobs at IBM. I'm not hearing a peep back. Could I be blacklisted for some reason?
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A former manager here. Two things could be happening. 1) the termination form has an “eligible for rehire” question, if the answer is No, you will not be coming back. 2) When a former employee applies for a position the hiring manager can get the list (from hr) of former managers of the candidate that are still around, it is very common to contact some them to get some sort of reference. One of your former managers might be giving bad feedback.
Ten years ago a friend left IBM, he was a great employee and knew his stuff. He manager was trying to get rid of him so he left on his own. A few years later a number of areas needed his skill and contacted him to see if he might be interested in coming back. He applied and the managers who wanted him (my team was one of them) were told he is not coming back. I found out from a friend who was a 3rd line that his old mgr got a hold of the ear of the area VP and sour them to him, so there was no chance he was coming back. Shame of it was that the mgr he had was a piece of ..........
So yes you can get black listed...
on the other side of the coin, a friend just retired last year. then the dept they were in had several people take other jobs (in IBM) and were now short head count. They contacted them and asked them to comeback as a contractor, whey they did. There was only 3 months between their retirement and coming back as a contractor. I had always been told you have to be gone 6 months before you can come back. But I guess IBM can do what ever they want/need
This post is another HR shill. Took him 5 years to figure out the job wasn't what was expected and then want to make a move back to what he ran from??? Come on man!
You want back into the he-l-ho-e? What's wrong with you?
Thank you for your responses. To answer why I am applying: frankly, the job I left for turned out not to be what I had been led to believe it would be. That's putting it mildly. After an experience like that, I'd rather choose "the devil I know" if I can than something new. Call me a coward, but that's the way it is. I will take your advice into consideration, though. Thank you again.
Couple of pointers: Is your resume ATS friendly? If you google that term, you will find out a lot of articles on how to fix it. There are certain characters and formats that resumes do not get through these online submissions.
I have been in the job search, IBM was one of the companies that I went through the recruiting process. IBM's recruiting process and responsiveness were the worst out of the 10+ companies that I interviewed with.
I ended up going through IBM internally to apply. If you know anyone in IBM, it may not hurt to reach out to them and ask them to help you.
It's not you......good luck.
Currently, IBM has very specific hiring criteria that you would be hard pressed to fit into. Most new hires have to be (1) college graduate who graduated within last 24 months or (2) early professional with 2-5 years of experience or (3) older person coming back to work under a supplemental program (ie: a "long term" supplemental which is FULL or PART time for a max of 5 years) or PART TIME (999 program, retiree supplemental, etc).
Managers are told what they are allowed to hire and given salary caps. For example, an organization allowed to hire from outside the company (verses a move within the company) can be told they are approved to hire 2 college grads and 3 early professionals ONLY. Chances are you do not fit any of those 3 categories which makes it IMPOSSIBLE for a manager restricted to one of those to hire you.
Sorry.....the best advice is to look/apply elsewhere!
Why do you want to go back to a dying company unless it's for low work/retirement.
Thank your self if you are blacklisted. It will save you from your future self.
My advice is to look elsewhere and forget IBM. The downward dive is irrecoverable when you consider all they have left is mainframe, red hat and what was GBS. The other SIs have exploded with business through covid. IBM is languishing.
PS
GBS - remember the PWC consulting business that went Ch11 in the early 2000s, resurfaced as “Monday” and then was saved again by IBM. Yeah that one.
Did you have an exit interview? There is a check mark on the exit interview form that says “eligible for rehire” If your manager didn’t check it, you will have a very difficult time trying to come back to IBM
No, you're just over 50. That's why. Welcome to the club.