I, too, was laid off this summer. I decided to take some time before seriously starting my job search as I am confident I will get a better job elsewhere and I was extremely burnt out. I've had a few interviews with companies I had no desire to work for and a few that I probably would've taken a job if it had been offered, like Google (not quite the killer place to work in sales as it is in SW Development.) However, there is something I'm having a hard time overcoming as I prep for interviews; negativity and cynicism. (Yes, I am a Gen Xer so this might be expected, but please hear me out.)
After 5 long years of terrible managers, bad territories, unreasonable quotas, friends getting laid off and watching one by one as the enthusiasm drained out of my 10 Inside sales reps, I just have a hard time believing anywhere in IT will be different. Part of this is that I'm a woman and some of what I experienced as a woman here goes on at all big IT companies to some degree or another. But how do I stop feeling so negative about everything work-related as I try to paint a positive picture during my interviews?
I know logically that other places will be better. Much better. I mean, it really couldn't have been much worse. But when I try to prep my responses to interview questions, I keep coming back to negative places.
"How did I perform against quota?" (You mean the quota that was 5x what my accounts have ever spent in a territory that no other pillars even bother with?)
"Tell me about a time you won." (You mean, like when my boss's strategy to trick my account into saying something he could use against them backfired and my original strategy to treat them fairly won me the deal?)
"How have you dealt with conflict from a peer?" (So, like the MW Rep who lied to my face repeatedly, went behind my back to put a proposal in front of our customer that was bad for the customer yet management backed him because they didn't want me to 'screw up their deal' by telling the customer the truth?)
"How do you do your forecasting?" (Well, you kinda need deals to forecast and as all my accounts had multi-year agreements in place, there wasn't much to forecast.)
How do you paint positive results on negative experiences? How do you convince people that past results do not reflect future performance? That if you were only treated like a human being instead of a piece of garbage, you could do great work?
I'm not down on myself. I know I've done the right things, worked hard for my employers and would be an asset to any company. I love technology but right now, I hate the tech industry. $20M VC unicorn companies that sell beard waxing apps. Cover ups and lies so multi-B$ companies don't have to share diversity income data. The firing of a kid who was brave enough to question the 'pc' attitudes of Google by applying science to his discussion. (As a woman, I don't love being call 'neurotic' but the point he was trying to make should actually be viewed positively by women and anyone who has ever studied genetics.) A company like Oracle that has so many smart, wonderful people who are slowly having the life crushed out of them...