Unemployed - The HUGE Mistake I Made Trying To Change Software Engineer Jobs

recently I went through a period of unemployment because of the huge mistake that I made while I was changing jobs so I wanted to give my story to you all to help you avoid the same issue that I had so make sure you watch the entire video so you can understand completely where I messed up so you won't do the same so around November of last year I wanted to get out of my position at the time it just wasn't really working out with the company that I was with so I started to apply actually kind of early on with me being employed with this company I was there for maybe two or three months and I saw that it just wasn't the best environment for me and I started to look around normally I like to give a company at least a year or so to see how much I like it or not like it but it was easy to tell that this just wasn't going to be a good environment so as I was applying I started to notice that the job market was a little bit different with me moving higher up in my career you know you tend to kind of be a little more picky as far as what type of jobs you were willing to take or that you want to take so the criteria of what you know I'm looking for or was looking for you know was a good environment good culture Obviously good pay and good benefits for me and my family there's this one a particular company that I swear I've applied to this company for at least four or five times over the years and I never could even get an interview I would always just get the typical email template response saying you know that my qualifications didn't match what they were looking for or they found you know another applicant that was a better fit and they were closing the position but I wanted to work for this company so bad because I've always heard about how well they treated employees you know how everybody was happy there if you got there you know you would typically stay there for a long amount of time and they had a position that I felt really matched my qualifications now and it was what I was looking for so I decided to apply for it to my surprise within a week you know I got a call from a technical recruiter and she wanted to get more information about you know me and and my background what I've been doing and the conversation went really well she let me know that she was gonna relate the information to the hiring manager and the team and if they wanted to move forward with me then I would receive a call back so that very next day she emailed me and let me know that the manager wanted to have a call at me wanted to have an interview with me mean and he wanted to speak with me with another senior manager so that call was scheduled I took that call a couple of days later and it went really well I mean I felt good about them they felt good about me so I was getting pretty excited you know I felt like I had some hope to get out of a bad position and a Bad Company almost a little too excited and that's where I messed up so after I got done with the meeting with the manager and the senior manager I had a chance to speak with the director now normally if you get to this point to where you're speaking with somebody that's that's way high up that you don't really have to work with on a daily basis it's more just you know a thing of just making sure that you're somebody that they see themselves you know enjoying working with you know so I didn't expect anything technical so at this point I started to kind of feel that they're going to offer me this position had the meeting with the director and it went very well also and they told me that they would let me know if they wanted to proceed with me or not because at this point that was kind of the last step and again the very next day they let me know that they wanted to offer me the position and this is where things this is where things get crazy so obviously I'm still working with my old employee at the time I'm just sitting there and it's so hard for me to keep this inside but I couldn't wait to tell them that I was resigning from my position and I was moving on but I had to try to calm myself down and be patient about this this new company offered me the position obviously contingent on a drug test and a background check and I'm thinking hey I don't do drugs I don't commit crimes I'm good I went to do a drug test no problem and now I had to submit my paperwork to do a background check so as we're going through this process as far as the the background check and all of this paperwork they asked me for a tentative start date which is pretty normal anytime you're about to change jobs they always going to ask you you know when do you want to start so they can give you enough time to leave your current employer and make a smooth transition from moving from your old employer to the new employer and I typically like to give a three-week lead time so the right thing to do is give at least two weeks notice for your current employer so I like to give two weeks but then I like to give an extra week really just to relax and kind of just get my mind ready for the new company and a new job because it's very hard to go from one job directly into another job in the span of like a weekend so I gave a three week lead time and I'm thinking well this is three weeks they'll have plenty enough time to finish my background check because this typically takes you know five to ten business days so I'm giving even an extra week just in case something happens but apparently I did not give enough time so here's where I made the mistake say I've never had an issue with a drug test or a background check while changing jobs so I would always give my three weeks everything will come back quickly and clean and I can make a smooth transition into my new employer once I know that my background check is in process and my drug test came back clean I already signed the offer letter everything's ready to go I give my employer my two week notice and I'm getting close to the end of those two weeks when I'm actually transitioning out of my old employer and I'm starting to follow up with my new employer just getting some some feedback and just making sure they got all the paperwork that was needed from me to go ahead and proceed so the first strange thing was this new employer mentioned to me that the third party that they had that was doing the background check which is named Sterling I don't know if you've ever heard of Sterling but they do a lot of background checks especially in the tech field they couldn't verify any of my previous employers which was extremely strange to me so I had to submit W tools I had to submit all of this proof that I didn't lie on my resume and I didn't lie on my application with this knowing employer so that was the first strange thing because I had never had that before so I submit all the paperwork there and then I wait a few more days and I still don't hear anything back so I follow up again you know is there anything else that you all need from me just want to make sure I get this going as smoothly and as quickly as possible she lets me know nothing right now Sterling is working on it they'll let me know if there's anything else that you need so I wait a few more days at this point I've already left my current employer this has already been two weeks since I left my current employer and more time passes by with no update so I reach out to my new employer again and she tells me that they're having a problem verifying my background check so I said well is there anything that I need to do or you know and she says well no you know this company this third party they can be known to kind of get behind and take some time on things like she said she's never seen this issue not get resolved before so when she says not get resolved before I'm thinking okay well maybe another week or so which would be my three weeks but those three weeks passed by and I still don't have an update so at this point I'm starting to get pretty nervous as far as what's going on do I even really have a job so another week passes by another week passes by at this point I haven't been working for almost a month by waiting on this background check and it got to the point to where I was so nervous about this entire situation to where I didn't know if I needed to start applying again or what it was it was kind of like I was in limbo like I didn't have a job but I kind of had a job at the same time so to keep myself safe I started applying again and it was just really hard for me to get going on this because I had went through this entire process with this company I was super excited to start working with them and now I didn't know if I even really had a job so to start over and going through the whole interview process and application process with some other companies and even just looking for a job again it was pretty discouraging I tried to stay as patient as I could because this was a time that I haven't had before to where I could get myself together mentally you know I could spend more time with my family take advantage of this free time and just hoping and praying that everything was going to work out with this company but luckily my wife and I we have we take our finances very seriously so we have an emergency fund for any type of you know strange cases that may come up so I wasn't necessarily stressed in that manner it was more about the future just making sure that I had somewhere where to work so the recruiters in constant communication with me she's telling me you know don't worry everything is going to work out you know we're so sorry that this is taking so long but the team can't wait to meet you and just trying to keep me encouraged but you kept saying these things and I started to wonder I'm like you know is she telling the truth to the point to where I tell her I said look I promise there's nothing on my background check ask HR if they can let me start working if you all find something on my background check once it's complete you can let me go that's how confident I was that I didn't have anything to hide but she said they couldn't so she could tell that I'm starting to get pretty stressed about the entire situation I didn't have any income coming and the main thing I was really concerned about was the benefits health benefits you know I have two small boys and they get sick all the time so I want to make sure I had health benefits to make sure they were covered in case we had to take them to the doctor or something like that within two days the recruiter calls me and she says that the background check cleared so now I'm able to start working at this point I haven't worked in five or six weeks in total since I had left my previous job which was a pretty long time to to not be actively working somewhere it ended up working out for me and I promise I'll never make this mistake again or take this for granted as I mentioned before this may be common sense to some but believe it or not many people do the same thing that I was doing and they could come back and hurt you in the end so the lesson is do not give a tentative start date until your background check clears so they'll be understanding if you tell them I'd rather wait till all my paperwork clears and then I can give my notice or you can tell them I'll give you a date but this is tentative on my background check clearing and the process that that may take so if I have to move it further in the future I hope you all understand that and for your current employer be careful when you give your resignation because if you run into a situation like me it can be very embarrassing if not right disrespectful for you to give in your resignation and then you come back and ask them can I continue to work for a little bit longer that's just not a good look once you give your resignation that's it so make sure you're careful on your timing when you do the resignation and when you give your tentative start date for your new company so if you like the video please like the video and subscribe to the channel for more content like this [Music]

Channel: Brian Cache

Views: 28,892

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Id: BYYSR1OJRlc

Length: 9min 56sec (596 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 15 2022