See if this scenario fits.
You spend years working in the corporate world, learn a few
things and one day you decide you've had enough and strike out on your own. Perhaps you're tired of being passed over for
promotion or you just know you're capable of more than the middling
opportunities that come your way.
Maybe you're motivated by one too many late night
infomercials but whatever the reason you finally make the commitment and say
goodbye forever to your cubicle.
Or so you thought...
Striking out on your own rarely affords instant
gratification and tests your resolve on a daily basis. You have your freedom but the list of things
you don't have sometimes make you wish you would have stayed in your nice warm
cubicle.
As time goes on there's one of two things that will
happen. You'll be a success and never
look back or you won't and you'll be looking to get back to that cubicle. Thing is the latter may not be an option for
you.
In today's job market with employers demanding more from
their employees than ever before a candidate with an entrepreneurial background
has an uphill battle. Why? Well, in case it hasn't jumped out at you
yet, an ex-employee turned lone wolf offers a management challenge few supervisors
want to tackle.
A free thinking self-motivated rebel may be the ideal
employee for Google or Facebook (or at
least it used to be) but ABC corp. doesn't want the hassle. They just want their employees to follow the
rules, not take too long on their breaks and get those TPS reports in on time.
Sadly, more often than not Interviews can be more of a test
of wills than a friendly conversation. A
lifelong corporate type will be naturally suspicious of a candidate who once
threw off the reigns. After all if it
wasn't good enough for you before why would it be now?
That will be the only question on their mind by the
way. Some may even vocalize it.
Conversely, an interviewer that secretly harbors a wish to flee
his own corporate prison may see the candidate's abandonment of their own
cherished dream as a personal failure.
From there it goes downhill since no matter what skills are professed,
the failure to capitalize on them invalidates all your grandiose assertions to
the contrary.
If the interview is with a potential employer in the same
line of business as the candidates former solo effort, chances are the
interview is less about the job and more about getting the goods on the "competition."
Interviewing someone viewed as a competitor (and that's how they see you) brings all
the baggage of the standard interview plus the perceived risk that you'll
somehow steal all their customers and strike out on your own if they hired you.
From a business standpoint it's a safety play. After all, how likely is it that Steve Jobs
would have hired Bill Gates?
You're not being interviewed, you're being pumped for
information. Once they get it they're
done with you. I've often felt like I
should send an invoice at the end of one of those.
In these days of drug testing, background screening and
credit checks just to get to the interview table how can anyone possibly
overcome the stigma of a being a risky candidate?
I wish it were simple but the only way to overcome the
objection is to minimize the experience.
It's a rage-filled, sucker punch to the gut but it's often the only
way.
It's maddening to have to undervalue your accomplishments
but I'd put better odds on a winning lottery ticket than getting in front of a
potential employer that sees your solo efforts in the same light you do.
You have two choices at this point. Suck it up as they say,
swallow your pride and pad your resume with "regular" jobs that show
you're a good member of the corporate denizen. A regular job can be contract work, temporary
jobs or anything BUT working for yourself.
Your other choice?
Sell the extra car, take out a few loans and keep trying to make it on
your own.
You'll either finally figure out how to be successful or go
broke and be out of work so long that you won't have a work history anyone will
care hearing about anymore. Perfect for
when you go for that sweet gig at the convenience store or fast food joint.
I'm not trying to be flippant, this is reality 101 in the
job market now. Threats to the status
quo can come from as little as showing up to the interview with too loud a tie
to the "wrong" work history.
Fair is a relative term when you're looking for work. Employers are demanding guarantees from
candidates that they would never subject themselves to. Your solo accomplishments exist in a context far
less certain than your cubicle dwelling competition. A fact most hiring managers are unable or
unwilling to accept.
Forewarned is forearmed.
You'll waste a lot less time and aggravation if you know the score going
in.
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