What Does it Mean to be Positive?

During a job search, you'll inevitably hear the advice that you must always be positive about your former employers. Good advice! You should never bad-mouth a company or manager that you worked for. It always makes you look bad.

But it's important to distinguish between being honest about challenges and being negative about former companies. I say that because I am currently working on a resume for a client who is worried that I am being too negative in my portrayal of her former job. I had written:

"Assumed responsibility for delayed project and overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles to bring the software in on time and within budget."

She felt that the word "delayed" and the word "insurmountable" were negative and wanted me to put a more positive spin on the situation. But I don't agree that those words are negative in the context I've used them. They are just factual and they help to tell her story. If I simply said that she delivered a project on time and within budget, without the additional information, it would not be nearly as impressive as this story.

An interviewer will want to know "what were the seemingly insurmountable obstacles" giving my client a further opportunity to impress (because they were some monumental obstacles!) As long as she doesn't say "well my boss was an ass and the company was stupid enough to think they could do the project on a shoestring" she is not being negative.

So avoid bashing your former employers at all costs - but don't confuse telling the truth about challenges with being negative.

Comments

[Daniel]

You wrote:

I say that because I am currently working on a resume for a client who is worried that I am being to nagative in my portrayal of her former job. I had written:

I think you mean "too negative" not "to nagative"

Sorry to nitpick! Spelling counts if you're running a service that's all about writing impressive documents. :)

[Mike]

Every company (including the company you left and the company you hope to join) has problems and everyone knows it. So it is pointless if you try to make it sound otherwise. If there weren't problems we wouldn't need managers! The fact that you can demonstrate your ability to manage and solve problems is very positive. Simply state it as a business issue (which it is) and avoid comments on personalities or company culture and values.

[JibberJobber Guy]

This is a great topic... as an interviewer I want to see how they handle a topic that can be a little stressful and I check to see how tactful they are. At the same time, if they completely brush the topic off as a non-issue I can determine their ability to analyze touchy subjects. I put a lot of my hires directly in front of customers and if they didn't know how to handle a subject like this I could be guaranteed they wouldn't know how to handle a serious customer issue. (my typekey account is messed up, here's my blog: http://www.JibberJobber.com/blog)

[KHavel]

I agree, this is a very relevant topic that people are often pretty clueless about (surprisingly!). It's an absolute interview killer when a candidate starts to spout off about a former company or manager in a negative way, but it happens a lot. It's hard to believe how much candidates will divulge when you put them in an interview situation. And JibberJobber is right -- if candidates go too far in an interview, just imagine what could happen when they get into a pressure situation with clients or key execs.

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