quote="cukababy"

The first one i left because working the required 58-60 hours a week was more than I was willing to work.

Good for you!

At my last job, I got dismissed due to the fact that they felt I wasn't professional enough.

And IF you could ever find out the truth, chances are better than even that you were let go so someone could bring in a cousin or some such. Happens all the time.

The last job I applied for I was told I was turned down because I'd only stayed at my last two jobs for a few months (5-6 months)

And that's just crap! If you had been at one place for ten years they're just as likely to then say you're "overqualified."

and because I'd gotten a bad reference from the job I was terminated from.

And I don't know about the rest of the world, but this country desparately needs to require (!) employers to give the leaving employee a written, notarized, and signed in blood evaluation that becomes THE official "recommendation," good or bad.

All this behind-your-back "hearsay" is BS!

spend almost any time with my family due to the hours.

Oh, you're so great! Got all your priorities in order at such an early age!

I'm so depressed and dejected after all these let downs. I feel like at 23, my career is dead.

Ah, but clearly your soul is still intact! Don't let the bastards wear you down.

I'm almost 55, just got laid-off from job #50! Employers in this country are two-faced, back-stabbing weasels and don't deserve the air they breathe.

Try this:

When asked about the reason you left the first job, use truck-driver speak (that's the kind of hours you were working). Tell them it was due to "time at home." That immediately establishes for any future employer your priorities in life. Then if the person interviewing you is so stupid they still don't get it (and trust me, most of the interviews I have are with trolls), THEN you can explain the 60-hour weeks and so forth.

About that second one?

Very simple. When you fill out the application and the "reason for leaving"? Lie! Yes, LIE LIE LIE!

Look, employers lie to us all the time. They lie to us to sell us their products, they lie to us to tell us what a great company they are. They lie, it's all they know.

So state the reason for leaving as "personal"!

Why do this? Because now the person doing the interview must ask you what happened, right? You can tell them anything you want at this point--that reptilian overlords from another galaxy were keeping you awake at night--it doesn't matter. Because no matter what you tell him, you REASSURE him that you REGRET YOUR FORMER EMPLOYER WAS ANGRY AT YOU FOR LEAVING and then you express concern and worry that he, the former employer, might give you a bad recommendation.

I.E., you've given the potential employer valid reason to have "reasonable doubt" about anything bad your former employer might say while giving yourself the "benefit of the doubt."

And I WILL tell you this because you're so young and I WILL argue it with a anyone, any time, any where:

When all is said and done, you have to know this:

The interview is nothing more than time spent in the presence of one or more persons who will base their decision to hire, or not hire, on whether or not they LIKE you!

I think I even read somewhere about the studies, the facts, the statistics that most all decisions to hire are made within the first five or ten minutes of the interview. What does that tell you?

Face it: They have your resume and application, i.e., all the stated "facts" about your work history, your qualifications, your experience. If you weren't QUALIFIED to actually DO the work, you'd have never been invited to the interview in the first place, right? All they're looking for is someone they "like," someone they "connect" with.

And what they really want is someone they "sense" will be no trouble, or as one vice-president told me one time, they want "warm bodies."

But, you ARE going to be fine. I'm sitting here angry as hell, as depressed and worried as you are, and look how many times I've been throught it! It's never, ever "fun."

Put this way and I'll shut-up: Make sure your confidence and trust is in yourself! NEVER place your hope and trust for your future in the hands of the sociopath we call an "employer."