Dear Evil HR Lady,
I have been unemployed for about 14 months now. I have applied for many positions, even multiple times at the same company over time. I was with my last employer for about seven months, but was abruptly discharged even though just a couple of weeks before I had been told by HR that I was doing a great job. The company investigated me because they had received numerous phone calls from some staff that I supervised. I was never told what the complaints were and never had any counseling notice or disciplinary action. Nevertheless, I was discharged. I was given a severance package and praised for my work by my supervisor, who said she had enjoyed working with me but that the company had decided to make a change.
I am not sure if they (HR or an office manager at one of the facilities) is giving me a bad reference, but companies say they will follow up with me and then don’t. Even when I have followed up with them, I have been told everything from “we decided to go with someone else,” to “we put the position on hold.” Often there is no call-back at all when I submit a resume. I leave messages and they just never call back. The last two potential employers went as far as to test me for my leadership skills and said they would call HR to see if they could move forward, and then never called back. One employer was impressed with me, but wanted me to speak to his wife, who was a partner in the business, before moving forward. I never heard back from either of them. I have not provided any references, or given permission for any of them to check references, so my guess is that they are calling a particular company on my resume as noted above and getting a bad reference, or calling people they know in the field who may have hear something about me.
To read the answer click here: Is my former company sabotaging my job hunt?