So I need to vent about my recent job experience. Tldr at the bottom. I am a database specialist (31F if that matters to anyone), I've been working in IT for my whole serious professional life (6y) and I have over 4y of experience with databases. I started in an IT company on part-time administrative job and worked my way up to software testing/IT support and then I got into databases.
Most of my career I've focused on education IT professionals in using query languages, developing databases, administering and maintaining them, do reporting, BI etc. I've also earned a lot of certifications (10+) that I needed to have in order to teach those technologies.
With the virus and stuff the situation changed and I realized the constant dealing with people 8+ hours a day is very demanding and leaves me exhausted mentally and physically. I've also felt I am not willing to dedicate so much of my energy to this job anymore and I definitely didn't mean for it to affect my performance or our customers. So by the end of last year I decided to look for another job.
I mainly focused on developer positions because that's the aspect I find most interesting. So I came across this db developer position in quite a big e-commerce company (well known and established in my country). The job description matched exactly what I was looking for so I applied and got a call from the HR the very next day. The hiring process was pretty exhausting, there were at least 3 rounds of interviews and two case studies. But I met their expectations and they offered me the position, said they were impressed by my knowledge and gave me even more money than I originally asked for. So I gave in my 3 months notice in my company.
I started working this new job by the beginning of March and my contract had 3 months of probation period and then a permanent contract, full remote. We agreed that my main focus will be development work and on the side I will help them with training their employees. The first three months were not exactly easy because the onboarding process itself is quite demanding as well, you have to pass like 10 exams to prove your knowledge about the company and internal processes and you also have a project assigned to you to test your skills – developing a part of an application, document it, etc.
So the three months had almost passed, I finished all the exams and the project on time, also helped with some real work as well. We're in the end of May now and my probation period is coming to an end. On Friday 27th we had a meeting scheduled with my boss and the HR to evaluate the three month period and decide if we want to make the contract permanent or not. So we meet, they are excited to keep me, give me a lot of work to do for the next quarter, I agree to stay working for them and everything is fine. Monday 30th I have a in-person meeting with the head of development to plan all the trainings we agreed to do.
Tuesday 31st – the official end of my probation period, I am up early and already working. I get a message from the head of development asking if we can meet asap, that he needs to talk to me. Okay, weird, I'm thinking to myself and connect to the meeting. Then the HR lady pops up and my only thought is: F_CK! Then this big boss connects and announces me with a rock solid cold face that they decided to no longer continue with our contract effective immediately. I am confused. Everything was rainbows and unicorns and now you're firing me? Well, priorities changed and we no longer want to do the in house trainings and we don't need your capacity as a developer… WTF?! I am asked to return my hardware the very same day. Okay, okay. I am getting desperate and angry. I quit my previous job for this, I have repeatedly asked the HR if I should be worried when emails were coming saying the company isn't making as much as predicted and how we all need to work together towards better results, but no no no, everything is fine, no need to worry, IT staff is safe. Numerous times I asked! And now this? (It would be perfectly acceptable if they admit they have some troubles and maybe I can look around for another job. At least I'd be warned and had some time.) Well, the board has made the decision over night and they are letting more people go. That's fortunate that they made it the last day of my probation period when they can still fire me on the spot, no strings attached, right? When my team got the news they were furious.
But I had no choice, I packed the stuff and drove to the office and that was it. I am unemployed just like that. In two days I was registered as unemployed within the government office to have my health and social insurance covered at least. And now I'm sending out resumes and explaining over and over to various HRs what happened and hearing 'omg, that's cruel, I am so sorry'. I was promised a recommendation letters from my boss and our tech lead but I didn't get anything so far. On top of that yesterday I received a questionnaire (non anonymous) about my work experience in the company!? I mean they can't be serious? What are they expecting for me to fill in? This is ridiculous.
I must admit this is really a sobering experience and I am so ashamed that I am jobless now. I am ashamed to tell people – friends, family. It's hard not to take it personally. But I did nothing wrong. So every day I spend my time by the PC looking for jobs, going on interviews and worrying what is going to happen when I don't find a job soon? Or what if it happens again? This sucks. And it sucks even more because this summer me and bf finally wanted to go on our first vacation after 9 years together and not being able to go before due to financial reasons, virus and so on. Of course worse things can happen, at least we are all healthy, have roof over our heads and food to eat. But my motivation is below zero now.
End of rant. Thanks to anyone who read this. (Ngl wondering if some of my former colleagues read this subreddit and recognize me…)
TL;DR got fired the last day of my probation period after mutually confirming to continue the contract